Through your generosity we raised £530.18 (about $855) during our appeal week, and we want to say thank you to everyone who helped.

Thanks to: Jessica, Claire, Georgina, Cherri, Caoilfhionn, Nathan, Zoe, Cammie, Doris, Maud, David, Ana, Jason, Dawn, Emma, Sarah, Linda, Michelle, Angela and Luis.

If you’d still like to help, you can donate now through DEC in the UK or the Red Cross anywhere in the world.

I’m sure you’ve all seen the shocking pictures from Haiti over the past few days. Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday, 12 January, destroying much of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The Red Cross estimates 100-200,000 people have died and up to three million have been affected. Haiti is a poor country anyway, but what little infrastructure they had is now virtually gone.

Haitians feel very alone at the moment. The promise of aid has not yet materialised and many locals are still digging through the rubble with their hands.

Most of the bodies are covered in white bed sheets or rolled inside carpets, but others have been left exposed to the hot sun and the stench of rotting bodies has begun to fill the air.

Families who are desperately searching for their loved ones are gingerly uncovering the sheets that cover the corpses in the hope they can at least identify family members.

– Andy Gallacher, BBC

The people of Haiti need our help. Taking a lead from Chuck Anderson, James White and others, we’ll be donating 100% of the sales of the Pole Exercise DVDs (DVD 1, DVD 2 or both together) bought from this site for the next week (15 January – 21 January) directly in support of Haiti. So if you buy Pole Exercise DVD 2 for £19.99, we’ll donate £19.99 to the DEC appeal.

“It’s easy to feel separated from things like this based on geography, but it doesn’t mean we’re not all in this together. Every bit counts. My heart goes out to you, Haiti.”

Thanks to

• Jessica
• Claire
• Georgina
• Cherri
• Caoilfhionn
• Nathan
• Zoe
• Cammie
• Doris
• Maud
• David
• Ana
• Jason
• Dawn
• Emma
• Sarah
• Linda
• Michelle
• Angela
• Luis

Difficulty: Intermediate

There’s no doubt about it: inverting on a pole for the first time can be scary.

Perhaps you’ve been pole dancing for a few weeks, building up your move repertoire and now you really want to try some of those amazing inverted poses.

But there’s just one problem…

I’m scared of falling on my head!

First, let’s talk about why inverting is not actually that difficult. I’m sure you’re already comfortable holding yourself on the pole with your legs in the Icon Pose or when sitting on the pole, and once you’ve inverted you’ll be gripping the pole in much the same way.

There’s a lot of grip on offer, and the Basic Invert leaves your body wrapped around the pole so it’s a pretty secure pose too. In fact, if it weren’t for you being upside down, this move would almost be too boring to discuss.

Preparing to invert

Usually the worry about inverting is a much bigger obstacle to success than actual ability, so take some precautions to make yourself feel better. Get a friend or partner to spot for you: have her stand close to the pole and press her hands against your back once you’ve inverted to help you hold the position.

Steal the sofa’s cushions and put them around your pole, or think about investing in a specially designed pole mat.

Your pelvis should be leading the move, not your feet. Stand next to the pole and tilt your body back while letting your arms straighten to get a feel for the movement required for the Basic Invert.

One of most useful training moves can do is the High Kick, as you’ll pass through almost exactly the same motions when you do a full Basic Invert. Practice the move a few times in a row and try to get your feet higher off the ground each time. Make sure the kick is explosive and remember not to cartwheel your legs.

I know it can be tempting to take a run up to get into this move, but please try not to. You’ll get little extra lift over kicking up from a single step back, and there’s a danger that you’ll have less control if you fling yourself at the pole.

Taking a step back is OK if you need a bit of extra power, but eventually you should be able to do a dead-lift invert with no kick at all.

In detail

1. Place your dominant (stronger) hand high on the pole and your other hand just below. Stand with the pole on your dominant side.
2. Step forward with your inside leg and kick up with the opposite leg (if you’re right handed, this is your left leg) and hook your ankle around the pole above your head.
3. Bring up your other leg and cross the ankle over the one already on the pole. Push your hips up, straighten your legs as much as you can and extend your head backwards.

In action

Top tips

• Allow your upper body to drop backwards and your arms to extend as you lift your legs up. It’s much harder to invert if you keep your body upright and close to the pole.
• Once you’ve got into the move, extend your legs up the pole, push your hips up and drop your head back so you can see the floor. (I know I’m not looking down in the pictures!) This makes it easier for your arms to hold your weight and stop you sliding down the pole.
• If you do begin to slide down the pole, allow yourself to descend slowly until you come to rest on your upper back. Resist the temptation to flip out of the move by dropping your legs as this can hurt your back.
• Make sure you don’t bang your hips when inverting. Ladies’ hips tend to be more prominent and whacking them against a pole is very painful. Start with your hips in front of the pole if you’re not kicking into the move; otherwise remember to allow a little room to clear them as you swing up.

