My First Class – Into To Pole!

So today was my first class! I swear I’m still buzzing from the excitement! I had so much fun! And aside from almost missing the studio because they just moved into the location an do not have a big lighted sign up I think it went great! (but I am also bad at reading, mostly I found it beacuse my other friend was in open pole before out class and I saw her car out front)

As I think I said before I was lucky to have a friend of mine, Tausha, joining me. And it was just us and the teacher, Jeanette, who was just amazing. the class description on the Vertical Fusion site is:

"Curious about pole dance fitness? This is the workshop for you! This workshop is designed for individuals who have never experienced pole dance fitness before. This workshop will start with a brief pole orientation, followed by a warm-up and light conditioning segment to prepare you for the basic pole moves, spins, transitions, and floor work to follow. The instructor will help you string the moves together for a flirty routine sprinkled with hip rolls, hair flips, and maybe even some booty shaking! The class will conclude with a full body stretch and an opportunity to ask questions. This class is for everyone and anyone—previous dance experience is not required. Completion of Intro to Pole is required to move on to Beginner Pole Technique."

And look at that studio! It's beautiful! (and this is just the pole room, there is a whole other room without poles for all kinds of dance practice) they are still working on it, but right now they have 5 45mm chrome poles and 1 50mm chrome pole and are planning on installing 2 more 50mm poles in another row. It felt a bit empty with just the three of us in there, but the warm environment more then made up for the lack of bodies.

Jeanette was great, and I swear she spoiled us with praise (actually one time she started to shout at me that I was doing amazing and I lost my concentration and fell a bit, we laughed and she promised to wait until I was finished with the move before yelling at me again, lol) and she was more than willing the give us each the individual attention we needed. I loved working with her and she was great about helping us through the issues we were having. She gave Tausha many different tips and tricks to help her get more momentum in her spins and was more than supportive that even though I was not quite strong enough to hold myself up off the floor during the spins that when I took my feet off the floor that I fell slowly and pretty.  It’s not just falling, its falling with style.*wink*

 

We learned so many things! I swear I am going to forget half of them before my next class, but I guess that is the reason you go to class, right?

Towards the end of the class we strung together all the moves we learned into a little dance, which Jeanette was kind enough to write on the mirror for us so that we could remember easily.

 For those who you who can’t read that because reading things written on mirrors is hard, and even harder when that writing is photographed it says:

Walk, Girl on Top, Flamingo, walk, pirouette (one of my favorites!), straddle slide, walk, closed front hook (to the floor), hair flip, girl on top into open back hook (to the floor – my other favorite!), back-bend,  2 floor moves (we did speed bumps and hip circles), roll , tick tock x1, cricket  x1, straddle x1, goddess rising, roll, pop up, walk to pole,  and tango dip.

I don’t remember the song we danced to but I think it went very well! I only messed up one or two times and luckily there was enough forgiveness in the song for me to fix myself (gracefully! Like I meant to do it) and be back on track with the other girls. 

At the end of class we were told that we have now both graduated into beginning pole and can start to take any classes that have the beginner key word. And I have to say I LOVE how Vertical Fusion celebrates with you when you graduate! For every level you progress they give money in your name to their internal Pole Scholarship (Poling It Forward) which helps those on hard times afford to get to Pole class and one dollar to one of their preferred local charities (6 in Fort Collins and 6 in Longmont). So when you leave into they donate one dollar to Poling It Forward and one dollar to the charity of your choice in your name($1 to each after into, $2 to each after beginner, $3 to each after intermediate and so on).  I chose the Fort Collins HumaneSocity and Tausha chose to donate to SAVA. Both of which are very worthy charities. And almost as good, you get to pose for a sassy photo for them to post on their Facebook page.

I'm on the right, in all black. and that's my Tausha on the left! I'm so proud of us! Even if it appears that I forgot to point my toes for the picture! I swear I had been so good about that in class!

Over all I’m stoked to learn lots more and can’t wait for my next class!

And I have to say, I’m even proud of the minor pole burn I have on the top of my left foot ^.^