The Pole Body Part 2: Michellates

About a year ago I began taking Pilates in addition to pole dance classes as a part of my fitness routine.  I was initially just curious about how Pilates worked.  I had heard that it did amazing things for the body and I was particularly interested in the blend of stretching and strengthening that the workout supposedly provided. Pilates is a system of exercises developed by a German man named Joseph Pilates in the early 1900s.  Originally designed as a rehabilitative practice, the goal of Pilates is to achieve an equilibrium of strength and flexibility and better balance in the body when moving through life’s activities.  I began doing one-hour sessions once a week with Michelle Blum, certified Pilates instructor.  Michelle trains out of her home and she has a number of exciting machines that she likes to torture me with.   But in a good way!

            Michelle also has an insatiable curiosity about the body.  Because she is compassionate and detail oriented, she is able to provide a very personalized workout for her clients.  In fact, she thrives off of finding what would best serve each of her clients needs, whether it is overcoming chronic pain, healing from an injury or losing weight. Says Michelle, “While my comprehensive training in Classical Pilates is the foundation of my teaching, depending on a client’s needs I also pull from other pilates styles, my yoga certification, and background in sports and personal training.  I am very much about tailoring each workout to the client’s specific needs.  I’ve been told I have a very sweet and gentle way of kicking someone’s butt. “  Case in point: one of Michelle’s regular clients came to her after training for five years in Pilates with other teachers.  After three months with Michelle she dropped an additional dress size and lost two inches off of her waist.

Michelle also has a background in pole dancing.  When I told her that I wanted to use my Michellates workouts as a foundation for strengthening and conditioning my body to do specific pole tricks she leapt into action.  She assessed my strengths and weaknesses over the course of several sessions and then incorporated a number of core strengthening and leg strengthening exercises to create a very personalized workout.  She also sent me home with worksheets so I could train at home.  The beauty of Michellates is that it teaches you to experience your muscles in relation to one another.  As someone who has very little gymnastics background I struggle with understanding what muscles go into which pole dancing trick.  Michellates has helped me tremendously with this.  Says Michelle, “Pilates is very much an overall body workout and while we target specific muscle groups through certain exercises, the workout, on the whole, is a complete body workout.  What someone learns through doing Pilates is how the muscles relate to one another and work together.  In other words, how to use their muscles correctly and how to engage and strengthen parts of the body that aren't working at full aptitude in order to assist the parts of the body that are working at full aptitude.   

Some of the benefits of Pilates include:

-Elongating muscles without building bulk.

-Slimming problem areas, i.e., Hips, buttocks and thighs.

-Increasing flexibility while building strength.

-Improving posture, coordination and circulation.

-Increasing range of motion.

-Promoting relaxation and a sense of well-being.

Since starting Michellates almost a year ago people are constantly asking me if I have lost weight.  In fact, I’ve gained weight because I’ve gained muscle mass.  But my body looks leaner.  And I only see her once a week!  But perhaps the best part of Michellates is seeing how passionate Michelle is about her work: “I love being able to teach people how to properly work with their body while at the same time giving them a great workout. I love being a part of the discoveries people make about their body.  Clients will often arrive sharing a story of a discovery they made while doing an activity in their day to day life, how they were able to feel the difference and move more freely or with more ease. Seeing people awaken to the mind/body connection, witnessing their progress over time, helping them to alleviate some tension both physically and mentally and helping them to feel more energetic is a gift."

So if you are a pole dancer looking for an extra workout that will complement your pole dancing exercise, I strongly recommend looking into Michellates.  Especially if you find yourself struggling with tricks and/or worried about injuries.  As a New Year’s special, Michelle is offering an intro one on one session for 40.00 and a deal on packages to anyone who mentions this article. 

Happy New Year Everybody!

