Photoshoot

Wow, its been a while!  I've had a lot going on with renovating the studio, but now I'm back!   We just had Monika Deviat come to Prince George from Calgary to do a photoshoot!   It was LOTS of fun, and she did an amazing job with all the girls.

We are in week 24 of 2011 and, for the first time, I am ahead of schedule with my goals and have 25 new moves since New Years!    I'm pretty proud of myself, to be honest.

Fyi, the dogs in the photo (by Monika) are mine.  The chihuahua is 3 years old, and her name is Nikki, the min pin is 6 years old (almost) and her name is Skittles. 

Cheers!

Embrace

I got another new move!  YAY!  Its called an Embrace and it HURTS!   I had to take out my belly piercing, and my elbows now look like I've been sticking needles in them (not pretty).  But I'm still proud of myself :).  
That's another move crossed off the list of 52 moves to learn in 2011.

WOW

The Arts & Fitness Fundraiser was amazing!!!   We had approximately 145 people there, the performances were incredible, the bench press section was bigger than expected and lots of fun, and the Silent Auction was beautiful!


I'm still adding up all the totals to see what kind of cheque we can give Elizabeth Fry, but it looks like it will be "pretty not bad".


So now what?   Now I go back to teaching and planning the next 2 shows.    Traditionally we put on a Competition every fall, and it loos like October 1 is what is available.   We've done 3 competitions before, so this year will be the 4th Annual Spinning Angels Pole Fitness Competition.     Its going to be quite different from previous shows, but, as always, much much better as well.

Classes are in full swing still, new classes starting all the time, its very busy, but I enjoy it all. 

A BIG thank you to everybody who participated in the show, they were all a HUGE help and made it the success it was, and another BIG thank you to everybody who attended and showed their support for Debbie Plowman, and PG Elizabeth Fry Society.


Angel Stewart
Spinning Angels Pole Fitness
www.undergroundfitnessinitiative.com

Arts & Fitness Fundraiser

Just a quick post.   If you want any information on the fundraiser happening next Saturday, check out our webpage www.undergroundfitnessinitiative.com  and click on the poster on the home page!

Pole-Fit

I had a really good Pole Fit class tonight!  Pole Fit is different from my Pole Dance classes.  In pole fit we do exercises to train for pole dancing.     Tonight I had one student lunge the length of the studio floor, pick up a folded piece of paper, and lumge back and read the exercise that was on the paper.  While she was doing this everybody else was doing what I call "skiing".   (step your right leg behind the other towards the left while your right hand touches the floor on the baby toe side of your left foot, repeat on the other side and keep going back and forth)

We did fish flops (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKcgAyfbdZY), reverse crunches, and a whole bunch of other pole-related moves, and exercises that help with pole dance.  

ARTS & FITNESS FUNDRAISER is in 10 days!!!!!!!!!!!  Only 2 more rehearsals.   Holy Smokes I can't wait!!!!

Crunch Time!

3 more weeks till the Arts & Fitness Fundraiser!   This is a show I have been rehearsing for and working on since last November!   We are raising money for PG Elizabeth Fry Society and a pole dancer name Debbie Plowman. 
     I'm very excited about this show, its going to be our best one ever!   We have 25 performers, 11 pole performances, 1 fire poi performance, and 1 Bench press competition!   Silent Auction, 50/50 tickets, door prizes, I'm so excited!
    We had rehearsal tonight, and it was really good, not a great turnout (9 out of 22 showed), but it went well nonetheless.     Saturday rehearsals usually have a better turnout anyway.   I'm pretty confident this show will be a sell-out since I've got twice as much advertising than I've ever had before (radio, newspaper, posters, FaceBook, website etc).   Its going to be such an incredible show!  Our theme is movies, so we start with a group choreography to "Footloose" then we have several solos, duets, and trios to songs like "Space Jam", "Pretty Woman", "Burlesque", and closing with another group number to "Men in Black"
    The bench press competition will be pretty epic too!  We have a bench and weights and we are starting with 135lbs.   Audience members will come up and see who can do the most reps in 1 minute.  Then the top 3 will go to the final round to see who can do the heaviest single lift (with good form), lb for lb!!!

    And finally our very own Joel will be doing another amazing fire poi performance!


Check out my youtube channel and watch any vids with Competition 2010 in the title to see what our last show was like.   Now times the awesomeness by 100, and that's how much better this next show will be!


 

POLE PARTY!

