I came across this article today Pole Dance Perfection: No Stripping Required.
Whenever I tell people that I run a Stripper School, the immediate reaction is “Wow! Can you do the one where you’re hanging upside-down and spinning?”
“Only from the ceiling fan in my bedroom.” I usually quip back.
There truly is something mystical about the gracefulness of skilled pole dancers. It is an art form which requires experience in dance, gymnastics, and acrobatics. Three things that I severely lacked exposure to when I first started dancing 10 years ago.
My first club, The Spearmint Rhino in Upland, CA had one stage as a focal point. There was a pole and I tried to learn how to do pole tricks. I took the easy route and bought shiny vinyl boots that stuck to the pole making it effortless to climb. I learned how to wrap my ankle around the pole at just the right angle to create enough friction between the shiny pleather and the chromium pole that I could flip upside down. Every night I would hope that the girl before me wasn’t wearing body lotion…or else I would slide too quickly down the pole and klonk my head on the granite stage.
STRIPPER POLE TIP 1: If you don’t look graceful doing pole tricks…don’t do them! Slow down, move sexy, toss your hair around and interact with the tip rail. Clunky, disjointed moves on the pole that end with “THUD” on the floor are not going to close any sales for you.
STRIPPER POLE TIP 2: I figured this one out right around the third time I pulled my rhomboid from trying to catch my balance on a lotion-y pole. If you are hurting yourself more often than the dollars you make from doing pole tricks PLEASE STOP! My a-ha moment was when I was driving down the freeway in California and I had to shift lanes. I turned my head left to check to see if the lane was clear and got a shooting pain radiating from my left rhomboid.
A few dollars were not worth my strategy that afternoon on the I-10: hope the lane was clear.
Frankly, I would rather the dancer interact with me than spin on that bloody pole!!! F*** me!!! I don’t give a tosser’s about no pole tricks, show me the goods!!!
I apologise if I was a bit rude…
Something good about those talented on the pole is that it helps set them apart. There are dozens of pretty girls in a club on any given night, and if you can be graceful on the pole, then that is just another tool in your arsenal to help get noticed by customers. But like Doug said and what Avalon stresses, it is important to be able to interact as well. The moves on the pole may catch someones attention but you have to keep them interested when you come down from the pole too.
I will share a story about the world’s clumsiest dancer- even though she move well onstage, offstage she doesn’t. The night we came into acquaintance she had took a piece of ice from my glass, rubbed it on herself, unbuttoned my shirt, then “warmed herself up” on my chest. I had at that moment decided I wanted a few dances from her. I was at the tip rail for the remainder of her set. But her replacement was late, so I gave her a hand down the stairs from the stage. Needless to say she tripped down the steps. She won me over ‘cos she was so bloody goofy!!! I wrote the song “Riva” about her the next day.
At the Hustler Club down the street from my favourite club, there is no interaction at the tip rail. They work the pole well, but have never been able to get me into the private dance room.
Who got more of my money? The girls who interacted with me.