Michellates

Email: michellates@gmail.com 

Facebook: Michelle Blum http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646637997&sk=wall

The Great Goddess

From "Who Cooked the Last Supper?"

by Rosalind Miles

Around 2300 B.C., the chief priest of Sumeria composed a hymn in praise of God.  This celebration of the omnipotent deity, "The Exaltation of Innana", is a song of extraordinary power and passion, and it has come down in history as the world's first known poem.  But it has another claim to world attention - both the first God and this first known priest-poet were female.

For in the beginning, as humankind emerged from the darkness of prehistory, God was a woman.  And what a woman!  The Sumerian inhabitants of what is now Iraq worshipped her in hymns of fearless eroticism, giving thanks for her tangled locks, her "lap of honey", her rich vulva "like a boat of heaven" - as well as for the natural bounty that she "pours forth from her womb" so generously that every lettuce was to be honored as "the Lady's" pubic hair.  But the Supreme being was more than a provider of carnal delights. Equally relished and revered were her warlike rages - to her first priest-poet Enheduanna she was "a dragon, destroying by fire and flood" and "filling rivers with blood".

The power and centrality of the first woman-God is one of the best-kept secrets of history.  We think today of a number of goddesses, all with different names - Isis, Juno, Demeter - and have forgotten what, 5,000 years ago, every schoolgirl knew; no matter what name or guise she took, there was only one God and her name was woman.

     

So arose the belief that woman was divine, not human, gifted with the most sacred and significant power in the world; and so was born the worship of the Great Mother.  The birth of new life out of woman's body was intricately related to the birth of new crops out of the body of the earth, and from the very first, both were interlocked in the concept of a female divinity far more complex and powerful than conventional accounts suggest.

Wedded as we are to an all-loving, all-forgiving stereotype of motherhood, it is at first sight difficult to reconcile this terrifying image of the bad mother with the good.  But both "life" and "death" sides of the Goddess come together without strain in her primary aspect, which is in fact, not motherhood pure and simple, but hersexuality.  As her primary sexual activity she created life; but in sex she demanded man's essence, his self, even his death.  Here again the true nature of the Goddess and her activities have fallen victim to the mealy-mouthed prudery of later ages.  Where referred to at all, they are coyly labeled "fertility" rituals, beliefs or totems, as if the Great Goddess selflessly performed her sexual obligations solely in order to ensure that the earth would be fruitful.  It is time to set the historical record straight.  The fruitfulness of crops and animals was only ever a by-product of the Goddess's own personal sexual activity.  Her sex was hers, the enjoyment of it hers, and as all these early accounts of her emphasize, when she had sex, like any other sensible female, she had it for herself.

The Soul Starved Woman

by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

From "Women Who Run With Wolves"

When the personal soul-life is burnt to ashes, a woman loses the vital treasure and begins to act dry-boned as Death.  In her unconscious, the desire for the red shoes, (a wild joy), not only continues, it swells and floods, and eventually staggers to its feet and takes over, ferocious and famished.  

  To be in a state of hambre del alma, a starved soul, is to be made relentlessly hungry.  Then a woman burns with a hunger for anything that will make her feel alive again.  A woman who has been captured knows no better, and will take something, anything, that seems similar to the original treasure, good or not.  A woman who is starved for her real soul-life may look "cleaned up and combed" on the outside , but on the inside she is filled with dozens of pleading hands and empty mouths.

  In this state, she will take any food regardless of its condition or its effect, for she is trying to make up for past losses.  Yet even though this is a terrible situation, the wild Self will try over and over again to save us.  It whispers, whimpers, calls, drags our fleshless carcasses around in our nightdreams until we become conscious of our condition and take steps to reclaim the treasure.

  We can better understand the woman who dives into excesses - the most common being drugs, alcohol and bad love - and who is driven by soul-hunger by noting the behavior of the starved and ravening animal.  Like the starved soul, the wolf has been portrayed as vicious, ravenous, preying upon the innocent and the unguarded, killing to kill, never knowing when enough is enough.  As you can see, the wolf has a very bad and unearned fairy-tale and real-life reputation.  In actuality, wolves are dedicated social creatures.  The entire pack is instinctively organized so healthy wolves kill only what is needed for survival.  Only when there is trauma to an individual wolf or to the pack does this normal pattern loosen or change.

