My blog’s been hibernating for the last while, but I’m back to write about my pole workshop with Alethea Austin at Brass Vixens Downtown. The essence of her Hot Tricks class was not to teach the most difficult tricks, but to focus on the most impressive tricks. Frequently, difficult does not equate impressive because more important than what you perform, is how you perform. My favorite Alethea video starts with 4 minutes of body rolls and it’s mesmerizing. Another 20 minutes of my life was spent watching her leg kick in this video at 0:24. So when her workshop began with hip circles, it was just as I’d hoped.
When Alethea does her Handstand Hip Circles, she faces the pole in a handstand on the floor with ankles & knees holding the pole like an Inverted Fireman Pose, while pressing her chest against the pole for balance – this requires some back flexibility because you’re pushing your butt away from the pole to circle your hips. Alethea dismounts with a front roll that begins with tucking chin to chest and lowering one shoulder to the floor. She keeps her ankles on the pole while she pikes in half to lower her butt to the floor. Not surprisingly, the key to making all of this look impressive is painfully slow and controlled movement.
Next, Alethea taught her Devil’s Point Shuffle – named after a club in which she performed it – similar, but slightly different than Jenyne Butterfly’s Switcheroo. You can see it at 1:45 in the video above and here are the steps:
Back Hook Spin – Straddle Invert – Outside Leg Hang – Half Split – bottom leg hook – unhook top leg & lower it outside – switch hands bottom over top & unhook bottom leg – Switch Straddle Invert – Inside Leg Hang
Devil’s Point Shuffle Tips:
keep your hands at face height to invert
push your inside forearm against the pole to move your bottom leg into Half Split
squeeze your bottom leg hook to keep from slipping down the pole while you unhook your top leg and switch your hands
Front Crucifix from Nose Dive
I was super excited to learn my first drop from Alethea – the Nose Dive – also called a Nose Breaker or a Death Drop… but I like to think more optimistically. This trick is exceedingly simple, as long as you can do a Front Crucifix, and once you build up the control to drop quickly, it’s dangerous-looking and therefore, exciting to watch. In reality, it’s easy to learn safely by descending as slowly as necessary to build up security in the ankle grip. Percieved danger is increased, not only by the speed of the drop, but also by the arm positions:
Nose Dive Arm Variations:
handstand arms = safe
crucifix arms = a little scary
hands on the butt / elbows back = sexy & dangerous
To heighten the trick even further, Alethea suggests dropping from a Caterpillar Climb for an extra thigh-length of droppage. I was honored when she asked me to demonstrate… and then immediately humbled when she forbade the class from applauding because she spied a gap between my ankles – the ankles are the primary source of braking the Nose Dive… and keeping it from Face-Smashing territory. I’m still working on the speed of my drop as well as minimizing the distance between my face and the floor when I stop, which Alethea suggests should be close enough to lick… :P
Split Grip Ayesha from Cartwheel Mount
We also learned another seemingly intimidating trick – the Split Grip Cartwheel Mount, in which the top hand is thumbs up, the bottom hand is thumbs down, and in cartwheel-esqe fashion, the legs kick up sideways, one at a time, to an inverted pose. Like all of the cartwheel and handspring mounts, this trick can be intimidating because of the strength and balance required to hold the body upside down. I had always worried about kicking myself all the way over and dislocating my shoulder (as though I couldn’t just release my top hand… but fear is not always based on logic). However, Alethea revolutionized my thought process when she recommended practicing without a spotter. She never used a spotter because she learned to pole alone in her bedroom. By kicking up the outside leg gradually higher and higher until the inside leg can hop off the floor, then gradually kicking harder and hopping higher to increase the hang time – never higher or harder than is comfortable and safe – you’re gradually building up the strength & flexibilty required to invert and there’s no need for a spotter because you never have to kick further than you can safely hold yourself on the pole; which is pretty much how I learned my Twisted Grip Handspring: alone in a playground… parents always seemed to shoo their kids away from me.
Shoulder Mount Splits
Another trick Alethea taught with fantastic transitional steps was her Shoulder Mount Crazy Legs. We practiced the leg action while lying on our backs and cup gripping the pole against one shoulder. With straight and straddled legs, tilt the pelvis to lift the bum off the floor and circle the inside hip up & in, while the outside hip naturally follows, resulting in alternating straight leg circles. Once this coordination is sorted, move the cup grip & shoulder slightly higher up the pole and try the kicks in a mounted position – ie. with back & bum off the floor and all weight on the shoulder & cup grip. These variations are a great way to gradually build up the strength for standing Shoulder Mount with any hand grip.
Shoulder Mount Variations for Conditioning:
back resting on the floor while kicking over *conditions shoulder grip & core strength*
back slightly off the floor and kicking over to lift the bum *requires upper body strength*
from seated position, lift hips into a bridge, then kick over *requires back flexibility*
gradually bridge higher up the pole when kicking over, eventually standing
climb the pole for an Aerial Shoulder Mount
Alethea & Me
For those with a strong and comfortable Shoulder Mount, Alethea had us practice hopping in the mount by thrusting the hips toward the ceiling. When you gain enough hang time, you can momentarily remove the outside hand and eventually kick your outside leg toward your head – in the gap between the pole and your outside hand, so that when your hand catches the pole again, your leg is under your outside arm and you can do Shoulder Mount Splits. To dismount, you can either do another hopping hand release to free the outside leg or you can hook the outside knee and release the outside hand into an Outside Knee Hang.
Alethea jam-packed this hour-long workshop with lots of fun and hot tricks, but the most important lesson I learned is to break every trick down into several intermediary steps in order to gradually build the strength and flexibility required throughout the transitional stages of every move – this is key to the slow, controlled movement that is Alethea Austin’s signature style.
PS. I love pole dancing and am eager to share my progress, but if you wanna try any of this – get proper training, equipment, and supervision because it’s dangerous!
