Not My Strong Suit

Many of you have often heard me describe myself as a Practical Poler. I groan inside (and sometimes it slips out) when we do floorwork or transition type stuff in pole class.  I’ve never been a super graceful person, even as a kid. I tend to be very choppy in my movements. It took my parents years to get me to Cha Cha smoothly. Even so, while I now greatly enjoy ballroom dancing, if I wanted to dance with my feet on the floor, I’d go to the Crystal Ballroom, not Pole class. I think Paula knew this when she picked my dance partner for the Student Showcase.
Patrice and I had never met until 6 weeks ago. She is my polar opposite! She is tall, blonde and confident. I am short, brunette and shy. She has had years of competitive dance and skating. I dance in my living room holding a toddler. She is graceful, fun and super sexy. I am choppy, methodical and reserved. She Loves floorwork and pole flow with her feet on the ground. I prefer spins and poses rarely touching the floor. This has made choreographing our routine very interesting.
We were both very excited at the beginning to really have an opportunity to complement each others pole styles. However, as we started putting it down on paper, we didn’t have enough similarities to make the routine look good together. We were able to come up with fantastic solo routines, but putting them together as a doubles routine just didn’t mesh. Our styles were just too different, like Madonna and Carrie Underwood trying a duet. Thankfully, we are similar in the three ways that count the most – we are both eager to learn, willing to compromise and dedicated to making our routine Amazing.
After many meetings, practices and hours of watching YouTube, we finally complied all our ideas and preferences and put them to lyrics. My first night trying to put it all together on my pole at home brought me to tears. I was so very frustrated that the dancy sequences did not come more naturally to me. It was just too many new moves and so much to fit in so short a time. I watched the videos Patrice made for me over and over and over to no avail. The next night we video chatted. I was so frustrated I thought about just telling her to do her own thing for the chorus and I’d do mine, no matter how discombobulated it looked. I just didn’t get it. She saw my obvious irritation and stuck with me. She told me I was Bad*ss and sexy and that we would get this. She ran the sequences with me over and over and over again until I got them or they fit my space properly. We did compromise and change one to two things for a better flow but in the end, I learned her dancy stuff and she learned my spins. Together we made an awesome routine that we both feel confident learning and practicing for the Student Showcase.
At the end of the day, pole really is about getting out of your comfort zone and growing yourself as a person. Thanks to me, Patrice is getting stronger and can hold poses longer. Thanks to Patrice, I can do fluid, graceful, and yes, sexy, hip and body rolls. Just because something may not be your strong suit now doesn’t mean it won’t fit you and look Amazing later!