The Studio is coming along

It's looking rather good. I have decided that it will be partially carpeted and have partial wooden floor exposed. I have been sanding the floor today after I ripped up the old carpet and it's a beautiful original floor. That coupled with the brickwork, it's looking more and more like a 'fame' studio every day! Some of my students have been wondering why there will be carpet in the studio. They will be very happy when it saves their knees! It will also stop them from slipping if they have heels on at some point. They will also work harder due to increased friction on the floor.

I would like it to be just so before I open, but I may have to continue to add little extras once I have launched. At present I can't decide on whether to have 4 or 5 poles in the studio.

I have been pondering installing silks (purely for selfish reasons) in the studio for some time. Initial investgations are very positive. I might have to wait for my trapeze till a little later though, riggers and rigging are not cheap! Don't touch my silks.

Not Strictly Pole Dancing...

But they are new additions to my skills repertoire, so definately worth talking about. I have been training in aerial arts for some time now and as I suspected there is much crossover. The warm ups and cool downs are extremely similar to those that I use in class and in my own personal training. For now, I only have pictures of myself on trapeze as I forget to get someone to take pictures. Obviously my tutor is my spotter, so she can't be taking pictures. I particularly like trapeze and chinese pole, but most of all tissu/silks is the discipline that I prefer.

Training in these disciplines is so relevant to what I teach and perform. Much more appropriate than an E.T.M. qualification.

One of my poles is stuck together, again!

Out of the 4 poles that I own, two of them are stuck together and I cannot get them apart. WD40 is useless as it is too thin. I am taking my time trying to get it apart (if I can at all) this weekend otherwise I will end up flinging them out of the window.

It's not so bad when the 2 main pieces stick together as at least I can get them in the car. What I hate is when this happens. I burst out laughing during this journey at the utter ridiculousness of it. As did many people at the traffic lights. I am consoling myself in the knowledge that soon these poles will be permanently up in the studio. It's really great that they are portable, but it's not quite the portable dream that I had hoped for. They really can't take the wear of being constantly put up and taken down and neither can my nerves for that matter. I think I'll keep one aside, so that I have one pole freed up for gigs. This pole problem is almost like an unsolvable one. There is always a trade off. If I ever needed motivation to continue with the development of the studio, this is it.

While I was distracted by the 'pole sticking out of the car' situation and unloading the poles once at home, I neglected to bring inside the second pole that is stuck together. So it remained outside all night. Oops.

Strictly Pole Dancing in The Independent -

I'm annoyed. Here we go again, another misinformed, confused, pseudo feminist. This time it is Joan Smith.

Patrick Kielty should be ashamed of himself for his comments; but hey, would you expect anything less from someone who always sees sleaze, whether it was intended or not. It's his job to be sleazy, he's a comedian. In this case he has only exposed himself as lacking in intelligence. His response is the usual knee jerk reaction to differences in society.

Joan Smith on the other hand has failed in her job to deliver the facts. We are not talking about raunch culture, we are talking about the emergence of a new art form from something formerly only associated with sleaze and she is critical of this? She let her preconcieved ideas cloud the truth about pole dancing. Yes, we are small in number, but our population is ever growing.

Not only is she down on pole dancing, she is also inconsistent in her morality. Little time has passed since belly dancing was regarded as sleazy. To add insult to injury, my dance school name is being thrown around in the press like a rancid pole cloth. My dance school is called STRICTLY POLE DANCING by the way and no, I am not joking, Joan.

Well, the wall is gone

One of the walls in the studio has been knocked down, which means more room! I got a chance to clean the windows too; there are six of them (so it means loads of natural light!)

Here are the latest pictures