So in my quest to master the art of Pole Fitness, I realised
that it would be in my best interest to get a pole at home so that I could put
in the hours of practice one needs. And lets be honest it’s pretty cool to be
able to say you have a pole at home.
Problem: this cost money first off and secondly I don’t have
a concrete ceiling and as we are renting the cost to reinforce the ceiling was
just not an option…
So after many months of saving up I finally placed my order
for an X-stage lite form X-Pole South Africa. After just 3 days my pole had arrived and I just couldn't wait to get it up and spinning.
Neat, tidy and portable!
The other bonus with having bought a stage pole is the fact that is is totally portable and packs into four specially made carry bags. The other great thing about X-poles is the fact that you can get different length extensions so you can customize the length of the pole to suit your needs or restrictions. Which mean's I can take my pole where ever my heart desires. But for now the dinning room will have to do :)
Taa Daaa!
Test drive....
*Lucky Clark Kent ;-)
If you want more info on Pole Dancing for fitness check out Pole Dance Cape Town's facebook page or website, and for info about any X-Pole products check out X-Pole South Africa's facebook page or website.
So I have always been a believer in the age-old saying,
‘What goes around comes around’. Some people refer to it as Karma, Fate, or Paying
it forward, but I think it doesn’t matter what you call it the principle is the
same.
You simply treat your fellow man with respect, help where
you can, don’t turn your back on a stranger in need of assistance if you are able to help out. I think there
is a famous quote that says ‘do onto others as you would like done onto you’ or
something like that…
This doesn’t mean you have to fix every situation or person
you come across, yet do what’s within your means.
Today I have even more faith or belief in this system way
of living my life. There have been a number of occasions in my life when I have
helped someone in need without any expectation of something in return other
than their gratitude. Whether it was a donation of old clothes or electronics
or a giving a girl an extra hairband at gym to helping people push/jumpstart
their car, to name a few.
Well, these small good deeds were paid back to me last Tuesday night when I was
in a car accident and a stranger stopped to help me out! I had been hit on my
driver’s door and when the car came to a stop I had no idea what had happened
or where I was in the intersection, the airbags had deployed and the car was
filled with their powder/smoke. I was confused and trapped, as I couldn’t open
my door. I started to panic but eventually instinct kicked in told me to get the
hell out of there and as I climbed (more like stumbled and fumbled) over to get out of the passenger side door
the Good Samaritan appeared. He helped me out the car, made sure I wasn’t badly
injured, helped me call Clark Kent, now AKA My Knight in Shining Armour, and
report the accident to the police. The good Samaritan kept me clam until Clark
Kent arrived and took over the scene.
I was unbelievably lucky that I wasn’t seriously injured by
the looking of the remains of my poor Denni. The only thing to show for it was a badly bruised knee, the unseen was the whip lash and one or two bruised internal organs. I am extremely grateful and
thankful to all my Angels that were looking over me that night, and to the Good
Samaritan who stopped to help out a stranger in need.
I am very lucky to have My Knight in Shining Amour who has
looked after me and all the admin, I couldn’t have gotten through this without
you!
Saturday the 26th of May 2012 was d-day. After months of preparation it had finally arrived our 2nd Annual Pole Dancing Show.
The nerves where high and the adrenaline was pumping, and before we knew it we were being called to stage for our opening act.
Then came the final instructions:
Take up your positions
Poler's ready
Invert
Hook
Cue music
As the music started its was like my body went into auto pilot and just knew what it had to do. The next thing I remember was, we had struck our final poses and the crowd going crazy! They loved us they really really loved us!
As we got backstage you could feel the excitement, the nerves and the electricity in the air.
One down and one more performance to go, a quick make-up and costume change and after what felt like a few minutes, we were being called from our dressing room to the backstage holding area. The Puppet Master was there waiting for us with well wishes and wise words of comfort to sooth our ever growing nerves. This was it BondageX, The legs and I were up next, there is nothing I can say to describe the feeling of standing waiting in the wings in the moments before you are scheduled to perform. It is a cooking pot of nerves, excitement, readiness, unpreparedness and exhilaration.
The stage is blacked out as the act before us walks off stage, one last deep breath and one foot in front of the other and we take our starting positions. Our music started and we were in the swing of it, we were in-sync, we had attitude and enjoyed ever second. Then came our big tricks section, towards the end of the song, we had been worried about this for weeks, but we all nailed it! And the crowd went wild!
I still wake up in the middle of the night and its on action replay in my head, I am so proud of myself and my girls! It was worth all the time, blood, sweat and tears!
The whole show ran smoothly and professionally and I would like to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to all involved, performers and organisers for making this event spectacular and memorable.
Pole dance Cape Town this would not have been possible without you ladies!
You are all amazing!
THANK YOU!
It has been forever since my last post and there is no good excuse really. But life seemed to get in the way with just so much happening, I just haven't had a free moment.
And one of the main time engulfing activities has been the preparation for our second annual Pole dancing showcase which is taking place this weekend. It is a sell out show which promises to be sensational.
It has been almost four months in the making with a grueling rehearsal schedule and two other girls and I volunteered to do a small trio act over and above our large intermediate group act. Which meant we had our work cut out for us, not only did we have group rehearsals, we needed to select a song, choreograph our trio act and make times for rehearsals.
It's no wonder all we have done for the last three months is eat, drink, sleep and breath Pole dancing. And this will all come to an end on Saturday night. A spectacular end at that!
