Category: Pole Dancing

Pagan’s Pole spent a pleasurable afternoon and evening at the Manchester Heats of UKAPP last night.

Tracy, Lisa, Elena and Tegan enjoyed watching the Heat held in Altrincham, in the fantastic new venue: The Cinnamon Club.

UKAPP is now in it’s 3rd Year and it’s a Pagan’s Pole tradition to go and support the Manchester Heats. UKAPP is one of the most successful UK competitions, and as always last night did not disappoint.

The competitors of every category had made such an effort, and the standard of performance was as always incredibly high. From Swan Lake, to Red Riding Hood, it really was all going on in Manchester!

As always in UKAPP, it wasn’t just the competitors that had worked hard to please. The guest performers were absolutely outstanding. Jess Leanne Norris, Karen Chaundy, the Bombshells and Suzie Q and Toby J put on the most amazing pole acts, that left audience members emotional, joyful, astounded, and everything else in between.

UKAPP has a reputation for its fun and lively atmosphere and I think every person there would agree that each year it just keeps getting bigger and better. Well done to Kat and Stacey for another marvellous comp, and well done to every single competitor of the evening. We now look forward to watching the winners all compete against each other in the final.

Yes Folks, I’ve finally done it! For those of you who know me well, you will be aware that I have been constantly saying how I need to get my level 5 AAP grading filmed and into The Pole Dance Community asap!

Yet time has a habit of flying by, and days turn into weeks far too quickly! However I am pleased to announce that I finally roped my partner into holding a video camera while I completed my Level 5 assessment and forwarded these videos to The PDC. I am even more pleased to announce that I have passed the assessment and now a fully graded Level 5 PDC approved dancer! Many thanks to Sam Remmer of The PDC for her time, and for excusing my new puppy who really wanted to join in on my exam!

Tracy, Katie and Heather were able to attend Deb Riley’s workshop in Milton Keynes on the 5th June 2011.

Despite the Paganettes aching from an exhausting circus training session, the girls were willing to put their all into the workshop.

The workshop began with basic spins on spinning pole, simple enough? Hell no! Even a basic fireman suddenly became difficult (particularly with arms that felt like they were dropping off!). However, it wasn’t long before we’d progressed from spinning pole firemen to spinning pole handsprings!

The workshop was amazing fun, and Deb being her usual bubbly, gorgeous self kept the paganette’s morale up. A thoroughly enjoyable class!

It began on a scorching hot Friday afternoon…Tracy, Heather and Katie set off to Milton Keynes full of excitement and anticipation, knowing that they were all about to experience something new and marvellous!

After a 5 hour drive we finally arrived at our hostesses house. Emma, instructor at MK Pole Fitness had kindly offered to put us up, and she made us feel welcome and at ease immediately. We enjoyed a lovely evening with her and Leanne (also instructor at MK Pole Fitness) and rested up ready for our busy pole and circus sessions.

The following morning began with an awesome shopping trip around Milton Keynes central and the nicest jacket potato mankind has ever experienced! We then proceeded to the MK Pole Fitness Studio where we jammed with old friends Luke, Leanne and Emma, and met new friends…most impressive of all being a 13 year old young lady, Megan, who could really pole….AMAZING!!!! We were also introduced to Hannah, head instructor and owner of MK Pole Fitness. Hannah was soon demonstrating her abilities on the pole, and left us in awe with her grace and strength….yet another AMAZING!!!!

After a 2 hour pole session we headed to the circus studio…and were astounded with how beautiful and relaxed the whole place was. Hannah was a patient and marvellous teacher, explaining and demonstrating everything with such ease. We began with basic MSE on the hoop and soon found our hands in tatters!! We followed this with some Hoop tricks and poses, all of which were highly enjoyable but worked us hard!

After hoop we began on the silks. Again we started with some basic MSE and followed with tricks and poses. We soon discovered that silk work is extremely tiring and hard on the body, despite this it truly was a fantastic and fun workout. The last piece of equipment was the trapeze, probably the easier of the 3. We were able to experiment on the trapeze and even managed some doubles work, which was fabulous!

