Pole.formance

I listed the steps of preparing for this past competition in the last post. What I did not list was the link to the movie. Although the movie is not amazing quality, it gives you the gist of what happened in my performance. I find that I am hard on myself after a performance, but I am always happy I danced.

My song was "One Day" by Matisyahu. I chose this song because it melted into my soul in some "first world problems I had" early on this year. I felt used and abused at my past job, I knew I needed to quit, but didn't feel that I could because I did not have an alternative job. Then I got the balls to quit, even though I didn't have an alternative job (I was taking a big leap of faith) and to this point, I would say it was one of the best decisions I have made. 

I never plan on being rich, I knew that when I was in college studying Parks, Recreation and Tourism. I hope to make a difference in the world and hope to move to something that is more on the educational side of things. That being said, when I chose this song, I made sure it had meaning to me. It was a song that helped get me through some "not so fun" times this year, and a song that has a great message. This performance and this song would qualify in the category of dancing my heart out and moving on with my life.

 I have progressed in pole, I have progressed as a person, and I hope to continue progressing in everything I do. It's never too late to improve yourself, and really, the opportunity to improve yourself is always there, you just have to push yourself.

Video link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcb_IaQCCgw&feature=youtu.be

Namaste

My category was Pole Art and all the ladies that competed in it are amazing polers. I managed to get 3rd place and I am ever so grateful for that! It was nice to dance to a song that felt right for me. It was nice to dance to a song that had meaning for me. It was nice to dance to a song where I was able to be me. #lovetopoledance

Big shout out to Kairos Fitness for providing such an amazing space for me to learn how to pole and progress as a pole dancer. I first discovered this studio when I moved home from traveling and realized that I was bored hanging out by myself at night while my boyfriend was at work. In February 2011, I started with aerial silks classes at the studio and I found myself quite weak, I mean, I sucked. However, I didn't let that stop me. I decided to try out pole after my weak moves in silks and found that I sucked at that too. I could barely hold my body weight up to do a pole spin #frustrating.

I chose to go back to aerial silks after my short venture to pole and slowly, but surely started to bloom muscles on my arms. After a couple months of aerial classes every week, I found myself feeling pretty good on silks and went back to try out pole again. Hey Oh! Miracles happen! I could spin and invert, barely, but I could do it! I continued going to both silk and pole classes for the next bit and I was loving it. It was my drug, my addiction and the one place I felt like I could be free and be me.

 I graduated college and decided to take an opportunity to work in Alaska & California for 8 months. Although it was awesome to live in an extremely cool place, I found myself empty for two reasons, My boyfriend and my pole dance classes were still in Utah. When I returned I pushed myself to do a competition 4 months after I started poling again. I had to push myself, I had to get my pole strength back and I had to get pole-ivated and so I did (thanks to some help from some friends).

After that first competition happened, I felt motivated, I somehow managed to place first and I wasn't a flower on the wall anymore.  I made friends from competing in that competition and felt an overwhelming amount of support. I felt like Miss America when I won and I somehow gained real confidence for the first time after that performance. It's amazing how performing for the first time helped me gain confidence and changed my perspective on a lot of things, such as, I am capable of pushing myself and being the best I can be.

Here I am today feeling that I have been able to embrace my inner goddess and continue on my Pole and Aerial Journey. Kairos Fitness is more than just a gym, I have grown as a person, built confidence, learned how to pick myself up when I fall, found friendships that will last a lifetime, and found something I'm passionate about. Imagine what the world would be like if everyone did what they were passionate about, if everyone didn't have to work jobs they didn't enjoy (because a lot of people do that). On a side note, I spoke about quitting my job earlier, I believe in working a job that I enjoy and doing things I enjoy and at this moment in my life, I am making coffee and looking for another job that I will enjoy and that will be educational for others in a positive way and I'm totally happy with that.

Cheers to life. 

Cheers to friends.

Cheers to Dancing.

Cheers to being free.

Cheers to making coffee.

And shout out to X-Pole -- I love my X-Pole Stage.

I can pole dance and be in nature #winning

Steps of Preparing for a Pole Competition

I recently competed in the first ever, Kairos Fitness Aerialympics here in Ogden, Utah. This was my second competition and it was definately, not easy.

I came up with the 20 stages of preparing for a pole competition for myself one day when I was feeling pissed off with everything... Indulge

1. You Find out there is a competition and go, sign me up, I got this.
2. You try to find a song and debate with yourself for hours, until, finally you have a song.
3. You feel accomplished, because you chose your song for the competition & procrastinate on actually practicing your routine.
4. You start to practice your routine and make it up to your song.. and panic.
5. You continue to practice and plan it out in your head and then try the moves that look -- oh so amazing in your head.
6. Routine fails, try again.
7. Routine fails, try again.
8. Routine works!! Psych! Try again.

9. Your routine is almost done, you try various combos and try to choreograph the end of your routine.
10. Fail, try again.
11. Finish routine and record with your camera, then watch.
12. Hate your routine, everything about it, get angry, want to give up, but don't because you worked to hard to get where your at and you need to dance.
13. Practice routine, grumble, cuss, make minion sounds in the process.
14. Decide you need to be done for the day and try again tomorrow.
15. Practice again, things are kind of coming together.
16. Take an ice or epsom salt bath, shave your legs, and get pretty cause tomorrow is your day.
17. Performance/Competition Day, there is nothing more you can do, but perform what you have...
18. Don't forget to eat on performance day, no matter how much your stomach twists and turns.
19. Stretch, put on make up and dance your heart out, Cause today is the day you have been working towards!
20. Routine done, whether you win or lose, you did it and you earned yourself a margarita!

Cha-Cha-Changes

For a while I was "Fun-Employed," which is a vamped up version of Un-Emplyed. Unemployed sounds so terrible, but it's really not if you enjoy yourself on an extreme budget. 

Updates on my life include the following:

• The government decided to not give me unemployment money -- which is lame, but i'll live.
• I got offered one of my dream jobs, then got a phone call saying they didn't have the budget  
• Papa Bjorno, my boyfriend and my yellow lab moved onto the next life :( we miss our baby.
• I got offered a job at a coffee shop and currently, i make coffee. 
• I drink coffee now.. and I like it.
• I pole danced on TV for a second, and talked on TV too.
• I entered my second pole competition - The first annual Aerialympics hosted by Kairos Fitness.
• I placed 3rd in the Pole Art Category by dancing my heart out to a song called "One Day" by Matisyahu.
• I went to California and got a picture with Aerial in Disneyland with my mermaid tail on.
• I swam in the ocean with my mermaid tail.
• I went to Snowbird and enjoyed the sensation of swimming while it was snowing.
• I ate really healthy up until my competition and then I stopped.
• I run, sometimes. 
• My cat likes my boyfriend more than me. -- I like my boyfriend more than my cat.
• I applied for a job with another airline to be a flight attendant... still waiting to hear back.
• I still don't regret quitting my last job and that makes me so happy.
• I generally make as much at the coffee shop as I made at my last job. #winning