Last night I filmed my first attempt at a freestyle video at home. It was for Freestyle Friday, another awesome pole community on Facebook just for pole dancers. Basically the admins select a song for the week, and you film a freestyle video to that song and post it on the group that Friday. If you want to get your freestyle on and join the group, let me or one of the members know and we’ll add you. (real polers only please!)
I’ve been a member of the group for a little while now but never submitted anything before.
Cos hey, it takes an effort to set up your (phone) camera and film an actual freestyle! Filming in the pole studio means having the guts to dance it out in front of whoever happens to be there, mistakes and all… or having to spring for a time when it’s empty, which is even tougher!
And even if you have a pole at home like I do, you need to overcome the overwhelming urge to edit the video, (assuming you know how to, cos I don’t) try to choreograph it instead (which defeats the purpose of freestyling and requires even more effort) or just plain delete the damn embarrassing thing and pretend it never happened.
And after my Sentosa experience, I realized just how much bloody harder it is to freestyle for an entire song than it seems. You gotta keep moving, or end up standing still like a deer in headlights / staring desperately at your toes. And that’s just not sexy.
Which explains why I’ve never filmed a freestyle on my own since then.
But here’s where having pole pals makes a huge difference! Miss Folly (who’s now officially into filming freestyle videos) filmed one and posted it, and I had arranged to meet with our friend Ange who’s back for a break from studying in Canada, for a pole practice session at the studio.
So what better time to break out a freestyle than together with a long lost pole pal who’s back in town?
Of course, as my other good friend Murphy’s law dictates, by the time I got to the studio I’d started to feel the onset of delayed muscle soreness from the previous few days of yoga, specifically the (hard) core plank series from the day before.
I managed just one practice round of last term’s Prep routine to show Ange and then was rendered pretty much useless after that. *Note to self: don’t arrange for any kind of pole sessions after doing 6 yoga classes over the past 4 days… It’s just really not a good idea.*
Since we’re both freestyle newbies and the studio was filled with other people, we naturally just kept practicing various pole tricks and put off the freestyle until the very last minute when I suggested playing the song to feel it out.
(Before it was suggested as this week’s freestyle friday track, I’d never heard of the song ‘Madness’ by Muse. I’m like a musical hermit living under a rock that only plays 90′s hits.)
Anyway, after a while I whipped out my iPhone, pointed it at Ange and ordered her to go for it!
Now the song’s a good 4:30 minutes long, so I was really proud of her for finishing the entire thing! In front of everyone in the studio too, so now I know that girl can definitely dance like no-one’s watching and still work a very elegant freestyle.
Literally a minute after she was done, the room started filling up for the next class held in the studio so we had to get out of there. I was a little sad that I couldn’t get to try the freestyle too, but then I remembered that I have a pole in my living room!
So once I got back home from dinner with the husband, I put my shorts back on, set up my phone camera in front of my pole, ….and realised just how freaking exhausted I was! Aaarghh..
But! I was downright determined after getting so inspired by Ange, so I got out a folding chair and put on my new skeleton socks so I wouldn’t be tempted to climb or invert, (I’d prob have fallen off the pole from fatigue) and I hit film!
Sadly, the male I was dancing in front of wasn’t very impressed and walked off about 3/4 of the way through as I was doing my thing… sigh!
I think we need to have a little talk about being respectful of each other’s interests, because its not fair that I give in to all his demands and even tolerate his occasional destructive behavior of trashing the sofa when he’s had a bad day, or picking fights with birds, insects, and my other cat.
Anyway, here’s my first freestyle Friday video. I wish I hadn’t been so bloody tired and could have done more than just roll around everywhere. But well, Ange and I have agreed that we absolutely have to film more freestyles from now on, so I have plenty of chance to do better next time!
