Happy campers after our private class with the one and only Bobbi

What a week! It included pole and slap workshops with Llush, Porsche and Bobbi, and of course ended with the Bobbi’s White Diamond Affair at Avalon last night, which was a total blast.

In the end, I did 6 workshops in total, as well as a private class with Bobbi. That’s 10 hours within 4 days, which at my level of fitness feels like a pole boot camp!

On Tuesday, I went in for Llush’s Pole Soirée workshop. Before I even talk about her workshop, I must take a moment to say that the woman is Jessica Rabbit in the flesh! She is a statuesque 5’10″ of ridonkulously hot legs, boobs, and ass!

Llush doing ‘The Crazy Horse’ pose

As one of the taller girls at the studio, I always get inspired when I meet pole dancers taller than me who can rock their height with ease. (Cleo the Hurricane is also very tall and leggy, and that woman is simply on another level.)

The workshop was only supposed to be for inter 1 level and above, but included things like a shoulder dismount from ankle grab, twist spins, and some gorgeous floor work and transitions. It ended with a mini routine that incorporated all those moves, along with a starting pose that Llush had seen at The Crazy Horse in Paris. So now we can channel a little Parisian showgirl style too!

Wednesday started with the Chole (Chair & Pole) workshop with Bobbi that I was a bit worried about as it was for Prep Advanced level and above. Also, it was my first time participating in one of her workshops, so I was extra nervous!

I’ve left classes feeling demoralized before when the moves were too hard for me but fortunately this was not one of those classes. It turned out to be really fun and challenging in a good way, though my good friend Murphy’s Law decided to show up in the form of recurring foot cramps!!

Throughout the class, the arches of my feet were seizing up! In the middle of floorwork, while I was on the chair, up on the pole near the ceiling, you name it!  I was so freaking mortified.

Because you know the solution to muscle cramps right? You need to stretch them back, aka flex the foot!

I mean, what are the bloody odds that I literally need to flex my feet on the one day that Bobbi is teaching in the room??! Total FML moment.

Thankfully, my feet stopped spazzing out by the next workshop, which was Advanced Lapdance  with Llush. I partnered Po.lita on stage and because we were sitting so near to her, both of us kept getting super distracted by the sight of Llush’s perfectly pert bottom peeking at us from under her red leopard printed chaps.

After her Advanced Lapdance, I realized 2 things: that every Slap routine we’ve ever learned at Bobbi’s has been PG-rated in comparison, and a sudden understanding of the reason why men willingly pay so much money for a 5-minute lapdance. Because if you can do it the way Llush teaches it, no straight man will ever want you to stop.

My husband thinks very highly of Llush now, by the way.

Moving on to Thursday, aka the day when the word ‘tired’ did no justice.

So, Thursday started at 12pm with a private class by Bobbi! She usually doesn’t teach privates when she comes here for workshops so this was a truly golden opportunity.

She taught just a couple this tine round and Anni, Sharol and I were super privileged to be her first batch private students during this trip!

The 3 of us had agreed beforehand that all we wanted to focus on was dance. No tricks, no inversions, no routines. After all, any of our instructors can help us with that.

So after our warmup, we told Bobbi that all we wanted was to get ‘Bobbified’.

To which she requested that we show her a little freestyle so she’d know where to start.

Gulp! Freestyle? In front of Bobbi? Might as well shine a giant spotlight on me naked! But we did the best we could, and she explained the importance of maintaining good lines.

Then we proceeded to spend the rest of the time working on headrolls, pole walks and floor work. Because it’s all the little things that make a dancer stand out, more than the big things!

After the private, I went back to work before coming back to the studio for Porsche’s Secrets of a Champion workshop. By then, I’d started to feel like taking a nap instead.

Porsche is really dynamic though, and besides being able to break down moves and modify her teaching pace really well, has an excellent knowledge of anatomy which always intrigues me. She’s trained in rehab Pilates as well, which I wish I had the chance to do with her!