Find this move and 65 others on Pole Exercise DVD 1.

Vertical Leisure, the company behind the X-Pole, have announced their new range of poles.

The original X-Pole was quite revolutionary when it was launched, with its adjustable height, spinning and static modes and solid construction, and quickly became one of the most popular poles on the market.

But by Christmas it will be gone. Instead we have two new poles, the X-Pole XPert and the X-Pole Sport.

X-Pole XPert

The closest replacement for the old £180 X-Pole is the £200 XPert. If you own an X-Pole, you’ll know how difficult it is to separate the pole sections after the pole’s been up for a while. (And you’ll know how inadequate the standard release tools are too.) Vertical Leisure have replaced the screw threads entirely with something they call the X-Joint.

How the X-Joint works

The pole tubes now have a couple of grooves running vertically up their insides. The X-Joint slots inside the pole between two segments, using the grooves stop the pole sections from rotating, and the whole thing is held in place by tightening a couple of bolts with an Allen key.

If you’ve used an X-Pole then you may be drawing a quick breath right now. The X-Pole’s static / spinning adjuster also uses a couple of bolts to keep it in place, and that inevitably seems to loosen after a few minutes’ vigorous poling.

But it’s OK. When the pole’s up, the X-Joints don’t rely on the bolts to prevent the pole sections rotating, and pressure from floor and ceiling stops the pole from coming apart. So even if you don’t tighten the bolts at all, you’ll be perfectly safe when performing, though you could get a bit of a shock if the pole falls apart when you take it down again.

Vertical Leisure say the X-Joints make the pole more rigid than before, so you could potentially make an even longer pole. Previous X-Poles have been limited to 11' or 12' (3.3 to 3.6m) in length, but they’ve been testing a 13' (4.0m) pole that seems fine so far. If you’re fortunate enough to have such a high ceiling, you could be in luck!

No more ladders

The other big change is that the XPert is bottom loading, so there’s no need to get up a ladder to tighten your pole now – a big bonus if you take your pole down frequently. (Vertical Leisure also have a kit to change your existing X-Pole into a bottom loader, albeit for a not inconsiderable £90.)

This means that the height adjuster cover is now at the bottom of the pole. I know not a lot of moves use that area, but I wonder if it will get in the way more often than it did at the top.

The XPert has the same wide dome at the top as the old X-Pole. The base is a bit smaller, though it looks much the same otherwise.

X-Pole Sport

X-Pole Sport is Vertical Leisure’s entry level model, coming in at £150. It uses the same X-Joints and bottom loading adjuster as the XPert, but money has been saved by making it static only. The pole also comes with a smaller ceiling plate and (bizarrely) a larger floor plate.

Unlike all other X-Poles to date, the Sport isn’t smooth all the way from floor to ceiling. Instead it has a foam cover (apparently like silver pipe lagging) over the height adjuster.

Again, it could be a bit disconcerting to kick during a spin or pose, though Vertical Leisure now stocks a much larger range of pole extensions so you can minimize the height of the adjuster – and the foam covering – if it bothers you.

The X-Stage is also being given new X-Joints, but is otherwise unchanged.

The new poles go on sale on 16 December (including in our shop, if you’d like to support us). We can’t wait to try them out!

• For more information, visit Vertical Leisure (new site coming soon) or give them a call on +44 (0)1707 665933.
• If you’d like to read Vertical Leisure’s sales copy, here’s the new X-Pole brochure (pdf).

Click on any of the pictures for a bigger copy.

I was invited by pop legend Jarvis Cocker to take part in his conceptual gallery project, joining together music, art and motion. He “wanted to look at another way of presenting music rather than just putting on a show. Can it work in an art gallery? Will people come along?”

Apparently they will. He’d already tried out the idea in Paris, where he now lives, running a similar event at Galerie Chappe in May. By the end of the week, they were playing to a street full of people.

Village Underground event

His London event took place at the wonderful Village Underground art gallery. The space has an awesome vibe to it, with multiply repurposed brick walls that lend it the feel of a warehouse or deserted train station. As well as music, he organised three days of burlesque, yoga, hula hoops, performance poetry and live graffiti. And pole dancing.

