All the Right Moves

As we’ve been getting ready for the Student Showcase coming up in April, my dance partner and I have been enthusiastically scouring the internet for some rockin pole moves and poses that we can do together either as a doubles move or to mirror each other on opposite poles. Like all good researchers do these days, we went to the number one source of ideas and inspiration – Pinterest! However, we quickly ended up having to venture out of the realm of Pins and find other locations for ideas. Pinterest served us well to get us started but we quickly ran out of fresh ideas and starting seeing the same poses over and over again, no matter how many different adjectives we typed in front of “pole.”
The first site I visited, inspired by Pinterest, was Wikipole.dance. Let me warn you – this site is all in a foreign language! But, that won’t really trip you up too much as most of the site is video tutorials of moves. They have all levels and types of pole, even exotic. They also have a leg work challenge. For the sake of our research, I really liked that they have a section specific for doubles pole! One thing I noticed as I perused the site was that many of the spins use different names than Aerial Dance does so be mindful of that as you’re searching and writing choreography.
Site number two was straight off Google – PoleDanceDictionary.com can’t get much more straightforward than that! I again noticed that many of the names are different than our Aerial Dance cards. Also different than Aerial is their levels for some pole moves. Just be aware that you can’t pick Anything under the Intermediate tab and expect to be able to learn it at a practice as some of them are Inverts. I like that they have a combo of pictures and videos as that gave me some better ideas for photoshoots than having to watch hours of video.
A third site to have a look at is OnlinePoleStudio.com. They have a number of good photoshoot ideas along with tutorials. They also have a bit of Hoop on there if you’re looking for that category. The same problems with level and name discrepancies existed here but not quite as prevalent as other sites. This site wasn’t super helpful to me right now in my quest for doubles ideas but I did bookmark it for the day when I’m prepping for photoshoots or competition!
Another staple, like Pinterest is Youtube. If you have some time to watch videos, there is a plethora of videos on Youtube of doubles pole tricks, pins, moves and poses. I just typed in “Doubles Pole” and was watching for about two hours before bed the other night. The trick here is to write down the video title and minute marker into the video of the trick you want to show your partner. Otherwise, you’ll end up having to watch half the footage again looking for that perfect trick!
Honestly though, the best possible place to go for inspiration, ideas and help is Aerial Dance itself. Your instructor knows the level you and your partner are at. She is going to be the best person to recommend a trick that is going to be safe, comfortable and beautiful for you! Go to a practice and chat with your fellow students. Aerial is an amazing community full of women eager to help and support and encourage each other. Ask around for ideas, watch what others are doing, ask someone to watch what you have so far and give suggestions. The internet is great but it can never replace the amazing blessing of Pole Sisters!