Hello my lovely poling friends! It’s that time of year again—THE CHRISTMAS SHOW IS COMING! YAAAAY! This will be show number FIVE for me–I can hardly believe it!
Since I’ve been so terrible at updating (sorry!), let me catch you up!
This year I am in a group with the three amazing ladies Renee, Mylea, and Kyra, and we’re dancing to OooLaLa by Goldfrapp. We have the ever-so-sassy Instructor Leah helping us through the process. Usually when I’ve been a part of a routine, it’s been pre-choreographed, or mostly choreographed by an instructor. I’d come in for a practice, I’d learn it, and BOOM, routine. Always fun. This year is different! Leah has helped us figure out great doubles moves and sequences and given us a lot of ideas. One day, we met without Leah and placed the sequences in the song ourselves. Once we came back to Leah, she helped us adjust and fill in the gaps. It was neat to have some part in setting up the routine, rather than just learning one straight!
I actually learned a few new tricks while we were setting up choreography! The first one is called Kheem (which I probably spelled wrong). If you have the sound on, you’ll find out exactly how fun this is ;).
My splits in that direction is pretty close to NOPE so I feel epic in a move that makes me look like I have a semblance of the splits! The second one was Stag Jade. I have more flexibility in the “scissors” splits, but it’s still pretty close to NOPE. I need to get to more Bendy Babe classes, pronto. Seriously, my legs make an L-shape instead of a splits when I try to do a normal Jade. It’s hilarious. Leah suggested Stag Jade instead. Bless her soul. I’m going to be the weird one at the show doing Stag Legs–but since when have I ever followed the crowd? hehehe 😉
Moving on…
I must be honest with you. I was worried about working with Renee, Mylea, and Kyra because they’re so good! All three of them are Extreme students, and have been so for some time now. If you’ve read my old blogs, you know I’ve been in Extreme, but that was months and months ago! It was tough at first, because these three have some serious skills and can do moves that haven’t been able to do, or I’m not strong in yet. I was so worried I would bring the group down, since I’m Advanced 2 (ish) and they’re Extreme. I almost thought I’d need to leave because I didn’t want to hold them back! 🙁 Here’s the lesson lovelies: I talked to them, and told them I was nervous and upset that I couldn’t do some of the neat things that they could. It worked out–they reassured me it was OK and that we’d work around it. We have, and I’m really excited to do this routine with them! 😀
Now that our routine is set out, we need to actually run it. I’m fairly certain that’s our plan for next week’s practice. Run it and tweak it, again and again. The first couple times actually running a routine can get messy. Even if you choreographed it (or helped in some way), you still have moments where you go, “Wait…. what was I supposed to do next?” It’s definitely frustrating. When this happens, I have to remind myself to keep calm. Routines don’t happen in a snap–they take a little time to get good. Keep working, keep practicing, and it will be great!
It’s what you’ve gotta do when you get frustrated with your routine!
I’ve decided I’m going to have to find a way to get my pole up in my little apartment, because I’m going to want to practice this over and over! I have a hard time making it to the studio between work, classes, group meetings, and finally sleeping, so getting some extra pole time in is going to be a must working up to the Christmas show. Here’s the deal: you should be practicing regularly now. I’ve found that twice a week is great if you can make it work. Just be very careful that you are not over-exerting yourself! If you’re spending more time on your show routine, adjust your workout/aerial/pole schedule accordingly. The last thing you need is to be injured! If you think you might be over-doing it, or need some advice on the matter, ask an instructor. Paula places great emphasis on injury prevention, so she and the instructors are the best help for that!
I’m going to be giving you updates weekly on this awesome Christmas show prep experience! The blog itself has comments disabled, but please, please do not hesitate to ask me any questions about show prep if you feel I can help! Catch me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (@Violet_Lyte), Snapchat (violet_lyte), or in the studio! Every dancer, from second-timer to instructor, has had different experiences and has different ideas. Don’t be afraid to ask questions–the women of Aerial Dance are here to help! It’s what we do 🙂