“There is too much spectating, it’s important to get people creating themselves – that is a lot more interesting,” Jarvis told the Guardian. “I wanted to get away from the idea that culture is something you consume, you can make it yourself.”

Participate! Pole dance!

My job was to get people creating themselves through pole dancing. After a nice introduction from Jarvis, I invited those brave enough to jump up and join in. Nine brave ladies and one even braver gentleman came up.

I took them through my warm up, and then separated them into two groups. I gave them a thorough introduction to pole dancing, covering some basic spins like the Fireman and Fairy and then moving on to a few slightly more adventurous tricks like the Basic Invert and Chopper. They did really well considering the venue and that they had an audience!

After the class, it was my turn to take centre stage for my pole dancing performance. Jarvis and his band had been accompanying me throughout my class, and Jarvis came down to ask me what type of music I wanted for my performance. “Slow but sexy,” I replied, and boy did they pull out all the stops!

I freestyled my way through my routine and was really pleased with the response the audience gave me, clapping and cheering throughout.

Jarvis didn’t get on the pole in the end, but I think he looked interested. (Maybe next time!)

It was a fabulous afternoon. I really enjoyed meeting Jarvis and his team, and having his awesome band accompanying my pole dancing was just amazing. I can’t wait for the next event!

Elsewhere

• Article in the Guardian
• Announcement on Jarvis Cocker’s site
• Flickr photos David Emery MrLomo pure evil bunny

After eight long months of production, filming and editing, Pole Exercise DVD 2 is back from the duplicators and ready to ship. (If you’ve pre-ordered, your DVD is already in the post.)

What’s on the DVD?

Pole Exercise 2 teaches you 16 advanced and 11 training spins, climbs, poses and inverts to take your pole dancing to the next level. Each move is taught in the same clear, step-by-step manner as our first DVD, with close up and slow motion shots to help you perfect those graceful pole moves.

Flexibility is key to any truly impressive pole performance, and Pole Exercise 2 also packs in a comprehensive stretching section with 14 positions for you to master.

There are four dazzling routines from our expert instructors, showcasing moves taught on the DVD. Each also has a teaching view to let you learn the routine yourself and help you construct your own mesmerising pole showcase.

Buy Pole Exercise DVD 2 →

DVD teaser video

If you’d like to take a look at some of the teaching and routines on DVD, here’s a preview we put on YouTube a little while ago. (I know it says ‘coming soon’ at the end. It was at the time.) Or click through to watch in HD.

Behind the scenes: a look at making the DVD

Last December, I decided to film a second Pole Exercise DVD.

After weeks of castings in January, I managed to whittle down the applicants to a select few awesome instructors (Jen, Jenny and Owain) who would teach and perform with me on the new DVD.

I was also lucky enough to get bendy Sarah (she’s an ex-gymnast) on board to star in an intensive stretching section, something a lot of people have asked for in the past.

The filming took place in March over an intensive few days. I’ve been on set many times before, but this was the first time I’ve been in charge of a professional film crew, producing – and sometimes directing – the shoot. Once it was over (and after a few days to recuperate), the raw footage was collected and sent over to the Lucy Productions core for editing and post-production.

Some might think that what you see filmed is basically what appears on your TV, but this is far from the truth. I’m sure you know how photos in the media are heavily processed before being published, and the same is true for film.

Only it takes a lot longer. Even in Hollywood, directors almost always spend significantly longer working with their editor than they do on the entire production and filming.

First we edited the DVD, which took 10 long working days, even with our stellar editor on hand. We then exported the DVD, a process that, unless you have a computer like this – and I really don’t – also takes days.

Then Andrew took it to the depth of his computer genius and started to colour correct and enhance the footage. Clips where bad lighting made me look like I’d emptied several vats of fake tan over my body were replaced by natural-looking shots. It’s quite incredible what the software can do, and quite vital when you see how badly coloured some of the footage is.

As an actress I’ve been involved with many films and adverts, and I’ve learnt a huge amount about the editing process.

Our production company has gained a huge amount of experience during the post production stage of the DVD, and we can now offer a huge range of services from Photoshopping and grading to editing of both still and moving images… but that’s another story.

Finally, after weeks of finding and eradicating mistakes (and then going back to the re-exporting stage – tedious is an understatement), we were ready to go with the graphics. Andrew took complete control and, with helpful suggestions and input from me, really shone with his designs for the DVD front, back and booklet.

At the start of November we sent the artwork and a master copy of the DVD to the duplicators, and this Friday I took delivery of a huge pile of beautiful, pristine, individually wrapped DVDs.

