The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

After having my first good nights sleep since last Thursday I am ready to blog about the Pole Divas championships that were held in Pure, The Printworks Manchester. OK so the title of my blog is misleading as there is no ugly section but there is the good and the bad: The actual competition was very well organised and was a pleasure to attend, the orgnaiserss, Faye, Josephine and Bubble worked hard to ensure that everything ran smoothly. The competitors were absolutely lovely and despite the presence of nearly 30 girls in the performers area there was no bitchiness and everyone was just there to support each other. Despite my praise of the event I do have several criticisms which i wll raise with the girls next week.

Firstly I have to air concern over the distinction between amateur / amateur advanced and professional. I believe that professionals are those who have been paid for work whether it be via lap dancing, teaching or exhibiting but the distinction between the amateur and amateur advanced section are much more fuzzy. The amateur girls were not allowed to invert or do the Knee conditioning trick yet some of the girls including the winner did moves such as the Spider pose and climb to half flag which are incredibly difficult and demsontrate the fact that these girls are not amateur, this then creates a problem for the genuine amateurs as they don't stand a chance of winning. I think we need to address the rules to make them fairer for the genuine amateurs. The lady that shone for me in the amatuer section was Jess, she put on a real show and danced beautifully, I will try to find a link for her video and post it on my return from holiday.

Secondly I do have reservations about exactly what criteria the judges are working too, I was impressed that for the first time ever in a competition all the judges actually knew about pole dancing but their decision over the amateur advanced section still defies logic. The win was given to lady called Orla who did perform well but was no where near either Fallon (who was not placed) and Sasha who was given 2nd. I am still waiting for mine and Tamar's scorecards to see how we did overall and hope that the scorecards will give me a little more insight into exactly how the judges were scoring. If you want to see the performances I am talking about then just click the following names - Orla (winner of the amateur advanced section, Sasha - came 2nd, Fallon - not placed but should have been in my opinion. Here is the professional winning entry from Sally Ann Giles.

Sid & Jo were discussing the idea that it might be nice to judge in the following way: Each section has a list of permitted moves and essential moves so for example if you were in professional you would have to do a minimum of 5 tricks from a set list and then the rest of the choreography is up to you. They score things like figure skating in a similar way. Each trick has a set score so that competitors can be marked on how well the execute the move as well as being marked on timing to the music and fluidity getting in and out of the trick.

I must say again how proud I am of Tamar's performance at Pole Divas, it was slick, fluid and graceful - you can view the whole video on Tamars latest blog. As Tamar has been such a great student I have decided to offer her a job with us as a pole dancing instructor, i know that she will make a great teacher and will also continue to develop her pole dancing skills with the art of dance - Welcome to the team Tamar!

Anyway, I will stop whinging for now and get back to work. I will blog again on my return from holiday and will no doubt be very smug!

Stay healthy,

Sam x x

Pictures shown on this blog are provided courtesy of Sarah Collinge. All pictures are of my performance at the Pole Divas finals 2008. Top left = Gemini variation (inside arm grabs outside leg), Top right = Extended Butterfly, Bottom left = Rocketman variation (I call it the rocket star), Bottom right = Brass Monkey.