Superman & Straight Leg Release

I finally managed to do the “Superman” and “Straight Leg Release” during pole dance class over the weekend. I’ve never managed to do either simply because the poles used at Talent Hub were of the smaller diameter (i.e. thinner). Anyway, I muscled up the courage with loads of encouragement from Sam to try out both routines during class and it worked beautifully! It’s not exactly the actual pose as we had to modify it to cater to my less-than-fleshy thighs i.e. I had to “over cross” my thigh grip instead of clipping it at the ankles. The pain and the bruises on the inner thighs bear testimony to the amount of effort required to keep up.

With the “Superman” (albeit at the floor level and going in from the reverse crucifix) and “Straight Leg Release” conquered (more or less), we’ll probably move into doing it in the air or higher up the pole and moving onto the “Handstand” variation and “Arrow & Bow” soon.

I find myself progressing and improving so much further under Sam’s tutelage plus looking forward to each class every week. Given the small class size at Bantus, Sam is able to devote a lot of time and attention to each student (hey, there are only 5 of us!). I also found that the space at Bantus very “liberating” and “free” which in turn fosters greater creativity in the dance chorography and is less inhibiting. But the most important aspect of the endless space in Bantus is the markedly reduced fear of crashing into someone else or “twang-ing” the pole next to yours.

I also discovered that rubbing on bruises, awfully painful as it may be in addition to producing a less than aesthetic picture (it looks angry, red and swells up), brings about faster healing times. I’ve noticed that the bruises disappear in 2 days or so vis-à-vis 5 days if I don’t do anything. The Chinese believes that rubbing on the bruise disperses the pooled blood underneath back into our blood system.