Before and after Porsche’s splits training

Porsche taught us a short floorwork and pole combo which we filmed, then she showed us how to isolate our ‘turnout’ muscles via a few reps of butt-crunching exercises.

Then we proceeded to work on each move within the combo using our newly identified and very sore turnout muscles. Not only does engaging them help in making lines look better, they also help with flattening split moves too.

Then we filmed the whole combo again to compare the before and after, and I could already feel the difference.

Porshe’s next workshop immediately after was her Signature Flex moves, which was like a more advanced extension of the previous workshop with deeper stretches and emphasis on identifying which muscles to engage.

She had us holding way more deep hip flexor stretches rather than focusing solely on hamstring stretches, and explained the different ways to stretch not just out muscles, but also fascia and nerves!

And did you know that apparently if you massage and loosen the muscles at the base of your neck, (she suggested rolling on a tennis ball) your hamstrings will also loosen too? That’s one more reason to use my rotating neck massager even more from now on!

Porsche demonstrating her super-human ability with her ‘Machine Gun’ move

She also showed us how to improve on flexibility-based moves like the Allegra, Jade, and the ‘machine gun’ which is just totes cray on too many levels for me to handle right now.

By this time, I’d actually developed a full-on tension headache from just being way too achey and tired. But I still enjoyed every minute.

So it’s really a wonder that I even made it back to the studio again on Friday for my last workshop, and the one that I was frankly looking forward to the most: pole grooves with Bobbi.

You see, last year I’d gone a little too gung-ho during the Cleo the hurricane’s floorwork workshop and pulled a freaking shoulder muscle that night, just before Bobbi’s workshop the next day.

Since I couldn’t even turn my head with out pain, I had to sell off my spot in Bobbi’s pole grooves workshop to a friend and just watch it instead, which is a form of torture in itself because I was dying to participate instead!

And after waiting an entire year to do Pole Grooves with Bobbi, (and even despite being beat beyond belief!) it was as fabulous as I’d hoped it would be!

We did a good few rounds of the routine, and by the time we filmed the very last round, I was so exhausted that my right arm actually just gave out mid-combo and I dropped right off the pole.

Which is why I have an embarrassingly terrible video of myself stumbling through all the basic moves in that beautiful routine with bent legs, flexed feet and a pained look on my face . But that’s okay, cos at least I’ve successfully completed Pole Grooves with Bobbi now!

And after pushing myself way beyond my body’s comfortable endurance level, I’m well prepared to jump back into doing the all-you-can-pole promo at the studio in term 3, which started today.

The thing is, I’ll be missing the first whole 2 weeks of term so I will have a lot of catching up to do. And that’s cos yesterday I got my tired self on a plane and flew to Paris with my husband for a work event this week. And since its so nearby, we’re taking a short vacation in London next week.

So of course I’ll be checking out a couple of pole studios in Paris and London…!

Last year, Bobbi brought Chilli and Cleo (The Hurricane), who’d just won Miss Pole Dance Australia. They were here to judge the Miss Pole Dance SEA competition.

This year, there’s no competition but the studio has organized ’Bobbi’s White Diamond Affair’, which will be a mega pole and Slap showcase featuring both our local and Australian instructors. It’ll be held at Avalon this Saturday night, and I can’t wait!

But back to the workshops. Between Bobbi, Chilli, Llush, and this year’s MPD Australia, Porsche, there were 10 workshops to choose from!

If I only had the budget (and stamina) I’d love to do all of them. But that would cost as much as promotional return airplane tickets to Tokyo, and I’m not rolling in that much excess cash. Sigh.

Can’t believe this was a year ago already!

But then again, Bobbi and gang only come round once a year! So I bit the bullet, (or rather, my wallet) and signed up for 4 workshops: Chole with Bobbi, Advanced Lapdance with Llush (of the endless legs fame), Secrets of a Champion with Porsche, and of course, Pole Grooves with Bobbi.

