My First Pole Dance Class and why I’m obsessed!

You can listen to my experience ​here​.

But if you're a reader stay with me and keep reading.

Okay, so I just got back from what I'm going to say is technically my first pole dancing class experience. And it was awesome, to say the least.

I've taken a pole dance 101 class before many years ago. And I'd say like, okay, like five years ago. with one of my besties and she and I used to be, we met when we danced in a burlesque troupe together. I remember reaching out to my local S factor dance studio. Cause there, at the time there wasn't as many around us. So I reached out to them and I said, "Hey, I called the front office, I've noticed I've read the descriptions of these classes, but I want to tell you my background in dance and movement, specifically in that kind of more sensual dance realm." And I gave her a quick kind of synopsis, and she told me, well, you still need to take this very entry-level class.

And I was like, okay so we went, my friend and I, and it was terrible. Now, I'm not saying it was terrible because of how it was taught, right? The instructor, she herself, did her job and she did it well. But you get there, it's okay to wear heels if you wanted, but I think a majority of us were just barefoot. It was a very crowded room, and it wasn't necessarily that big. It had enough poles where we were split up into groups. The problem was in that class, I think, was at least an hour. I don't think it was an hour and a half but It may have been. Again, it's been a long time. I don't remember exactly.

I just felt very underwhelmed in the class, as did my friend. You know, they start the class with a warm-up, as they should. And we had practiced, how to walk, right, as if you were in heels,which means you're on the ball of your foot. What's the ball of your foot? That's the pad part and your toes, with your heels lifted completely off of the floor.

We, as a big classroom, walked around the room itself, I believe, two to three times on the balls of our feet and then the other part that she spent a large majority of was, I guess, this is what I think S-Factor is known for, and probably other pole dance classes, I don't know, as I haven't been two other classes outside of the one that I just took today. And we spent so much time, what's considered floor work, where we were kneeling, we would be sitting and stretching, of course, but then it was like, I guess the best way to describe it, it's like finding your inner goddess, right? That sensual being that we all have and just about, you know, tuning into her. And yeah, it was just so horribly done in that for someone like myself and my friend where, you know, we used to get paid to do that stuff. We didn't need to pay to take a class to learn how to do that. It was a waste of our time.

When I pay to take a course or even if it's a webinar or if it's online, if I feel like it was a waste of money, I can always find a lesson in what it is that I'm partaking in and have paid for, but this class, I couldn't. We literally learned two things. One was to walk around the pole. And the other one was to do this little, you jump on it, like, you know, five, six inches off the floor, and you wrap your feet around it and spin. Like, that's the only thing I could take away from it, so it wasn't worth the money that I paid for that class.

Now, I'm not saying that that class isn't right for other people, because it is. It could even have been right and perfect for you. But myself, who has an extensive dance background, and I have trained and studied in multiple dance styles and genres, that this class was incorrectly assigned to myself and my friend. We should have been given something a little bit more advanced. A less... crawling around and finding our inner goddess, and literally just getting in, stretching, and let's teach you some basic moves and some technique. That should be another level of class that should be offered to people who don't need that first part.

So, today's class, awesome. I actually found this studio online. And they're located in Berkeley, California, called the Flux Vertical Theater. Love them. I had rented out their studio originally because I had about a year ago photographed a heels dance troupe. And so I just needed a larger studio space. And since that instructor didn't have a home studio for me to, you know, to meet her troop and to photograph them, I had to go find somewhere where, one, we could go and rent the space, but two, that also allowed dancers to wear their stiletto heels. Because that's a problem for a lot of dance studios, is that they have a special flooring for dancers, and dancer heels can actually ruin that flooring. So it was really awesome.

This was the first time today that I was able to finally come in and be a student of one of the owners of the studio. And she's amazing. Her name is Miss KZ, I believe. Yeah, she's great. And it was a smaller class. I'm totally cool with that. And I actually didn't realize at the time when I signed up for the course that it was actually going to be a pole choreography class I thought it was just going to be like a heels choreography, so maybe like street jazz or maybe some funk or hip-hop or something in it. Nope, this was pole. I was like, okay. And so she's really great in how she would –really just knew how to observe the class right or as I like to say, "read the room" and observe the different levels of the dancers and students in her class, myself being, I think, the lowest, most beginner's level, and one person a step above me, and then a few intermediate dancers in there and so it was really awesome because she not only taught the choreography, gave some counts, but she broke it down.

A lot of dance instructors don't do that anymore. They're the type of, "okay, watch me do this follow-along, maybe I'll give some counts." And then we'll just redo it or they continue on with more choreography. This is like a whole other thing I could go off of. But here's the thing. This woman, this instructor, amazing. I love her. She taught it the way that I used to teach dance and fitness, where you, again, you read the room and you see where your students are having some hiccups. right? Having difficulties in certain areas. So you stop and you really break down the movement. So I loved it. She's like, okay, left hand on the pole like this, where this is like that. Then you put your weight on your left foot so that you're able to actually lift your right foot off the floor. Like that's how she would instruct.

And that is amazing because that is far more helpful than for a lot more people than it is to just okay and just watch me just figure it out and just watch me.

Unfortunately, there's a large number of instructors that do her style of choreography also too which was extremely helpful had moments of being a little slower you know so it allowed the movement to really just kind of breathe its own entirety And you, you know, I mean, if only we get technicals,we would have like four to eight counts in just one movement. And that's really quite amazing because not only do you have the time to execute it, but then you have the time to give it some life, to give it emotion.

And so it's just enough and just difficult enough for everybody to have a challenge. And what she was able to do is, you know, she kept me at the beginner level and then she would teach—the more immediate level class like choreography so it added a few more kicks it brought them down to the floor which I did as well but I didn't have to do as many things right it was more like get up do a body a reverse body roll up the pole whereas everybody else it's like okay put the foot here kick it out do your arm like this and da da da then reverse up and it's just I really liked that.

I felt she did a really great job. She didn't point anybody out and put them on the spot. We didn't have a camera crew come in afterwards to record the choreography because that's not what it's about. You know, again, her point in the class was to teach the choreography. And then there was no...strict rule where it needed to be exactly as she taught it so we would be able we were allowed to make adjustments and what worked for ourselves and not necessarily just exactly how she taught it, which is great because then it allows you to get into the emotion, right?

So yeah, really love taking that class. It's awesome. Flux Vertical Theater.