  There are two instances in which a wolf kills excessively.  In both, the wolf is not well.  A wolf may kill indiscriminately when it is ill with rabies and distemper.  A wolf may kill excessively after a period of famine.  The idea that famine can alter the behavior of creatures is quite a significant metaphor for the soul-starved woman.  Nine times out of ten a woman with a spiritual/psychological problem that causes her to fall into traps and be badly hurt is a woman who has been critically soul-starved in the past.

  Among wolves, famine occurs when snows are high and game is impossible to reach.  Deer and caribou act as snowplows; wolves follow their paths through the high snow.  When the deer are stranded by high snowfalls, no plowing occurs; then the wolves are stranded too.  Famine ensues.  Foe wolves, the most dangerous time for famine is winter.  For woman, a famine may occur at any time, and can come from anywhere, including her own culture.

  For the wolf, famine usually ends in springtime when the snows begin to melt.  Following a famine, the pack may throw itself into a killing frenzy.  Its members won't eat most of the game they kill, and they won't cache it.  They leave it.  They kill much more than they could ever eat, much more than they could ever need.  A similar process occurs when a woman's been captured and starved.  Suddenly free to go, to do, to be, she is in danger of going on a rampage of excesses too...and feels justified about it.  There is something about famine that causes judgement to be blighted.

  So when the treasure of a woman's most soulful life has been burned to ashes, instead of being driven by anticipation, a woman is possessed by voraciousness.  So, for instance, if a woman wasn't permitted to sculpt, she may suddenly begin to sculpt day and night, lose sleep, deprive her innocent body of nutrition, impair her health, and who knows what else.  Maybe she cannot stay awake a moment longer; ah, reach for drugs...for who knows how long she will be free.

  Hambre del alma is also about starvation of the soul's attributes: creativity, sensory awareness, and other instinctual gifts.  If a woman is supposed to be a lady who sits with her knees kissing only each other, if she was raised to keel over in the presence of rough language, if she was never allowed anything to drink but pasteurized milk...then when she is freed, look out!  Suddenly she may not be able to get enough of those sloe-gin fizzes, she may sprawl like a drunken sailor, and her language will peel paint off the walls.  After famine, there is a fear one will again be captured someday.  So one gets while the getting is good.

  Overkill through excesses, or excessive behaviors, is acted out by women who are famished for a life that has meaning and makes sense for them.  When a woman has gone without her cycles or creative needs for long periods of time, she begins a rampage of -you name it- alcohol, drugs, anger, spirituality, oppression of others, promiscuity, study., creation, control, education, orderliness, body fitness, junk food, to name a few areas of common excess.  When women do this, they are compensating for the loss of regular cycles of self-expression, soul-expression, soul-satiation.

  The starving woman endures famine after famine.  She may plan her escape, yet believe the cost of fleeing is too high, that it will cost her too much libido, too much energy.  She may be ill prepared in other ways too, such as educationally, economically, spiritually.  Unfortunately, the loss of treasure and the deep memory of famine may cause us to rationalize that excesses are desirable.  And it is, of course, such a relief and a pleasure to finally be able to enjoy sensation...any sensation.

  A woman newly free from famine just wants to enjoy life for a change.  Her dulled perceptions about the emotional, rational, physical, spiritual, and financial boundaries required for survival endanger her instead.  That is the trouble with famine.  If something looks like it will fill the yearning, a woman will seize it, no questions asked.

The Pole Body - Part 1

For the next two weeks The Pole Story will be featuring a two-part article called “The Pole Body”.  The first part will focus on Nutrition and Fitness (with guest blogger and Integrative Nutritionist Rebekah Fuller) and the second will focus on Strengthening and Fitness (with the help of expert Pilates Instructor Michelle Blum).  The goal is to help dancers learn new ways to get into optimal shape, whether it be for competitions or simply for personal satisfaction.  And of course, with the holidays right around the corner, it doesn’t hurt to have a little fitness advice!