Now ready to launch after a hard year of solid work, I proudly give you Pole Exercise DVD 2. A product of passion, dedication, hard work and commitment to a belief in a fabulous sport and contributed to by wonderful people.

I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I have making it.

With all my love

Lucy
xxxx

Difficulty: Intermediate

About the eye opener

The eye opener takes your pole workout to a more intermediate level of difficulty. Lucy and her fellow instructors are big fans of this trick! Balance and technique are very important to perfecting the move and achieving a strong pose.

In detail

1. Start by sitting on the pole.
2. Lean back while holding your arms straight, then straighten both legs and cross your ankles while squeezing your thighs on the pole.
3. Place your dominant hand under your bottom, but don’t turn the hand upside down – make sure you grip with the standard grip. Try to feel your thumb resting on your coccyx bone (the bone in the middle of your body) to make sure you’re centred on the pole.
4. Gently pulse your legs to check your balance, then open your legs wide into a full straddle and the eye opener pose.

In action

Top tips

• Remember the hand grip! Your bottom hand should not be twisted with the wrist facing upwards, as this is a weaker position.
• Keep the top arm straight. If it starts to bend, your weight will shift from your bottom arm to your top arm and make the move very difficult.
• Keep your legs as high as possible. If they start to drop towards the ground, you’ll slide down the pole.
• Don’t worry if you spin slowly round the pole. You’ll be able to stop this happening as your technique improves.

Find this move and 65 others on the Pole Exercise DVD.

Eye opener full video

As promised, we’ve also put this move on YouTube. If the embedded video is a little small, click through to watch it in glorious HD.

I spent a long time (rather too long!) working on the DVD cover. The picture comes from a nice photoshoot of Lucy taken by AJ. We wanted to project an image of pole dancing as sporty, athletic and sexy, but also welcoming and friendly. And we wanted a striking image too of course. And we feel that this photo gets pretty close to meeting these (perhaps contradictory :) requirements.

The Photoshopping, with its glows, light bursts and rainbow gradients, draws on a number of different styles, but particularly on the amazing work of James White and Chuck Anderson. I certainly wouldn’t want to compare what I’ve done to their oeuvres, but I’m very grateful for the inspiration.

As with DVD 1, we have long pole on the back. I think it’s a fun way to give a flavour of what’s inside and to show several moves and performers in one image… and without taking up too much horizontal space. All of these photos (and the others here and in the gallery) were taken by Caroline Derrick, who was on set throughout the DVD shoot.

The DVD face is a photo taken during Lucy’s routine. Each routine has a different theme and look, and it’s nice to be able to show off at least one of exciting costumes we used. And, at a practical level, the picture’s roughly square so it fills most of DVD face.

I wanted to include an image of all the instructors to show teaching side of the DVD, and we were lucky enough to have some great group shots of everyone clustered around a pole. Plus it’s certainly easier than piecing together performers from different shots to make a collage. :)

And finally, here’s a box mock up I made for the shop.

Click on any of the images to see a bigger version.

If you’d like to see some more pictures from the DVD 2 shoot, head over to the newly expanded and refreshed gallery.

I know we haven’t written anything here for a long time. Lucy wasn’t very well for a few months, then it was my turn, and then we kinda got out of the habit of posting here. And of course since then we’ve had other life stuff to do too: Lucy finished her acting degree and I’ve been working towards my PhD.

And over the past few months, we’ve also been busy with a new Pole Exercise DVD.

Pole Exercise DVD 2

Pole Exercise DVD 2 is coming out soon! Filmed earlier this year with a professional crew, we’ve since spent a long time on the editing and other post production jobs, but it’s finally almost ready to launch.

The new DVD focuses on more advanced moves, with 16 advanced and 11 training spins, climbs, poses and inverts to take your pole dancing to the next level. We’ve also packed in a stretching section with bendy Sarah and four amazing pole routines for you to learn. Details will be coming your way very soon…

But wait! There’s more!

We have some exciting new things lined up for the site too:

• We have some new articles in preparation, covering more moves for our learn to pole dance series. We’re also working on a mini-series about different dance poles for those of you who are thinking about getting a pole at home.
• We’re going to reorganise the site a bit to give more priority to the things you’re interested in. The learn to pole dance series will get its own section and the moves list will be given more prominence (and hopefully some new pictures too when Lucy can get into a studio again :).
• As well as our new DVD, we’re going to expand the range of products we sell through the site. We should be adding poles, pole accessories and, for those of you near London, private pole lessons with Lucy too.