The first 2 workshops are for Prep Advanced and above only, *gulp* and though I’m technically in Prep, I consider myself under the ‘partially CMI’ category. (That’s ‘Cannot Make It’, if you’re not Singaporean and didn’t snigger at the acronym) So uh, anxious!!!

But I know for a fact that Bobbi is lovely and warm, having caught a glimpse of her teaching a couple of her workshops here last year, as well as having interviewed her. (If you haven’t already read the awesome interviews I did with Bobbi last year, please do! She’s utterly candid and frank in them.)

And so I know that if all else fails and I can’t execute some of the tricks in her Chole (Chair and Pole) workshop tomorrow, she’ll at least be nice about it.

In the meantime, here are some interviews with Porsche, Llush, and Chilli that I did for the Bobbi’s Singapore blog:

Secrets of a Champion (Porsche’s expert tips on competition training)

Time to get Llush (Llush shares how to get your Sexy on for performances)

It’s getting Chilli hot in here (Chilli once set a dude’s lap on fire while performing.. top that for awkward stage moments!)

And if you haven’t already read Bobbi’s interviews:

All About the Pole (Bobbi on the most important qualities for dancers and instructors)

All About the Bobbi (Life before she became The Bobbi! With fabulous old photos of her)

No, no, not like this…

I love having long hair. Actually, I love having super long hair!

I like to twirl the ends around my fingers and curl them in different directions… Makes me feel all girly and stuff.

But super long hair is heavy, and really hard to whip around in a head roll while pole dancing or doing floor work.

There are women who can whip it like pros, but unfortunately I am not one of them. (Bobbi’s hair is almost down to her hips, and her head rolls and hair flips are the stuff legends are made of.)

So ever since I started doing Beginner Pole Grooves, I’ve had to dance with my hair up in a ponytail. Reason being that BPG is FULL of head rolls, and if I were to let my hair down I’d probably have developed severe whip lash by now.

Plus, a high ponytail has its own natural momentum and is really easy to swing around!

After a while though, I started getting hair envy. I mean, I wear my hair down all the time anyway so why not let it down when I dance right? Having it up all the time just felt kinda boring.

Before: below waist, After: below boobs

Seriously though,  swinging around hair that long for more than 2 minutes is enough to make me feel nauseous and wanting to throw up. (And I’m not even joking, because it’s really happened before and it would actually be quite funny if it weren’t so very, very sad!!)

Something had to give.

And so I cut off the last 5″ of my hair… those 5 extra inches that give it that special, super-long appearance. *sniff*

Ok, so it’s not like I did a Britney or anything, but I have a long *sorry!* history of having Rapunzel syndrome, and I can feel the difference!

But on the bright side, now I can do this without making myself dizzy:

No, that’s not the original song that was playing but you get the idea.  I’m concentrating really hard on remembering the moves while making the effort that it takes to get my hair out of my face. That’s multi tasking on a high level…

Also, I have to say that head rolls are probably the hardest thing to master. They’re deceptively simple, but really not easy to nail. Mine are still nowhere near as polished or sexy as I’d like them to be, but ah well.. at least it’s a head *couldn’t resist* start!

I love this photo meme!

…And I so look forward to the day I finally no longer suck at it!

Last night was the last lesson for the term, which means I’ve completed my second round of Prep Advanced. Sadly, I spent most of the class flailing around and feeling like a loser Prep student. At times like this, I try to remind myself that it’s not all about tricks.

But it’s tough.

In general, I take twice as long to progress as the average student.

I completed and moved up from Beginners within one round, from Inter 1 after two rounds, from Inter 2 after three rounds, and from Inter 3 after four rounds.

Given that track record, I’ll need to complete at least five rounds (or more) of Prep Advanced before I feel competent in it. Which comforts me, since this is just my 2nd completed round and I still can’t fully do the routine in its entirety yet, let alone perform it. (And unless I can perform something nicely, I refuse to even try it during performance week.)

