Twist it like a Gypsy - small store starting

Big News! 

I am currently in the process of starting a small business to do on the side of everything else I do. 

I'm calling it

wait for it. wait for it. wait for it. 

Twist it Like a Gypsy

and I am so excited.

You can expect to see things that I craft and design myself as well as a few other clothing items from companies abroad. I have big ideas for this, but I am starting small since that is what my budget will allow.

I am excited, nervous, stressed and happy that I have finally started doing something I have been wanting to do for a while! I hope that you like the products - you can check them out here:

https://www.facebook.com/twistitlikeagypsy

Click on the albums to find the products and prices. If you are interested in purchasing anything you may contact me via the "Twist it like a Gypsy" facebook page or my personal facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/brooke.broder.ick.1), or via email: brookelee17@gmail.com.

First Outdoor Pole Shoot

I have fallen in love with pole fitness and I have always loved the outdoors! So, you can imagine what joy I found in setting up my xstage and doing my first outdoor pole photoshoot with some friends earlier this week!!

EEEEEEEP! WEEEEEEEEE! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! EEEEEEEP! WEEEEEEEEE!

I would like to think that this is the start to a movement, a outdoor pole movement. I have a feeling that if we set it up in more public places, the typical Utahn will have one of three reactions.

1. Cover there eyes, because pole is porn and we must be strippers.
2. Open there eyes wider and watch because they may think that we are strippers.
3. Realize that what we do is an artistic form of fitness and takes extreme strength and watch in awe.

Anyways, here are some shots from the shoot. My friends and I drove down to the Saltair and ended up by a large rock where we sat up the pole and did photo after photo after photo, with a few snake interuptions.

So .. Much .. Fun ..

 My Favorite Pose

 Bendy

 Get it.

Attempting Elegance 

 

Cheesy

 Namaste

Sometimes, you have to be a little funny and make a "rawr face," and then a photo of you ends up looking like a bad edit with your legs cut off (middle photo). I still can't stop giggling.

I Love Pole.

Balance

I've learned that I am the type of person that wants to do just about anything and everything.

I do pole fitness.

I snowboard.

I do aerial silks and aerial hammock.

I run.

I swim.

I tunnel fly (indoor skydive).

I hike. 

I travel.

I dance.

I eat.

I sleep.

I love.

I have a lil family (boyfriend, cat, r.i.p. dog).

I play.

I work.

I want more work.

I stretch.

I craft.

I laugh.

I cry.

I make coffee.

& more.

Point of this is, it is so hard to find balance in your life sometimes, but I seem to find it still.

Love my Life.

Lake Powell

Just got back from a 4 day Lake Powell Trip with Friends and it was amazing. Reese and I have some friends who have been doing this trip every year for a while and they have it super organized so your guaranteed to have a good time. 

Houseboat

Floats

Boat

Friends

Drinks

& 

Good Times

Dominican Republic

Reese, myself, and 13 of our friends decided to do a trip to the Dominican Republic at the beginning of May and it was spectacular. 

• All inclusive for $15 a night.
• A magical hostel with a stunning view on the mountain.
• Hiking to God's Pool and feeling that magical water all over.
• Jumping and Sliding through 27 waterfalls.
• Swimming in the Ocean.
• Putting my feet in the sand.
• Skinny Dipping.
• Friends.
• Dancing.
• Margaritas.
• Food.
• Love.

It was so much fun and I'm pretty sure it will happen annually now. 

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!