Free content: a big experiment

We’re going to put a lot of new material onto YouTube – real content from our first DVD, not just teasers or previews. We’re going to start with the moves we already have on the site, then we’ll be publishing new moves simultaneously on YouTube and here. Eventually we hope to have a large chunk of the first DVD up on YouTube.

If you want to know when we put up new videos, join us on YouTube or subscribe here for site updates.

Why are we doing this?

This is a big change for us, and perhaps big risk too. But putting real content on YouTube gives us more exposure. Our first DVD has sold steadily over the past couple of years, but of course we’d like to sell more. And we have our new DVD coming out that we’d like to sell too.

I’m sure there will be some people who won’t buy the DVD, given that quite a bit of its content will be available for free. But the main enemy of smaller distributors like us isn’t people watching our stuff for free, it’s people not watching our stuff at all – because they don’t know it exists.

We believe we have a good product. We believe that, as more people find out about what we have to offer, they – you – will believe in it too. We’re excited about these new opportunities, about putting up new articles and videos, and about connecting with all of you. I hope you’ll join us.

So you’ve made a resolution to get fit and have fun learning to pole dance this year. Perhaps you even got a new pole for Christmas.

You’ve watched the videos on YouTube, drinking in the graceful spins and inverts. Now it’s your turn.

But something’s not quite right. Have you started a spin and ended up on the floor half way round? Do your hands slip down the pole when you’re actually trying to lift yourself up?

You’re not alone

A lot of people have problems slipping instead of gripping when they first start pole dancing. And though it’s less common, some people have the opposite problem – they just stick too much.

Unfortunately it’s not something that will ever go away completely, but it will lessen dramatically as your pole dancing improves.

Here are some of the most common things to look out for, along with links to articles that go into extra detail if you’d like to read a bit more.

Too little grip

Sweaty hands are one of the most common culprits, and almost everyone has problems with this at some point. I’ve talked about ways to combat sweaty hands before, but perhaps the most important thing you can do is just relax – pace yourself and don’t try to do it all at once.

Work those hands! Many pole dance moves need a lot of hand strength to pull off successfully – much more so than other sports – and you may need time to build up strength in your arms.

You’re in good company here too, but most people find it comes surprisingly quickly once they start practicing regularly – while you’re having fun on your pole, you’re also giving yourself a great workout and toning your body!

Too much grip

It’s less common, but you may just seem to stick to the pole too much. Gripping too hard can cause you to ‘bunny hop’ while spinning round the pole (imagine bad clutch control on a manual car). Not perhaps the most graceful of movements!

Make a conscious effort to loosen your grip a little in easier moves, and try launching into spins a bit more enthusiastically, so you get a better feel for the limits of adhesion on the pole.

Just like too little grip, it’s a problem that will naturally go away as you gain confidence in your pole work.

Tips for consistent grip

• Clean your pole regularly. Before, during and after use. Just wiping it down with a damp cloth is pretty effective, though using a cleaning product can give even better results if your pole manufacturer allows it. I personally find acetone (nail polish remover) is really effective. More about cleaning your pole →
• Clean yourself regularly too! If you start to get a bit sweaty, dry your hands and legs off so you don’t end up smearing it all over the pole. And while it’s not good to make a habit of it, a quick dab of acetone on the hands and inner thighs will give an immediate dryness to the skin to help get you through those crucial moments. More products to help you grip the pole →
• Use a towel to clean the pole. It may seem obvious, but the thicker fabric and texture of a towel is much more effective at removing any grime or sticky residue on your pole.
• Think about what you’re wearing. Your clothes can make a huge difference to your pole dancing. Wearing a pair of pole shoes or boots can seriously effect on your pole prowess too.

Pole moves to help you stick

• Hang tough – Simple, but effective. The hang tough really develops your grip, building strength in your hands. I’ve often started classes by getting everyone to hold a hang tough for as long as they can!
• Fang – The fang focuses on building grip in your thighs, again allowing your strength (and perhaps pain threshold!) to develop.

Pole moves to help you slip

• Spins – Concentrate on a variety of spins. Kick off with as much momentum as you can and try to make your spins as consistent and smooth as possible.
• Floater transition – As it’s a one handed move, the floater transition should take advantage of your extra sticking power and help you start gliding round the pole. Hopefully it will give you a feel for the overall level of grip needed to spin effectively too.

I hope these suggestions are useful and help you overcome any grip problems you have. If you have any other questions, or you feel I haven’t explained something fully, feel free to comment below and I’ll do my best to help.

I wrote this post because some of you got in touch and asked me about grip problems. If there’s anything else you’d like us to talk about, please post a comment below or send a message.