Heck, I don’t even have a single video of myself  attempting butchering this term’s routine during class! Yes, I know that you need to see what it is you’re doing so you can improve on it, but the way I struggle through it right now is just so painful that even I don’t want to watch!

Ironically, I do feel like I’ve improved a lot since my first round. At least now I finally got the Tammy, a semi-decent DVD Cover, and I can do a handstand up to the pole.

So now that being in Prep Advanced is slightly less terrifying, I signed up for the all-you-can-pole promo again next term in a bid to increase my stamina. I reckon that since I’ve long stopped running and haven’t renewed my yoga membership, I can afford the energy to do 7-10 hours of pole a week.

I’m not terribly ambitious, and I have no big aspirations to seriously compete or anything. All I want is to be able to perform a Prep Advanced routine beautifully and effortlessly-looking. At the rate I’m going, it might take another whole year though!

Pole Dance Tokyo’s reception area

*I’d planned to write this much, much sooner. In fact, I’d planned to write it from my hotel room immediately after doing the drop-in, but Tokyo is way too exciting of a city for me to focus long enough to articulate my thoughts into words!*

Pole Dance Tokyo is a 5-minute walk from Akasaka-Mitsuke station along the Ginza line, just 5 stations from Shibuya. I took the subway by myself, followed the directions on their website, and found it without too much trouble. (I did walk past the sign and had to back track, but apparently that’s pretty common)

The studio is located in the basement of the building and is a long room with 10 poles which if I’m not mistaken, are 45mm x-poles.

I’d signed up for 2 back-to-back classes: Beginner-Intermediate, and Showgirl Dance. Both are 75 minutes long and taught by Diana, who mostly teaches in Japanese but speaks English.

When I showed up at 6.45 for the 7pm Beginner-Intermediate class, I was the first person in the studio besides the Japanese-speaking receptionist. After I got changed in the cozy locker area that as an attached sink and bathroom, the other students started to arrive. One of them spoke fluent English and helpfully advised me on grabbing a yoga mat and where to get pole cleaning rags.

Beginner-Intermediate started promptly at 7pm with a pretty rigorous warm-up of almost 30 minutes. I’m talking push-up drills, squats, full planks and side planks held for 60 seconds each, along with some yoga moves and full series of stretches. By the tail end, I started to worry if I’d have strength for pole tricks.

Luckily, the first trick was just a spin. Spinning on static always feels foreign to me, after spending so much time doing everything spinning. This one was a variation of a chair spin, where the inside hand starts high then drops to head level as you grab the pole with the outside hand, then hug yourself with your inside arm, effectively grabbing the pole with your armpit.

Burn, baby, burn

After a few attempts, my right armpit was on fire and I noticed some angry-looking pole burns. I eventually did better with the less painful version of holding the pole along my forearm instead of in my armpit.

Then we worked on a floor transition: starting from lying on our backs, opening legs into a V and hooking the inside knee on the pole, then reaching up to grab the pole from above and swinging the outside leg all the way around the pole until we landed sitting on the other side.

I fell on my butt a few times as my knee grip slipped while I lifted myself, and decided it was better to slide my booty on the ground to get round the pole instead of lifting myself to avoid hurting my protruding tailbone. It wasn’t as pretty, but it worked.

So far, so good.

Then things quickly got a lot more complex with the next trick! Diana said that if I was familiar with the trick, I could do it on the pole but if I wasn’t, it was better to start from the ground.

I don’t know what it’s called, but it’s basically a backwards kick into Brass Monkey. You start in Flag Pole position, with your body parallel to the ground, then swing the outside leg outwards before looking up to the pole behind you in order to hook your knee around it. (!!!)

Then to complete the combo, grip the pole between your thighs, and let go with both hands before bringing your body around it so you can reach up into a pole sit.