What can one expect to see at such a showcase? Students at every level of pole fitness will display their strength and agility which they have gained through pole fitness classes. Acrobatic and gymnastic like moves will be shown through carefully choreographed dance pieces. Their will be a variety of dances from large groups to solo acts and of course yours truly's trio act with partners in crime aka Butt Buddies, (BondageX and The Legs), which will just blow your minds… he he
*I couldn't help but give us a plug!!! It is my blog after all :)*
There will also be fire dancers and aerial silk dancers as well as some big names in the Pole dancing world, and much more!
A big thanks needs to be giving to The Puppet Master without you, Elbow just wouldn't have been the mind blowing act it is! Thanks for all help with the choreography and whipping us into shape, we couldn't have done it without you! Also a big thanks to Pole Dance Cape Town, who made this show possible with all the organisation, providing hardware (poles etc), the dance sequences and the rehearsal space and much more!
All that's left to do is get on that stage and show them what we are all about!
If you haven't got your tickets already or can't make the show, watch this space for info of any future shows or Pole fitness updates
Last Saturday we decided to do something a little different, it was a spectacular day after a week of cold and rain, we figured we couldn’t
sit back and let it go to waste, as sunny warm days are few and far between so
far this spring. So we jumped in the car and took a drive up the West Coast to
Darling to check out what the fuss waswith these wild flowers, everyone has been talking about.
As it happened there were two flower shows that weekend one
showcasing some of the most amazing orchid’s I have ever seen and the other was
focused on the wild flowers the west coast is renowned for.
And I now know what all that fuss is about, I mean I have
never see orchids this size! They were absolutely breath taking, I was amazed
by the variety of colours, sizes and arrangements. They really were
spectacular.
After checking out the orchids we moved onto the wild flower
show, where we were hoping to get to ride a tractor but the waiting line was so
long we gave that a miss.
Once we had seen all there was to see at the shows we headed
out into the big bad wild to see these flower in their own environment… beautiful!
Absolutely beautiful!
I now understand why everyone is talking about the wild flowers, I definitely think it
is a must on every Capetonians bucket list and those visiting the area especially between
August and September when the flowers are at their best.
We had a spectacular day up the west coast, frolicking amongst the flora!
If you want to check these amazing sights out for yourself take a look at these handy websites:
Alright peeps, so I know I have been like super duper slack with this whole blogging thing so I have decided to make a real effort to try get back into the swing of things.
First up I just have to brag a little... I just can’t help myself. But I stumbled upon these gorgeous ladies recently and I just had to bring them home.
There I was shopping for a mates present to celebrate her becoming another year younger, when these ladies caught my eye. Problem was there was a red pair and blue pair, I was by myself, and as we all know us ladies love to shop in pairs to totally justify impulsive purchases like thins, and the only opinions I had was from the two skater boy shop assistants, who just kept on saying, “well what you going to wear with them?”
*Note to all men out there, when a woman is buying cute shoes, it’s not about what she has to wear with them, because she will always find or buy something to wear with them. Or hey she might be planing on wearing nothing but the shoes..*~wink, wink~*
Anyways, I think the saddest part about the whole experience was I couldn’t take both pairs home with me, so I eventually decided these electric blue beauties definitely gave off a spark!
Well stay tuned folks for the all new Changing Gears...
So about two months ago I was looking for something new to shake up my gym routine as I was completely bored and felt like I wasn’t achieving much. I needed to be inspired and excited again about this whole keeping fit, healthy and losing weight thing most of us have to fight with.
So I took the plunge and crossed the threshold into the studio of Pole Dance Cape Town… yes you did just read that correctly, Pole dancing.
Now trust me when I tell you this ain’t for the faint hearted, my eyes were definitely opened after that first introductory class. And for the record I would love to see some strippers do what we get taught… this isn’t about shaking your bum and walking around a pole, there are some serious acrobatics going on here.
I consider myself relatively strong for my height and size and the fact that I’m a girl, I can lift some decent weight when working out at gym, and with all my running I would put myself into the fit category. Ha, laughable, let me tell you, after that first intro class, my arms didn’t feel like they belonged to my body the next day, I was stiff and sore in places I didn’t even know I had muscles, not to mention the array of bruises that were scattered around my body. But it didn’t matter I was hooked and it had nothing to do with the work out… ok well maybe it did because it’s seriously intense trying to lift your own body wait and work against its resistance… but more than that I just wanted to be able to do the things our instructor showed us and I wanted to make it look good.
So here I am two month down the line and a few less bruises, and Clark Kent has to defend himself a little less to our friends, but I still feel like my arms are made of lead. But I have accomplished a number of things I originally thought impossible, these include standing and sitting on the pole. Which doesn’t sound very hard in theory… well ok smart-ass I’d like to see you do it, and keep in mind that the only thing that holds you on the pole… is your skin. Now think about sitting with your legs crossed with a pole between them and if you aren’t strong enough to hold your legs hard enough together you slide… ouch!
I have also managed to go upside down, although I’m not confident enough to do it without a little backup from our instructor but I’ll get there. But what this entails is kicking your leg a body length above your head, catching the pole with your ankle and affectively doing a pole stand upside down and then sliding to the floor. Eventually we are taught to let go and do various tricks whilst upside down, but for know I’m sticking to the basic’s… but I must say it’s a serious adrenaline rush when you finally get it right!
Other than those acrobatics I have learnt a number of spins, some better than others, with names like, fireman, attitude, carousel, ski lift, V-leg and Peter Pan to mention a few. As well as transition moves as they are called to make everything look pretty when you put it together.