I have had the pleasure of working closely with both of these women and they are not only knowledgeable, but deeply passionate about their work.  They both have a pole dancing background, and Rebekah, in addition to being a nutritionist, is also a pole dance instructor. (She also came up with the title for this series!)  Rebekah and Michelle are also very interested in the mind-body connection and this is reflected in their work.  So if you are looking for someone to help take your pole dance training to the next level,  or even if you are just interested in getting physically and psychologically healthier,  consider checking out Fuller Health and Michellates.  They are both offering specials to anyone who references these articles.  So without further ado, let's see what Rebekah has to say!

As a Pole Dancing Instructor and Holistic Health Counselor in Nutrition, I am an advocate for eating for energy and maintaining lean, strong and healthy curves from the inside out. I became a dance instructor at S Factor prior to my studies and practice in nutrition. While I just assumed my up & down waves of energy and lack of focus at times were normal, it was not until I really learned about nutrition that I realized food changes everything.

I will say that prior to my education in nutrition I already did eat fairly healthy and was not oblivious to food and labels. I understood the concept of macronutrients: protein, carbs and fats. I felt I had a pretty decent grasp on eating well and steered clear of fried foods, sodas and candy. But my awareness and knowledge of what I was putting into my body only went so far.

I didn’t realize how much sugar I was consuming with all its disguised names. How it was and IS secretly in foods I would have never imagined it to be: Fat free milk and yogurt, tomato sauce, ketchup, on the go energy bars and even healthy cereals, just to name of few. I got sick a few times a year. I suffered from congestion, irregular digestion, waves of energy then fatigue, acne and simply did not feel that I was at my optimal health.

Then, I discovered that food is medicine and there are so many different ways to heal the human body through food and healthy lifestyle. I wanted to share with you some of the ways I keep my “Pole Body” lean, clean and strong.

Check out my Top Ten Ways to Increase Energy:

1. Reduce or eliminate caffeine.

·      The ups and downs of caffeine include dehydration and blood sugar ups and downs, making mood swings more frequent.

2. Drink water.

·      Most Americans are chronically dehydrated. Before you go to sugar or caffeine, have a glass of water and wait a few minutes to see what happens.

·      Caution: Soft drinks are now America’s number one source of added sugar.

3. Eat dark leafy green vegetables.

·      Green is associated with spring, the time of renewal and refreshing, vital energy.  Greens are full of vitamins and nutrients and great for improving circulation, lifting the spirit,              purifying the blood and strengthening the immune system.

·      Broccoli, collards, bok choy, kale, mustard greens, broccoli rabe, arugula and dandelion greens are some of the many to choose from.

4. Use gentle sweets.

·      Avoid sugar and chemicalized artificial sweeteners.

·      Use gentle sweeteners like maple syrup, brown rice syrup, and stevia.

·      Also eat sweet vegetables such as yams, carrots and beets.

 

5. Get physical activity.

·      Start with simple activities, like walking or yoga—start with 10 minutes a day and increase.

6. Get more sleep and rest and relaxation.

·      When you are tired or stressed, your body will crave energy.

·      These cravings are often a result of being sleep-deprived, going to bed late, waking up early, for months and years on end.

 7.Evaluate the amount of animal food you eat.

·      Eating too much meat, dairy, chicken and eggs can lead to low energy. So can eating too little! Experiment. Respect your body’s individuality.

8. Take time for yourself.

·      Find activities that restore your energy, such as a walk, a bath, a museum, a movie or whatever you enjoy, and schedule a weekly date with yourself to do these things!

9. Get in touch with your spirituality.

·      We are spiritual beings in a physical world.

·      Find ways to get in touch with your spiritual side, be it meditating, dancing, drawing, church, temple or being in nature.

10. Get rid of relationships that drain you.

·      People can drain you of your energy. It doesn’t mean that they are bad, but it is good to notice who drains you and why.