Star spotted: Jessica Michibata!! Above left, with Lu Nagata, the owner of Pole Dance Tokyo

My bruised right armpit wasn’t very happy with having to grip the pole again for the starting Flag Pole position, but I went with it anyway. I noticed that two of the other four students were actually doing it aerially, and the third student got it on her own after a while, leaving just me and the Japanese-speaking girl beside me still kicking unsuccessfully on our own and fanning our right armpits between each attempt.

At that point I started to suspect that perhaps “Beginner-Intermediate” was a slightly misleading name for this class to be called.

Diana came round to spot us into the move (read: flip me up) and as I hooked my knee round the pole, my foot immediately smacked her loudly on her head, leaving me upside down and mortified at once!

Luckily, she was totally chill and said that it happens all the time! Shortly after (and case in point), the girl beside me almost whacked her in the face with her foot while being spotted too, so I felt slightly less guilty after that.

I was able to let go of my hands and hold myself upside down, and even get back up into a very awkward pole sit, but the furthest I progressed with getting into the trick on my own was to tap the pole with my foot. The girl beside me eventually managed to hook her knee into it and I cheered for her while trying not to feel left out as the only one who couldn’t get it.

Then the class ended and she casually did a Handspring up into an Ayesha.

Okayyyyy… Guess that meant the only Beginner-Intermediate in that class was me!

The next class which started 15 minutes later was a lot more manageable and fun! Showgirl Dance reminds me of Pole Grooves, cos its all about getting your sexy showgirl out in a choreographed routine. It had a different batch of students except for the lady who was fluent in English. (I’m so sorry, I forgot your name!)

Mariko in her Bobbi’s shorts!

I chatted with her and her friends who all spoke great English, and found out that: a) one of them had broken her collar-bone in class before a few months ago and was already back to pole dancing again. Now that’s a proper pole dancer for you! Do you know how painful and traumatizing breaking a collar-bone is?!! and, b) two of them had been to Bobbi’s in Singapore before! I think they only did pole practice, as they referred to it as 90 minute ‘Open Pole’, and then they pointed out that one of them was wearing the pink Bobbi’s shorts! What are the odds, right? I guess the pole world really is pretty small!

It’s a good thing I’d brought along my heels for the class, because every week it starts with ‘Catwalking’! After turning up the music, (Yup, RuPaul! Cos.. what else?!) Diana showed us how to do the pole strut, then we all took turns doing our thing.

With the showgirls of Pole Dance Tokyo

I’ve always had trouble balancing in my heels without having the pole to hold on to, and Diana pointed out that I wasn’t swaying my hips enough in the same direction as the foot that’s stepping out.

The ‘Pole strut’ is a different style from the ‘Stripper walk’ we do at Bobbi’s, with our toes dragging on the ground, but that little tip was worth my entire body weight in gold! After that, balancing became a breeze.

Then we moved onto choreography. This term, the song they used was “Feeling Good” by The Pussycat Dolls. It was already the last part of the routine that Diana taught since they’d started on it a few weeks ago.

Doing the One-Hand Genie

I was really glad that this time I was able to catch up with most of the class, (including a floor shoulder roll with straight legs) thanks to the many SLAP classes I’ve done. I also managed a short side climb, (which I’d learned in Manila!) and learned a new trick: the One-Hand Genie.

It’s a trick I’ve never seen done at Bobbi’s and is also a great way to transition into Side Saddle (aka Velcro Butt) which I didn’t try that day. Between the extra width of the pole and its slippery feel, I’d just rather not risk falling right off from a double climb!

Diana performed the entire routine and kindly allowed us to film her. Then it was time to put on our sparkly showgirl hats and do the routine!

With the lovely Diana in her Side Saddle

Since I’d only learned the last part of the routine, Diana said to just join in from the portion that she’d taught that day, but being the Pole Grooves addict that I am, I attempted the whole routine with them anyway. And I don’t think I did too badly for basically mimicking along on a first attempt too!

