Alethea Austin X-Pole Workhshop

I was lucky enough to get a space on X-Pole's Master Class workshop with Alethea Austin on Sunday 18th July 2010, held at Spin City in Bristol.  Spin City Pole Fitness (http://www.spincitypolefitness.com/ ) is run by the lovely Kate Johnstone, who is herself and incredible and accomplished dancer.

I was welcomed by her lovely team, and we then enjoyed (!!!) a 90 minute floorwork session, where we did extreme stretching, floor exercises, and were taught by Alethea how to use every muscle in our bodies to make beautiful shapes and move from pole to pole and around the floor.  It was intense but amazing, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed doing so much work without even touching a pole. 

We were also lucky enough to have Chantelle Pritchard (British Isles Champion 2009) in our group, and it was awesome to watch her pulling her toes over her head while some of us (me!) struggled with our splits training!

We had an amazing day, and I learnt lots and gained lots of new bruises.  I'm looking forward to doing further training, particularly with Kate and her team, who are fabulous!

Let me know if you'd like to be included in any future workshops at Spin City :)

Alethea and I

Chantelle and I

An exhausted team at the end of our 3 hours

Taylor's Retreat Cup 2010

The day finally arrived for my very FIRST competition on 10th July 2010.  The Taylor's Retreat Cup is in its first year, and I am in my first competing year, so I thought it was the perfect place to start!  I've been to Taylor's Retreat previously for an amazing workshop with Alesia Vazmitsel so it was nice to at least be familiar with my surroundings, if nothing else!

The whole day was absolutely incredible, and I was so pleased with my performance.  I placed 7th out of 10 which isn't amazing but, I didn't slip, fall or forget and those were my main worries!  I'm really happy, and am now practising for my next entry at the end of October in the Miss Pole Dance/Fitness UK Semi Pro category.  I may even have managed to persuade some students to compete!!

I am also lucky enough to be having an article published in Pole2Pole magazine's August edition, so you can get full details and photographs of my day out there!  Subscribe or buy a single issue at http://www.pole2polemagazine.co.uk/.

General Update

Hello ladies!  And firstly, may I apologise for the lack of posts on the blog - things have been absolutely manic and unfortunately the blog has suffered!

So, the biggest news is the launch of our newest venue in Caversham, Reading. We started classes there 3 weeks ago with a Thursday evening and Saturday daytime session of Tasters at the beginning of July. Classes began the following week, and are already filling up.  We've got a fantastic group of girls who are already progressing through Level 1 moves, and the classes continue to fill each week. 

You can check out the Club at http://www.clubchf.co.uk/, and if you have any friends or family members who might be interested in trying the class for FREE, please contact me at lucycropper@aol.com, or on 07899 722031. 

Watch this space for our next venue launch in Aylesbury!!

x

Pole dancing on Radio 1

Hey guys!  I was thrilled to hear poledancing reach a wider audience a week or so ago when Fearne Cotton tried poledancing on Radio 1!!!  You can see the video here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p007qtbw?moduserid=100506_fearne_poledance&pid=95977764&upm=False&asb=False&pmp=False#dnaacs

I have obviously offered her a free one-on-one LOL!!

Lucy x

Cancelled holidays, merged classes and master classes!

Hello lovely ladies....and apologies for taking SO long to update this blog.  Things have been manic here, with lots of potential new venues to see, dates to confirm and classes to take. 

As most of you will know, I was supposed to be on holiday from 19th April but due to the stoooopid volcano we are now booked for 28th May.  Hopefully it will be a nice change for you to have different instructors covering your classes - I will of course be asking for feedback when I get home (if I go...fingers crossed!!!).

Our lovely instructor Iszy has also left us this month to jet off to Ibiza, where she will today be enjoying her birthday! Happy Birthday Iszy, we all miss you!  Iszy's departure has meant we have merged some classes together and I must say it's been lovely to have some of my 'old' girls back :)  They've all come along so far and it's lovely to see such progression in their dancing - well done ladies, you know who you are.

I'm off to a master class with Sally-Ann Giles with Bella next Sunday so watch this space for photos and hopefully I will be showing you all some new moves soon!! 

Our blog address has also changed - it's now to be found at http://showgirlspoledance.blogspot.com/.  Please visit and make yourself a follower!!

Talk soon.
Lucy x

MOVE IT!!!

On March 12th I was lucky enough to go to Olympia in London to visit the Move It dance exhibition.  It was a great day out, but my main motivation for attending was to finally meet Stacey and the rest of the team from X-Pole.  Of course it helped that I also got to play on their beautiful X-Stages while I was there, and get some expert (and totally priceless!!) advice from Annie, God bless her :)  My Shoulder Mount is improving no end, and she taught me the start of the Elbow Grip Ayesha which is flipping hard!!  I thought I'd post a few pics (the rest will go on Facebook) for you to see, and I will almost definitely be going next year so, make sure you stay tuned - maybe we can all go together?  ROAD TRIP!!!!!! 

L x

Every girl loves a good shoe.....

Hello my gorgeous girls - I've had quite a few ladies ask me recently about dancing in shoes.  We will often do a 'shoes' lesson, particularly if people are keen, as it's quite a shock the first time you dance in shoes - it really is quite different to dancing barefoot, as the way you move your body weight around on the ball of your foot is totally changed. 

However, if you want to get some shoes for class, or to practice in, I've been buying from a really great ebay store.  The shoes are really good prices, come really beautifully boxed, and have good straps around the ankle (this is really important, particularly for first-time shoe wearers!!).  Please take a look and let me know what you think!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Showgirl-Centrefold-Stripper-Transparent-Platform-Shoe_W0QQitemZ110475807508QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAdult_Fancy_Dress_UK?var=&hash=item5f75f802ce

L xx