·      See if you can transform those relationships by communicating and setting boundaries, or end the relationship.

By improving eating habits, understanding your body better, and feeling confident in preparing better food for you and your loved ones you will experience an increase in overall energy and happiness in your life. If you would like to learn more about what foods are right for you, please check out the sweet offer below.

As a big thank you to Claire for featuring this healthy article in her fabulous blog, I am offering a COMPLIMENTARY CONSULTATION to anyone that mentions this article in their inquiry. To take advantage of this offer please visit my website at www.fullerhealth.net and click on the Health History link. Be one of the first 10 people to act and receive $100 off the first month of working one-on-one with me as your Holistic Health Counselor. Salud!

Rebekah Fuller

rebekah@fullerhealth.net

Health Counselor in Nutrition

www.fullerhealth.net

My Favorite Bedtime Story

It's by Cosi Fabian

Eve was not the first woman created!

According to Hebraic tradition, the first woman "made by God" was - Lilith.

She was created from blood and dust, as was Adam before her, and so felt 

herself to be his equal.

So originally it was "Adam and Lilith" in the Garden of Eden!

Everything was fine between them, until it was time for sex.

For then Lilith incurred the wrath of God and Adam for an act of great defiance:

she refused to lie beneath Adam in the "missionary position"

insisted upon by the patriarchs.

Lilith preferred what the historians call the "woman-superior position" - 

and I call the "Isis Squat".

Lilith would not relent.

"Out, out of the Garden!" cried God.

"Out," said Adam.

And so Lilith was banished.  She went to live in the caves by the Red Sea,

where she coupled with demons.

Presumably, in any position she wished.

With My Naked Eye

I did a photo shoot a few weeks ago with a very talented artist by the name of Gregory Beylerian.  He was interested in capturing some images of women on their poles at home and he was especially interested in capturing the emotionality and the sensuality of the dance – much more so than the tricks and technical skills.  The experience was…sublime.  With the exception of my classmates, I rarely dance for others.  And when I dance, I let an extremely sensual, extremely erotic part of myself come out to play.  This makes me feel equally powerful and vulnerable.  So sharing that part of myself with a near stranger in my living room and subsequently my bedroom was initially nerve-wracking.  In addition, my studio doesn’t have mirrors, so I have absolutely no idea what I look like when I move.  When I told Gregory this he said, “I’ll be your mirror.”  Eek.

            But as it turns out, I had no trouble at all dropping into that sensual, sexual part of myself.  And after the first couple of songs (and ok fine, one glass of wine) I found that I really enjoyed sharing my sensual self with the camera.  In class we use a chair and the person sitting in the chair as a reference point for our dance.  The chair helps us to focus our dance in a certain direction and reminds us that we are telling a story to someone else.  In this case, the camera was the reference point.  I teased and taunted and hid from and seduced the camera with my eyes, my hair, my hips, my back, my breasts and my ass – especially my ass.  I told my story with my body.  And while I was doing all of that a funny thing happened.  I began to discover that I really enjoyed it.  There was something exhilarating and liberating about exposing that part of myself to someone else.  And rather than feeling like an object of the camera’s gaze I actually felt like the camera was the object of my gaze.  That I was pushing out my sexuality, owning it and forcing it onto the viewers, whomever they might be.  While certainly Gregory put me at ease with his demeanor, I uncovered a part of myself that I did not know existed.  At the same time, there were these moments of discomfort where some sort of old programming about what is and isn’t appropriate for a woman to be doing with her body would pop into my head (usually when I was pushing things a little bit further – pulling off a layer or rolling around in the bed).  In those moments the question “Is this bad?” would rattle around my brain for a few seconds.  Literally.  And then I would drop my head into a lazy circle, arch my back, circle my hips and think “Well it feels too good in my body to be bad.  So F*@k it.” 