After all that exercise we were only able to chill in front of Britain’s Got Talent that night and allow our bodies some recovery time. The following day we said goodbye to our fantastic new friends and headed off to the Polenastics studio for a workshop with the one and only Deb Riley. At this point we were all aching real bad from the day before, yet we worked hard and our spinning handsprings, and flag to brass monkeys were pretty good! Deb is such fun to be around that we couldn’t help smile the whole way through despite our aching limbs!

The journey home was filled with many ‘ouch’ sounds, but we were all in great spirit. Our weekend had been fantastic and we thank everyone who helped to make it so special.

Please check out our gallery for images of this experience!

Tracey Simmonds, one of the UK’s top pole dancer’s, was my first ever pole idol. Indeed after my first ever pole lesson, I remember coming home and googling pole dancing and it was Tracey Simmonds that made me say “I want to be like that on a pole!”, she became my inspiration.

So you can imagine how excited I was top hear that Tracey was in the UK offering masterclasses. I promptly booked myself onto the nearest course venue: London, some 5.5 hours by train.

Although excited I also had the ‘just another masterclass’ feeling. Indeed each and every class has been an enjoyable experience but none has been quite as enjoyable or rewarding as this one. Tracey was keen to get the most out of each student, and seem to pick up on strengths instantly; she also gave so much of her time to everyone in the class. Thanks to the organiser’s of that class, numbers were small which enabled a huge amount of pole time and practice. This was the first masterclass where I was able to dictate what I wanted to learn, and was assisted in this matter no end, by a lady who had the patience of a saint and was stronger than an ox!

I came away from this class feeling a natural high that can only be achieved by doing something you love so much. My body bruised and aching but my soul in a very happy place! I would recommend this masterclass to any pole enthusiast of an advanced level. Tracey Simmonds truly is inspirational and just an amazing pole dancer!

The 16th April 2011 was a date that the Paganettes had been anticipating for some time. After rehearsals twice weekly, finally The North Wales Mardi Gras 2011 was occurring and excitement was stirring within the ladies preparing to get up and perform their magic to the crowds.

The dancer’s at this event were: Pagan, Mz KT, Heather, Nikki, Seren, Crystal, Rose and Liz. Each lady has a unique style and technique that can leave the audience smiling and in a state of awe. And indeed this would appear to be the effect upon the audience at this event. It was commented on by a few person’s at how the crowds just seem to appear from nowhere and congregate as soon as the ladies took to the poles and began their demonstrations.

Despite the extremely slippery poles (thanks to previous performers wearing oils and deciding to play with the poles!) the girls were able to pull off some amazing tricks and get the crowd cheering. I cannot help but feel extremely proud of them all for their persistence and ability, and send a huge thankyou for all the effort that every dancer put into their performance…you girls are awesome 🙂

Nikki represented Pagan’s Pole at The All Wales Pole Championships 2011 in The Advanced Category and was awarded 3rd place. Nikki’s rock chick performance to Bon Jovi’s ‘It’s My Life’ had the whole crowd cheering and clapping. In her usual style, Nikki smiled through the whole of her performance, cheering and screaming with the crowd as she pulled off the amazing noodle to end her routine. Massive congratulations to Nikki for her achievement 🙂

Heather Walker is no stranger to dance competitions and has now well and truly earned her recognition within the pole dance industry. Heather’s AWPC 2011 performance was nothing short of mesmerising, capturing the audience from the very beginning with her melancholy and dramatic routine to Marilyn Manson’s ‘Sweet Dreams’.

Heather faced some stiff competition within this category and we’re all so proud of her achievement. When asked how she felt Heather replied: “the AWPC gave me a huge buzz…but when stepped on the stage I was shaking like a leaf! … there were parts of my routine that went wrong yet I still loved the thrill of performing, and was overall very pleased with my performance. I watched the other girls in my category and was in awe of some of the things that they did, and they all were amazing. When it came to announcing the results, I wasn’t sure how I’d done, but I didn’t think I’d won. When it was announced I couldn’t believe it. As I received my prize the judges gave me some lovely comments and I was ecstatic” Heather continued to say ” I’m going to keep training to improve and become a lot stronger. I would like to thank my instructor Tracy, as I wouldn’t be where I am today without her. She is a fabulous teacher and deserves a lot of praise”.

Heather enjoyed a ‘pole-tastic’ 2010 and it would appear that 2011 may hold even more joy and achievement for her. We congratulate Heather in her latest title and look forward to seeing Heather perform and compete again soon 🙂