It's 3am and I'm suddenly feeling so passionate about this topic that I want to draft the thing now. (Edit: Just posted at lunchtime!)
Open choreo classes need inverts
Around my 5th year of pole, pole friends (some instructors, some indie seasoned strong-ass dancers) asked me if I ever wanted to compete (like at Exotic Generation and stuff).
Me: "Oh but my inverts suck and I can't do a handstand."
Them: "You don't need to invert or handstand at all to do a nice routine!"
Okay great, you don't need to be able to do any inversion to be a good pole choreo competitor apparently.
So then why do some studios require you to have a good invert - or worse (for me) - solid aerial inverts/one-handed pole handstands, in order to attend an "open"/lowest level non-formulaic choreo class?
"Open" means "mixed levels" to me, which implies that someone with wonky inverts and a year of regular pole classes should be able to join and do the things too.
Inverts alone are so hard, and aerial inverts even harder. Even when I was less fat and poling multiple times a week, it took me a year between invert to aerial invert. (Then I lost it again while still being that same size.)
Yes I know, I should train harder and eat less calories and get my inverts back and it's all my fault.
But also, no. I can dance and I can take dance instruction and I also choreograph so I know there are ways to modify the tricksy parts of a choreo to meet the dancer where they're at. (Provided they've actual done pole dancing classes before, of course.) Sure, it will kinda lose something with the modification but the dancey parts will still be vibey and everyone will have fun!
Can't level up without inverts
I'm ranting primarily regarding choreo classes but I also note that we also require students to get their inverts to progress to the next level, which is really limiting to lazy fatasses like me who also might have some missing mind-body connection in this area.
When I'm on Reddit, so many commenters say, "You can descend into your jasmine. You don't need to invert! Your teacher should have taught you that!"
Well, no. My teacher did not want to teach me that until I could already invert. Then I was like, "Huh why didn't we learn this entry first?"
But also, my eyeballing sampling of pole studios' website shows that inverts are a common prerequisite to get to a certain pole level, so IDK where these Reddit commenters are from. I'd like to visit their studio.
My personal current physical limitations
Being fatter again, dealing with joint and muscle aches that refuse to go away, not to mention random skin sensitivity, is not fun and I just want to do fun things i.e. dance and do the baby tricks I can manage.
So when people ask me, "You're not taking pole classes?"
I'm not taking term pole classes because open classes have prerequisites I can't currently meet. Pole (read: all) classes are expensive now so I'm trying to be more discerning about where I spend my money to achieve my goals of doing fun things (defined above) while balancing my chemo side effects schedule.
I am going for workshops, though. I read the class descriptions a million times and study the promo video before booking. So far, my choices have panned out great! There was some extreme DOMS from some workshops (ahem Gemi.Ai) and some elements I just couldn't execute but variations were given (Subby Souza) so I'm still a happy customer.
I'm also training my meagre repertoire of tricks at pole prac twice a month, and doing some of Marlo Fisken's Static Rotations recordings. So far, the first four videos have no compulsory inverts, wow!
My humble ask
If you haven't written me off as a grumpy lazy fatass poler (GLFP), my ask from this rant is if you are a teacher or studio owner, just take some time to consider the possibility of making "open" choreo classes more open by lowering the prereqs and offering progressions and regressions.
For level classes, we could do conditional passes so the student can learn new things in the higher level while still working on that one skill that eludes them, and demonstrate it to the instructor in 3-6 months?
If you're already doing this, great! (And let me know who you are if you're not on my radar.) If you're not but after reconsidering, you still wanna keep the prereqs, that's cool too. Maybe someday my suggestion will make business sense. Then I and fellow GLFPs can join!