After the class, I took pictures with everyone and insisted they put their hats on again, which they happily did. Diana gamely put her heels back on too, to do a doubles-pole-pic with me.

I’m really glad I did both classes at Pole Dance Tokyo! It was a wonderfully fun experience, with friendly new people, and a perfect way to spend a Friday night in Tokyo!

Still very wonky..

On Sunday, I actually managed to drag my tired self out of bed in time to make it for Pole Grooves at noon! I even stayed for pole practice at 3pm since I figured I really needed to burn off some of my vacation eating.

It seemed like every other girl in pole practice was working on big tricks.

Before Tokyo, I’d been focusing on working on The Hard Stuff with intent during practice but that day I just wasn’t in the mood yet. Ironically, I managed to find the perfect tipping point for handstands up to the pole without really using momentum.

The key is… just to stay calm!

Most times I’m so scared of missing the pole and falling over backwards that I stop myself before I can push off the ground fully, but all I needed was to stay focused and open legs into a V to gently lift off.

I’ve yet to find my perfect balance sweet spot of DVD cover though, but after a whole week of not doing any, it actually felt a bit more secure. I don’t know how long it’ll take me to nail the damned DVD cover, (let’s not even talk about doing it from an aerial combo for Prep) but my body just needs time to assimilate things., and I’ve given up trying to rush the process.

After a while though, I just started doing some plain old pull-up-V’s. It’s just a basic aerial invert but I feel that it’s so, so underrated. It can really make or break a performance, in my opinion.

I was at pole practice with 2 friends that day, and one of them has a beautiful Pull-up-V. She actually extends her arms as high as they can go, and gracefully dead lifts herself into it. I don’t know where she finds the strength for that all the time, but I guess that’s where muscle memory comes into play.

If I’m not too tired, I can do it decently enough with my inside leg straight, but I never really thought of training myself to deadlift up. One more goal on my very long list!

Oh well. Goes to show that there are so many layers to be uncovered within even the simplest moves.

FYI, here’s a blog post I wrote a couple of weeks back for the Bobbi’s Singapore blog about taking it slow and going easy. It’s obviously a topic very close to my heart!!

http://www.bobbispolestudio.com.sg/2013/03/easy-does-it/

Been sleeping like a fiend since arriving back home from Tokyo yesterday morning though.

The plane landed at 5:25 am and I zonked out from 9 am til 7 pm in the evening. Then I stayed up til 3+ am, and actually tried to get out of bed this morning to make it for Pole Grooves at 11am but of course it didn’t happen. (Who am I kidding) Then I tried again later for Prep Advanced at 1pm, but that didn’t happen either.

I’m still riding a happy post-vacation buzz though! Especially because Tokyo is my absolute favourite city in the world. Every time I go, I get inspired, and this trip was no different. I’d never been there that long (8 days) and with so many friends (7 of us) but it was such a blast from beginning to end!

Ueno park in full bloom

On the first day, we arrived at Narita airport at 8am, showered and changed in the airport lounge, hopped on the bus to Shibuya, checked in, had lunch at the always-awesome Ichiran Ramen, and took a subway to Ueno park where we saw the famous Sakura trees in gorgeous full bloom! Talk about a perfect welcome.

I’ve been to Tokyo four times before and had never seen the cherry blossoms before. They’re notoriously temperamental and only stay in bloom for about a week or so in the whole year. By the time we left Tokyo, they were all gone.

The next day, while the rest hit the Shinjuku for some shopping, I chilled in then wandered around Shibuya by myself for a bit before hitting up Pole Dance Tokyo. It was my second overseas pole drop-in experience and this time I did 2 classes back-to-back. I’m so, so glad I went!! Yes I’ll do a full post on it shortly, just hang in there!

