Sunday 28 March 2010

Spring Pole Dancing News.


 Picture shown above taken from a Daily mail article on Spring.

So Spring is here which means it must be time to work on some new pole dancing moves! I have managed to get into a starfish but have not managed to get out of it gracefully. I tried the Flying K with little success and my twisted grip dead lift is still not happening, I can do the reverse dead lift i.e. go from the twisted grip handstand slowly down to the floor but can't seem to get it working the other way. OK, so some of you may think I am talking gibberish so I will try to get some videos and pictures posted soon. In the meantime here is a picture of the Flying K courtesy of the amazing Oona Kivela.


In a bid to boost my strength and flexibility I joined Hayley's advanced pole dancing class last Monday and will be joining Tamar's advanced pole dancing class tomorrow. Those of you who saw my bruises this week will know that I have been training hard! Tamar's session plan for tomorrow sound as evil as Hayley's was last week so no doubt that by 9pm tomorrow I will have a new selection of bruises to display. Hopefully the extra training will pay off and I can finally achieve some of the new combinations I have been dreaming of. 

More news to follow on some special art of dance and NSPDS master classes for April & May including some special UK Pole Dance Day plans for May 1st.

I will keep my blog fairly short for today as I have plans to visit my Nan and get some new leafy branches to make some spring houses for my Quail. I also have to get my council paperwork ready to get into the electoral office tomorrow so I don't miss the deadlines for handing in the nomination papers. Tonight I plan to eat out with my Mum too which I am really looking forward to, not sure where to eat yet but the new Seco lounge at the Royal William Yard (see picture below) is looking very tempting.

Before I sign off I want to send a big 'Get Well Soon' message to Pole Dance Community approved member Miranda Goldring of Pole Affinity who has just had another operation to deal with her Thyroid Cancer. I really hope the operation was successful and that Miranda has been left with a positive outcome and that she will be back on the pole very soon.

I hope to blog again ASAP about an issue in the world of pole dancing that has been annoying me for some time!

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Fresh Air!


Just a quick blog today as life at the art of dance is unusually busy! I came across a wonderful not for profit company that I just had to blog about. The charity is called the Fresh Air Fund and it aims to give children from some of New York's toughest neighbourhoods the chance to enjoy the outdoors. 

Fresh Air children are boys and girls, six to 18 years old, who live in New York City. Children on first-time visits are six to 12 years old and stay for either one or two weeks. Youngsters who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18, and many enjoy longer summertime visits, year after year. A visit to the home of a warm and loving volunteer host family can make all the difference in the world to an inner-city child. All it takes to create lifelong memories is laughing in the sunshine and making new friends.

The majority of Fresh Air children are from low-income communities. These are often families without the resources to send their children on summer vacations. Most inner-city youngsters grow up in towering apartment buildings without large, open outdoor play spaces. Concrete playgrounds cannot replace the freedom of running barefoot through the grass or riding bikes down country lanes.

Fresh Air children are registered by more than 90 participating social service and community organizations located in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the five boroughs of New York City. These community-based agencies are in close contact with children in need of summer experiences in rural and suburban areas. Each agency is responsible for registering children for the program.

Here are just some of the things that the fresh air fund aims to provide for the children it helps:

Playing in the backyard
Laughing in the sunshine
Catching fireflies
Riding bicycles
Learning to swim
Running barefoot through the grass
Gazing at the stars on moonlit nights
Building sandcastles
Making new friends
Simple pleasures of life away from the inner-city

It is sad that the list seems to be things that we would assume that all kids had access to automatically and it is a harsh reminder that sometimes the simple things in life can be the most important.  If you want to find out more about the fresh air fund then just click here. Thanks to Sara Wilson for drawing my attention to such a worthy cause and keep up the good work.

On the subject of nice groups I have to congratulate Chantelle Wright, organiser of the recent Childrens Hospice South West ladies night at Wow, on successfully raising £700 for CHSW. I am really looking forward to the next ladies night which should be bigger and better than ever.

Don't forget to check out the new Pole Dance Community interview with battle of the Pole winner Oona Kivela pictured below.



Must dash to teach now,

Stay healthy,

Sam x

Saturday 20 March 2010

The Eden Project.

On Wednesday 17th March my husband, his family & I visited the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall. It was a fabulous day out and for me it was great to see how much had changed since my first visit to the Eden Project during its first few weeks of opening. Rather than boring you with my report of the day I thought I would simply share some pictures so you could see some of the highlights of the day.

 Eden Project from the viewing platform.
Bee sculpture
The latest edition to the Eden Project - The Core
My husband with a driftwood horse sculpture

Traditonal style Malaysian house in the tropical biome.

Fun painted frogs in the tropical biome.

My husband and Mother-in-Law in the tropical biome.

Waterfall in the tropical biome.

 A robin enjoying life in a hot biome.

My husband with the 'Seed'.

More news to follow,

Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Sunday 14 March 2010

Marines pole dancing!

On Friday I travelled to Exeter University for the Exeter University pole dancing club's Help for Heroes dance showcase, I had agreed to loan the club my stage and to perform as part of their showcase. As it was the third weekend of charity performances in a row I was feeling a little tired and was not really looking forward to hauling the stage up to Exeter, however once there I was so glad that I had made the effort. The Exeter uni girls had arranged a fabulous evening of entertainment including pole dancing performances from members of the Exeter pole dancing club, the University of Plymouth Pole Dancing club, a guest performance from a local instructor and a wonderful pole dancing display from the Exeter Marines who had just returned from their recent deployment to Afghanistan. Check out their wonderful demo including a special pole trick called the 'down a can of Carling monkey climb'.




