MERRY POLE-ING CHRISTMAS!!

Well, the time has come for our last week of lessons for 2009, and I just wanted to wish you all a fantastic Christmas, a wild and wonderful New Year (did I tell you I’m going to Disneyland?? LOL!!) and of course, a 2010 full of new spins, inverts, dance routines and heels!



2009 has seen our Pole Dancing classes expand – both in numbers AND venues. We now teach in Bicester and Didcot, classes in Witney start in the new year, and we have 2 other venues awaiting contract completion. We now have a Facebook Group, a blog (http://inspirationspoledance.blogspot.com), and a newsletter mailing list. We were also joined by many of you last Friday for our very first Christmas pole party!


Hopefully 2010 will see more new venues, more social activities, and definitely more Masterclass workshops – I think these will be really beneficial for all of you, and we’ll try to make sure that, throughout the year, we cater to every level. I’m also hoping to start competing next year so, any of you who feel brave enough to join me….the rehearsing starts asap!!


On a personal note, I’d firstly like to thank Sharon and the team at Inspirations for believing in me. It took a huge leap of faith to take me on full time to develop the pole dancing, and I hope that everyone agrees that it’s been a huge success!


And of course, I want to thank my lovely ladies. From the old (who were here before me!) to the new (who have just joined this fantastic, slightly mad club!!), thank you so much for your commitment, your enthusiasm, your laughs, hugs and new moves. You all help to make my job magic :)


So, here’s wishing you all a really wonderful Christmas, and a New Year that fulfils all your wishes.


See you all in the New Year!!


* Classes resume Monday 4th January 2010

THE INSPIRATIONS CHRISMTAS POLE PARTY

Well, Friday 11th saw the studio transformed into a Christmas wonderland, and the instructors and students at Inspirations morphed into Christmas fairies/Mrs Claus/generally glamorous and wonderful beings !! :) 

There were some fantastic performances (check my Youtube channel for some of the videos - more to follow), some pretty heavy wine drinking, and lots and lots of fun.

Obviously this was our first Christmas party so I've learnt lots for next year - any feedback or ideas are greatly appreciated for next year's bash - which hopefully ALL of you will be able to attend! 

Here's a few pictures for you - there are more on Facebook - and go and check out the videos! 

Thank you to all who attended and made it GREAT fun, and congratulations to those who performed.  I'd like to say a particular thank you to Abi for dressing the studio, Bella for all her help (and for preventing me having a nervous breakdown), Janette for our amazing make up, and my personal hair stylist Michelle :)

Merry Christmas!!!

NEW MOVE!!!

Hello lovely dancers!  Thought I would post this video of Jemma doing one of the new moves, which we've called The Twirl (sorry you have to watch it sideways though!!)....start from a Basic Sit position, but don't tuck your left leg right around the pole - tuck it up towards your bottom so that the pole lies more across the side of your calf.  Then swing the right leg, out straight, toes pointed, clockwise, twirling you around the pole!!  Now go get practising!!!

VERTICAL TANGO - CHECK THIS OUT!!

Check out this video, I found it via Facebook and was absolutely amazed!  Tango on the pole!!!

ALESIA VAZMITSEL WORKSHOP

On Saturday I was lucky enough to secure a place on a Masterclass with the World Pole Dancing Number 3, Alesia Vazmitsel.  Alesia is known for her graceful and elegant dance style, and her EXTREME flexibility!  The Masterclass was organised by the London Academy of Poledancing, and consisted of LAPD students, Melissa and Alexe (instructors) and then there was little old me!

We worked for about 5 hours in total, and the second half particularly, was brutal.  I have bruises in places I didn't know I had muscles!!  There's a full photo album of the day on my Facebook, and Alesia's performance is on my youtube channel (www.youtube.com/lucycropper).   Here's a picture or two for now:

CHRISTMAS POLE PARTY!!!!

Just a reminder about the Christmas party.....which I hope ALL of you will be attending!!
The party is being held at the Club (Inspirations Health Club) on Friday 11th December.  Proceedings kick off at 7pm, with an hour of pole play.  Then between 8 and 9pm there will be performances from both students AND instructors!!  Your chance to get your own back after all those assessments!  If you'd like to perform, please do let me know and I'll get your name on the list.  Then finally, between 9 and 10pm, there will be some pole 'Tag Team' - you'll get the chance to show off 3 or 4 of your best moves, then the next person will be up! 

We'll have a few guests at the party - Janette our wonderful Ann Summers representative (with an amazing array of goodies for you to look at), Becky our in-house photographer, hopefully Sarah Clark, a fabulous Rigby and Peller trained bra-fitter, and I'm still working on others.... :)

Tickets are £10 for members and £15 for non-members (ladies only please) and include wine and some buffet nibbles.  Please feel free to bring friends who are polers OR not - anyone is welcome. 

Please do let me know asap if you'd like tickets as, for health and safety reasons, I will have to limit numbers.

Now you just have to worry about what to wear........!!!

MORE STUDENT PICTURES

Hello Polers!  Quick update for you, I just HAD to share some of these amazing pictures with you from last night's lessons - the girls really pushed the boat out and we got some great shots.  You can see all of them on my Facebook pages (just search Lucy Cropper) but here are a few of my favourites:

WEDNESDAY 1
Lucy's Scorpio

Natalie's Backdrop

Justine's Inverted Crucifix

Tanya's Sit

And finally, a totally awesome group shot

WEDNESDAY 2
Jemma and the Birthday Girl being Horizontal...

Alex Nye's first ever Broken Arrow!!

And the girls rock out the group shot the way only they know how!!  What a lesson!

Ones to watch....