With new friends at Pole Dance Tokyo

Besides PDT, this trip was filled with other highlights: We went to a Cat Cafe, located very near to our hotel. (If you’re looking for an affordable hotel located in Shibuya, I’d recommend Tokyu Stay Apartments. It even has a small kitchen with a stove, microwave and washing machine!)

The furry guys mean business

Japanese cats must be cleaner than any other cats in the world, because I’m usually very allergic to dust and other people’s cats, but amazingly, I didn’t even sneeze once in the cat cafe!

The trick to getting them to come play with you is to buy a pack of cat treats. Just pop the treats open, and they’ll literally be all over you in seconds!

Tiramisu mixed fruit: Heaven on a plate

Speaking of treats, I got to indulge at Berry Cafe (my very favourite pastry cafe in the world) not once, but twice this time! As far as fruit pastries go, Berry Cafe trumps them all, in my book. That moment just before taking the first bite is practically a spiritual experience..

We also managed to catch the Calbee Plus store at Harajuku just before it closed for the day, where they fry the chips fresh on the spot and you can choose your toppings. My default topping of choice is Royce chocolate. (Don’t get judge-y now! I’ve converted many a doubter to the cult of Royce’s Potato Chip chocolate.  It’s one of those things that sounds wrong but it really oh-so-right.)

Fresh-fried Calbee chips

And what is Tokyo without some shopping? I popped my Hysteric Glamour cherry at the flagship boutique in Aoyama. The last time we were there 3 years ago, I was way too tired to look at anything after a whole day out but  I knew I had to come back eventually.

Actually though, I buy far more cosmetics than anything else whenever I’m here because many of the local drugstore brands kick ass and aren’t available anywhere else. Watson’s has absolutely nothing on Matsumoto Kiyoshi!!! If I had to pick my top beauty destination in the whole world, this would be it. Suck on that, Sephora.

Shameless beauty haul

I love being inside Shibuya 109 mall too, cos that’s where all the local girls’ labels are located. (if you like the fashion in Vivi magazine, then you’ll find all the clothes they feature in Shibuya 109) Although to be perfectly honest, you can shop the same look in the streets of Taipei for about a quarter of the price, which is why I don’t really shop for clothes in Tokyo.

But if you’re into thrift and vintage stores, there are loads of well-curated ones all over Harajuku. My friend managed to score some awesome, rare vintage Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags in pristine condition, as well as a rocking leather jacket at probably a fraction of its original price.

Inside peaceful shrine grounds

Too much shopping can get meaningless though, which is why I’m so glad I made it to the Meiji Jingu shrine in Harajuku on my last day. Ironically located just next to the frenetic Harajuku shopping area, once you step into the very zen-like grounds of the shrine, it’s as if time is standing still.

You can write down you wishes and make an offering, as well as buy a charm or two from the variety available. And you can even drink from the quaint little drinking wells inside. I had a really good feeling of calm and serenity, and the water was cool and soothing. Probably the purest drink I’ve ever had!

Water to soothe the soul

Visiting the shrine was definitely a refreshing change of pace.

But…

As serene as the Meiji shrine was, as yummy as all the snacks I ate were, as cute as the cat cafe was, as scenic as the Sakuras were, and even as fun as my Tokyo pole experience was, everything got overshadowed as the highlight of my trip compared to Robot Restaurant in Kabuki-cho.

On a scale of 1-10, this place is a 45

(The highlight of my last trip in Tokyo was being the only female patron in a Cosplay maid cafe in Akihabara with the husband and 3 guy friends. In Johannesburg, it was checking out the morbid local voodoo market, and in Mexico, it was the masked midgets of Lucha Libre wrestling. So I guess you could say I have a thing for freakily-fabulous subculture.)

Robot Restaurant is a 1-year old entertainment complex situated in the red-light district of Kabuki-cho. It’s also the only restaurant I’ve been to in Tokyo where the food is legitimately terrible, but then again the 5,000 yen you pay for it is solely for the show.