The programme also included two fabulous dance routines from the Exeter Dance Society and Exeter group TNS. Click here to watch my performance at the event, apologies that the video is on its side, haven't worked out how to rotate it yet! After the event it was time to return the stage to Plymouth which should have been fairly uneventful however Rob (boyfriend of UPPDC member Emma Thorpe) and his friend who volunteered to help load the stage into the back of the van were by this stage very drunk and the pair nearly managed to decapitate me with the aluminium frame! I did manage to get back to Plymouth in one piece and with only a few bruises and a small abrasion to my knee to show for my trouble.

Anyway a huge thanks to Lucy Douglas and Rachel Chew from the Exeter Uni pole dancing club for organising such a wonderful event for such a great charity. Thanks also to the wonderful ladies (pictured below) from the University of Plymouth Pole Dancing Club for doing the art of dance proud.
Yesterday I prepared to teach my 'Ultimate Bruise Workshop' which, rather surprisingly, was not very fully booked! The 5 ladies that did brave my workshop did work incredibly hard attempting the following pole tricks - The Superman, Corkscrews, the yogini, the dart, the knees, side climbs and the marley. The class was made even more eventful by the fact that when I arrived at work there was a gentleman asleep in the doorway of my premises, several locals at Raffles bar had attempted to wake the gentleman but to no avail. We knew that the guy was breathing but I thought it best to call the police just to double check that he was OK and to get him moved from my premises. A very lovely uniformed officer came to our aid much to the enjoyment of the ladies sat waiting for their class. I even managed to provide the officer with some art of dance flyers to take home for his wife.

Aside from life at the art of dance the Pole Dance Community site is really starting to grow which means it is taking up a lot more time but hopefully all the hard work will prove fruitful. To further add to my workload I have also decided to stand as an independent candidate for the pending local elections on May 6th. If you are interested in my election campaign and my experience of the election process then click here to read my first political blog.


Stay Healthy,

Sam x

Sunday 7 March 2010

Busy, busy!

Life at the art of dance has been very busy; our pole dancing and burlesque classes have been really full and even the yoga classes are starting to take off. Last Friday was one of our regular art of dance socials at Annabel's Cabaret and we saw some fabulous student performances from our amatuer burlesque ladies as well as our male pole dancing student. The night kicked of with Betty Corbeau wowing the audience with a raunchy routine, she was followed by Miss Bella Beau who dazzled the crowd with a class act. Next up was Della La Tusch who gave us a very sexy number which truly entertained. Last but definitely not least was Miss Purr-dee with her 'needs to be loved' routine, it was the second live performance from Miss Purr-dee and you could see a remarkable improvement from the first time round, Miss Purr-dee has a gentle, feminine style that encaptures and delights. After the amateur acts the stage was seized by our very own Burlesque artist Georgina Gale who introduced us to her latest routine entitled red and gold. I think this is by far Georgina's greatest and most beautiful routine to date. Apologies for the brief review of the evening but I have lots to cover today!

After the burlesque acts we saw our male student pole dancer Chip McThrust putting on a real show of strength and including moves such as the Chinese Flag and the Shoulder Mount Plank, there were some signs of performance nerves but Chip's strength shone through and he was able to demonstrate the true gymnastic nature of pole dancing. Next up was me! As usual I have spent many hours slating my performance but was happy with my new shoulder mount combo, cupid drop and Allgra. I was followed by the amazing Limara Silk who danced outstandingly and included a fabulous holly drop from the supeman as well as two of her signature moves; the floating ballerina and pixie spin. Last on the pole was Sue aka Georgina Gale, I missed this final performance but was told that is was absolutely breath taking. Unfortunatley none of the videos were bright enough to view but there are some videos later in the blog from another event. A big thank you to the lovely Amelia B for MCing and putting up with my stressfulness on the night!!

On Friday 5th March the art of dance team performed at a charity night at WoW nightclub to raise money for Children's Hospice South West. When we agreed to perform at the club we knew that the venue had it's on pole but we didn't realise it was a 60mm pole, if you are a pole dancer you will know that 45mm or 50mm are the usual UK pole diameters as these are comfortable for a ladies hand to grip, 60mm is not. Add to this problem the fact that the pole is spinning and situated withn 4 feet of a mirrored wall. I have to say that my risk assessments failed on this ocassion and Rosanna's long legs were the first to hit the mirror on her first set and a lighting rig on the second. I too experienced some sudden changes from spinning to static as my feet collided with the edge of the wall. Despite conditions we managed to pull some nice tricks out of the bag and no-one gained any serious injuries.

I have to say that the crowd were lovely and Chantelle the organiser had put on a really fabulous evening including some great exhibitors, a fashion show from Spoilt fashions, topless waiters (pictures to follow...) and a male stripper who was actually quite terrifying, his performance started well with him exciting the crowd whilst dressed in a US firefighting costume but the lube covered, swinging genitalia at the end drew looks of sheer horror from the audience! Anyway we all had a fun evening and it was nice to spend time with nearly all of my team. Here are a few clips of our pole performances, apologies for the darkness of the  videos;


Click here to see Georgina Gale in action performing her latest red and gold burlesque routine as well her classic diamonds routine. 

Must sign of now as have loads to do including planning my election campaign and preparing for another chaity night next Friday at Exeter University. I will leave you with this lovely article about a lady who discovered pole dancing in her 40's and  is now completely addicted. I had the pleasure of meeting Karen at the launch of JLN fitness last year. More news to follow on this year's UK Pole Dance Day too....

Stay Healthy,

Sam x