Welcome to Miss Fit Academy's blog! MFA is Nashville's leading pole dance studio and aerial boutique! Visit our official website or call us at (615) 891-3910.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Between tricks - using floor work, dance and transitions

We can all do the same tricks, but it’s the "in betweens" that keep our routines interesting and unique.  Not only do we need them to tie together tricks nicely, they are also great for building stamina.  If all we did was singular tricks we’d never have a chance to truly live in each moment to the music, or take much needed breathers on the floor between difficult combos.  Here are some tips on using each.

FLOOR WORK

Floor Work
It’s great when you are feeling extra flirty or need to take down the level of physical intensity before doing another set of tricks.  Nothing is sexier or more primal than a woman on the floor dancing into the ground!  However, try not to repeat the same moves over and over as you go through your routine or freestyle.  You can roll, writhe, slide, and grind in so many different ways.  Challenge yourself to roll differently than you did the time before next time you do floor work.  It could be as simple as one bent knee instead of two, or rolling over the shoulder instead of on your stomach.  Take your time and live on the floor for a bit.  Don’t rush to get from one pole to another, but let that moment breathe.  Feel the floor and melt into it as opposed to slamming yourself on the floor.  Keep it smooth and effortless.  Unless that’s what you’re going for in your dance…some like it rough!


DANCE
Dance
Dancing is a given.  There is no rush like getting a new trick, but there is no joy like being able to free your body in dance.  Dance is the best way to paint a picture for your routine and put the colors into a sketch of tricks.  Dance is where expression and emotion come in and creates a versatile palate of visual beauty to choose from where you can sprinkle tricks at your choosing.  The best way to dance is from a place of emotional honesty, which you can do no matter what your skill level.  Your inspiration could come from a song, or maybe you’re going through something you’d like to express and find the song later.  Either way really listen to the song and don’t let it be your background music.  Feel the hard sounds and the soft nuances that characterize the song and let your dance embody this.  For example if you’re rocking out to a quick guitar riff your movement should be lively and quick to match.  If you’re dancing to a song with a strong beat and slow lyrics you could play with the beat and accent some hard hitting moves and then play into the melodic voice by holding out a movement longer to accentuate that detail.  If you give a pole class one song to choreograph or freestyle to, no two dances would be exactly the same and that is what makes it beautiful and forever interesting.

TRANSITIONS

Transitions
Transitions are what bring the entire thing together in a polished way.  There are pole trick transitions, transitions on and off the pole, transitions from pole to pole, and transitions in and out of the floor.  Whatever you create a transition for you want to take the path of least resistance, with minimal amounts of readjustments or jerkiness.  Part of it is execution and part of it is connecting choreography. 

Executing a transition smoothly takes experience.  For example if you are climbing above your leg for the first time you might use your momentum to try to swing your torso up and many hand readjustments before you are in the final position, but a more experienced dancer will have the strength to lift the torso using the core and legs with the least amount of hand adjustments.  Give yourself enough time to complete the transitions instead of cutting them short to get to the next move.  If you are in an inside leg hang and want to bring your back leg forward to switch your body around to the other side you have to make sure you allow your inside leg hang to rotate open before going back the other direction or you will be fighting against your natural momentum.   

To make these transitions realistic, the choreography needs to be chosen correctly.  If you needed to go to a pole on your left, clearly you would not roll to the right.  Find the cleanest way to get to the floor or move to a pole so you can enjoy it and it doesn’t feel or look forced. 

Transitions require a lot of thinking on your part as a dancer or choreographer.  Most of these choices are logical but can take some problem solving.  Consider your transitions next time you put two tricks together or move from one area in the space to another. 

- written by JAG