            At the very end of the shoot my boyfriend came home.   I was leaning provocatively against the pole and Gregory was clicking away.  “Hi my love!” I called out.  Immediately Gregory invited him in to see what we were doing.  And again, I was struck at how comfortable I was with my boyfriend watching me be photographed in lingerie.  The whole experience made me realize that the erotic, sensual part of myself is not separate from the rest of me at all – it isn’t something that I can only turn on for dance class. It’s actually fully integrated into my being.  It’s a part of who I am - a big part.  I’m not ashamed of it.  In fact, I love to share it.  It may sound strange, but it almost feels as though the photo shoot took apart a dam in my stream of sensuality.  Whereas before I could stop up that stream after dance class, or I maybe felt that I had to out of fear or shame of it flowing out into the world, now I don’t need to - or want to.  I know better.

            It goes without saying that a big part of this realization has to do with the kind and  almost sacred reverence Gregory has for the female form.  He makes a woman feel beautiful and safe, which allows her to unwrap her sexuality at her own pace and feel empowered in the process.    He quickly understands the way in which a particular woman moves her body, and captures those movements so that her natural beauty is highlighted.  He is a genius when it comes to lighting.  His photos reflect an understanding of what it means to capture a moment, and then to create a work of art. But it’s more than that.  He sees his subjects not just through his camera lens, but through the lens of his heart (which is, after all, the mark of a true artist).  Because the technological aspects of photography are second nature to him, he is free to focus on the story that is being told by the woman in front of him.  And because of who he is, you want to tell him that story. 

 For more information on how to schedule a shoot with Gregory Beylerian please email him at:

http://www.gregorybeylerian.com/ or call #323 385 5200

Did you hear WHO was at the California Pole Dance Championships?

Ohhhh the California Pole Dance Championship was splendid!  I had the immense pleasure of hanging out in Bad Kitty’ s VIP box and mingling with the dancers backstage.  So much fun!  The setting at The Avalon was the perfect mixture of lounge and theater and the show was sold out.  A big thanks to Anjeldust for putting it all together.  It was gorgeous. 

I haven’t been to a showcase since The Pole Convention in DC and, once again, I was struck by the differences in each contestant’s choreography.  Some dancers’ routines were more technical and elegant while others were extremely sensual and erotic.  Madeline Eve’s tender and angry dance (dedicated to anyone who had lost someone) was heart wrenching to watch.  She poured so much emotion into each movement.  It was a delicious reminder of how pole dancing is as much about emotional expression as it is about skill.  Erika Labansat playfully danced her way in and out of a coffin and Flying Laura Martin lived up to her name by finishing her dance with a dizzying inverted spin combo.  My boyfriend actually leaned over to me and asked “Why do I feel like she isn’t holding on to the pole with anything?”  There were fantastic performances by Felix Cane, Bad Azz, Alethea Austin, Jamilla Deville, Estee Zakar and Amber Kittle, last year’s champion. 

            If you had the chance to attend the Champagne Meet and Greet just before the show then you know that Felix Cane was there, signing autographs.  You might have also seen all of the super sexy posters decorating the lobby.   Some were of Felix Cane, some were of Stripperella (striptease heroine extraordinaire), and some were of Felix Cane as Vixxxena, Striperella’s trusty sidekick.   Yes, that’s right!  Felix Cane is officially a cartoon character!  Named Vixxenna!   If you’re not in the know (and I was not) comic book genius Stan Lee (president of Marvel Comics, invented Spiderman) and artist Anthony Lee Winn (he is responsible for every one of those drawings at the CPDC) have teamed up to create a rather sassy and scintillating graphic novel/wireless comic book called “Stripperella”.  The premise?  Stripper by night and super heroine… by day and night! Her superpower?  Why seduction, of course!  Personally I’m looking forward to seeing how this comic strip helps shape the public’s perception of female sexuality into something a little more liberated, powerful and playful.  I had the chance to speak briefly with Anthony Lee Winn, and when I asked him what drew him to the Stripperella character he said, “Empowerment .  It’s about empowering women through their femininity, through their sexuality.”  Couldn’t have said it better myself.