I believe today was the best night I've had at the studio in a while.   It started at 4 with rehearsal for a trio we are doing at the Arts & Fitness Fundraiser this fall.   Erin, Jenny and I are dancing to "Pretty Woman".   Then at 5 the others showed up and we worked on "Men in Black", which is a little rough still, but is definitely coming together.  And finally at 6pm the rest of the crew showed up and we rehearsed "Footloose" until we were exhausted, and then EVEN MORE people showed up and we had an Open House-Pole Party!

The pole party was LOTS of fun!  We had several ladies come out who had never done Pole before, and they learned a lot of new things!   Some current students got a few new moves and tricks, we had pole climbing races, and played DUCK DUCK GOOSE on the pole too!

 <----Duck Duck Goose Game! --->

We set the pole onto spinning, and "duck duck goosed"!




We had a total of 23 people at tonight's open house!   Everybody tried the poles, most learned something new, and everybody had fun, I call that a good night!

Communication is everything!

What a crazy crazy week!  My abdomen is all better (yay!) which definitely makes life a little easier.  Rehearsals last weekend were a little disappointing.  The lovely ladies that did show up are incredible and really dedicated, but the attendance was much lower than normal (with a production of 24 performers, as perfect attendance is not possible, but I'd be ok with half).  The "I can't" virus was running a little rampant too (I much prefer "Ok I''ll go home and practice this"  instead of "I can't do it")

     We are performing at the Riverstone Pub again tomorrow night!  I love Riverstone performances!  There was a little mixup with another event that got booked in the same time as us, but it got cleared up and all is well in the world again.    Our little troupe has been performing here each month for over a year now!   We started theming the events, and tomorrow's theme is "Drinkin' Songs".   Its going to be good times!  That, and our poster is awesome!



<---See!   I'll introduce you to my girls!  Left to right is Carmen, Jess, ME, Erin, Laurel and Jenny.   Tomorrow we add Shantal to the mix too!    

Can't win 'em all

So Wednesday night I had a GREAT pole practice, I got a new combination (Jasmine into the Flat-lined Scorpio), practiced a move called the Allegra on BOTH sides (I'm very right side dominant, so practicing moves evenly on both sides is a big thing for me).  It was sooo painful, but really good, I made a lot of progress and was really proud of myself.   Then I practiced a move called a X-Ankle Release (Crossed Ankle Release), or some, call it a bridge when the hands touch the pole like the picture:

My flexibility in my back and shoulders is not great, so I have to walk my hands along the floor to grab the pole.  That being said, I was just about done my practice, and decided to work on this one, I grabbed the pole and thought "What an awesome tummy stretch!",  so I dismounted and did it again, felt sooooo good.  Then I got down, and grabbed the pole to lift myself up and do it a third time and I felt a sharp pull in my abdominal muscles.    "Fascinating"  I thought.   So I gave up on that one, did a workout called H.I.I.T. which my boyfriend runs at the studio, and during which I decided I pulled an ab muscle!   Besides being fairly painful, I almost didn't think it was possible!
    So a fairly successful practice ended in injury, however 3 days later after no pole, I'm almost 100% again.   Back on the pole tomorrow, which is good since Saturdays are long days for rehearsals.


PS,  On a really good note, one of my students won a competition called CNC's Got Talent today on the pole!!!  I'm so proud of her!.  

The Beginning

Se here it is, my very first blog.   I'm not much for posting personal things on Facebook, I don't Twitter, and I probably won't post much personal stuff here either.   This blog will be a record of my journey of 2011.   I'll record goals I've set and acquired, talk about shows that are upcoming and everything that goes with that, successes, new ideas, and anything else I can think of.   So here it is:

As of new years I made a list of 52 goals I would like to accomplish in 2011.   The idea being that I accomplish 1 goal each week.   Everything on the list is either a pole trick, or a flexibility goal.   I am also in the midst of putting together a fundraiser called The Arts & Fitness Fundraiser on April 9.   We've been practicing at least twice a week over and above my classes, and personal practice time as well.    It definitely keeps me busy.   

So far I've accomplished only 4 items on my goals list.  A pole move Erin, one of my bestest pole buddies, and I call the Space Kaboom,  another move we call the Space Kaboom part 2, an Eensy Wincy Spider, and a Falling Star.   I have however, accomplished 3 other moves that are not on my list, so, in a way, I've still gotten 7 new moves in 7 weeks. 

I can't show you what these moves look like quite yet, since they are a surprise that will be revealed at the Arts & Fitness Fundraiser.  But, trust me, they are AWESOME!