We often talk in class about other pole dancers, and videos that we’ve seen, and demonstrations of new moves. I thought it would be good just to direct you to some of the girls that I watch regularly who I think are really superb – if you get a chance to view them, let me know what you think. Hopefully it will give you lots of inspiration and motivation to practice practice practice!!



Karol – This young lady from the US is an amazing trickster. She shows amazing strength and is always coming up with new moves.
http://www.youtube.com/user/REDKE71


Sarah Cretul is one to watch. She doesn’t appear to have her own channel but you can search YouTube on her name and see lots of the work she’s done.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sarah+cretul&search_type=&aq=f

Alethea Austin – amazing dancer. Very flexible, does amazing floor work.

http://www.youtube.com/user/aletheaaustin

Felix Cane. The one and only, my absolute idol. This woman is utterly amazing to watch. 2009 World Championships winner, and an ex-stripper, she typifies what we all love about pole dancing – grace, elegance, strength and definitely the wow factor.
http://www.youtube.com/user/felixpoledancing


Karen Chaundy. We first saw Karen at the British Isles Pole Dancing Championships in Essex. She’s an amazing performance, and worth watching for tips on stage presence and presentation of a dance.
http://www.youtube.com/user/karenBODYBARRE

Student Videos

Hello all ... how are you?  All is back to normal here now after my break, and the last couple of weeks have been full of assessment dances in lessons.  A couple of our students have been kind (and brave!) enough to let us post their assessment videos, so here they are for you.  Both girls are at Level 4, and did a fantastic job.  If anyone else would like their videos posted, please do let me know! 

Jemma Carman's assessment video:



Angela Vaughan's assessment video:

MISS MINNIE'S BURLESQUE WORKSHOP

Hello all!!  I've been on a two week annual leave break, just spending some time at home, catching up with friends and trying to get some pole practice in! 

As some of you may know, in September we ran the first workshop of four of Miss Minnie's Introduction to Burlesque Dancing.  We've done two workshops so far, and it is SO much fun...and much, much harder work than any of us expected!  Here are some pictures for those who didn't manage to attend....

Pictures from Workshop One - Walking and Posing

The warm up:

The amazing Miss Minnie....

Workshop Two - Fans and Gloves

Wooohooo!!!  'Naked' ladies!!

So far, the course has been utterly amazing, but much harder work physically than any of us had imagined!! You can see more of Miss Minnie at her website:  http://www.elegantbellydance.co.uk/ and if you'd like to be included in the next set of workshops, do please let me know!!!  Keep checking back to see the next set of photographs from Workshop Three on 1st November. 

OUR FIRST POLE BABY!!!

Ladies, please let me introduce to you 'Munchkin' - our very first Inspirations pole baby!!!

I'd like to pass on our congratulations to Mr and Mrs Hall (or 'Fattie', as I have most affectionately nicknamed Laura) and I for one can't wait for the arrival of this little one :) 

MORE STUDENT PICTURES

Hey guys - just a couple more pictures for you....so you can see what the girls are up to.  Wednesday classes have just started entering into the world of the Scorpio and Cross Knee Release....check out how well they're doing!  Pictures are of Jemma, Susie and Angela. Well done ladies!  Keep it up!!

STUDENT PRACTICE

I also wanted to show you some of the work my lovely students are doing.... I do have some more pictures to go on from my Wednesday night girls, but need to get them off my iPhone first...will do it asap I promise!!!

Sharon Auckland practising dance routine: (sorry the quality isn't amazing, had to compress the file to get it uploaded to Youtube)



Alex Nye practising the Cross Knee Release:

Practice videos

Hello ladies!!  I've been doing lots of practice lately and thought I'd share the vids with you...some of them are already highlighted on the right here but, would love to hear what you think....
Crying Lightning



Sleep Alone

Felix Cane Workshop

So, as mentioned in my previous post, one of the best and most exciting things I have to update you on is the workshop I recently attended in Bristol with Felix Cane.  You can find out all about Felix on her website http://www.felixpoledancing.com.au/ but her biggest and most well known title is Miss World Pole Dance 2009 - she is SERIOUSLY amazing, and totally my idol.

The workshop was arranged by http://www.polepassion.com/ (thank you ladies!) and was at South Bristol Sports Centre on 6th August.  We were there for two hours and learnt some new moves (The Felix, Pike, Pike Splits, Handspring) and then were lucky enough to watch Felix perform just for us.  Totally amazing, and so so glad I didn't miss it.  If you ever get the chance to get within 500 feet of her, DO IT!!!!!  Pictures attached. 

Catching Up

Okay, so I'm already frustrated.  I just did you a nice long catch up post, and then promptly deleted it by accident.  Donut.  If I had a brain, I'd be dangerous. 

Okay, so what's been going on? Last time I 'blogged', I was training with Dance Inspires, and going through my teacher training. Well, since October 2008, I started teaching my own class at Inspirations Gym in Didcot.  I took part in the Pole-a-thon, which was awesome, and continued my training. 

My day job got worse and worse, and my injuries increased and my migraines got worse...and I was generally pretty miserable.  Then, late in the New Year, Inspirations offered me a full time post at the gym....teaching!!!  Obviously it was an offer I would have been a FOOL not to take.   So since March 2009, I've been full time at the club and LOVING IT.  We now run 8 classes a week, and I have another two instructors working with me (with another currently in training!!).  It's my dream job, and I honestly do love it.

I've also been fortunate enough to do a workshop with Felix Cane, my aboslute idol. I'm going to do a separate post and put some pictures up - it was in August in Bristol, and my thanks go to Pole Passion for organising such an awesome day.  Will never forget it. 

Later!!  xx