It’s Robot-time!!

And what a show it is! The brochure says, ‘Female drumming, fighting dinosaurs, and giant robots’, and you really get all that and more. From the moment the music starts, it’s a sensory overload.

I’m not sure if I was more impressed by the non-stop choreographed dancing, the way that some of their outfits entirely light up, or the fact that most of the girls are a minimum C-cup and beyond.

One thing I’m certain of: the next time I’m in Tokyo, I’m definitely going to Tiger Restaurant, just opposite Robot Restaurant. Why? Cos it’s just as manic inside, and I heard the girls there pole dance!!!

In the meantime, I’m going to try again tomorrow to pry myself out of bed in time to make it for the last Pole Grooves class of the week (that way, I will only have missed Prep Advanced this week!) and go for some much-needed pole practice. Just thinking about the Prep Tammy-DVD combo makes me shiver…

Can’t wait to drop into Pole Dance Tokyo

So excited to be going on vacation to Tokyo with the husband and 4 of our friends for a week!

While we’re there, I plan to do a few drop-in classes at the renowned Pole Dance Tokyo studio! Omg I’m so excited…

I already registered online for ‘Pole Dance Beginner and Intermediate’ and ‘Pole Dance Showgirl’ on Friday, taught by an instructor who teaches in English! I really want to do their ‘Sexy Floor Dance’ class on Wednesday as well, but we’ll see how it goes.

Since the new term began, I’ve been doing pole practice 3 times a week like a good girl.. now that I’m off the all-you-can-pole promo and only doing 2 fixed classes a week.

Being focused like that has helped a lot. I managed to finally get the Tammy last Sunday! Turns out I’d been doing it wrong all this time, facing the pole directly instead of twisting all the way to the right and pressing my left thigh into the pole to get into Jamilla.

So the bruises I’m currently sporting on my left thigh help remind me of exactly where the pole needs to press into.

Getting the Tammy is a huge milestone for me because I just couldn’t do it for ages, but now it’s merely a transition into something else I haven’t been able to do for ages.. The DVD cover, aka Extended Butterfly.

Ugh, well at least I know that if getting through Prep Advanced doesn’t bloody kill me (or that sore spot right between my shoulder blades and spine) it will most definitely make me stronger.

Since getting my lefty Venus, aka Basic Butterfly, I connected the dots that its possible to extend out into DVD. (which is exactly why it’s called Extended Butterfly right?! We don’t do it that way here although it’s probably super obvious to non-Bobbi ‘s pole dancers)

I managed to get into a very wobbly one last night with Po.lita’s help, which is quite exciting! But I need to let my body take a little break cos my upper back is just killing me right now.

So I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have time to stay for pole practice after Prep class tonight… I have just enough time to come home, shower, grab my bags and get on that plane to Tokyo!!!

Lefty Venus: with baby toe on the pole and all!

It’s been a while since I mentioned Project Lefty, but I’ve actually been working on it at a very slow and steady pace.

I’m rather obsessed with trying to maintain balance on both sides of my body… (and worried that I’ll wake up one day at 55, and suddenly notice that my upper torso has shifted itself to the right over the years from holding too many Jades!)

So I make it a point to do a few lefty inverts, Vanessa spins, and pull-up planks during each practice session, and my lefty spin-climb into pull-up V is starting to get slightly decent.

My current list of Lefty tricks is: Spin Climb, Pole Sit, Hello Boys, Lefty Left Leg Hang (Gemini), Cupid, Half-Star….

…and just last night, Venus! (Basic Butterfly)

I’m really pleased with the Lefty Venus! All the other times I’d tried, it just felt too unfamiliar and risky but this time getting into it felt surprisingly secure so I just went for it and it happened! I even ended up holding it for quite a while the second time round as Po.lita snapped an impromptu photo of it.

It’s definitely motivated me to step it up with my lefty training. Cos in addition to all the regular Lefty pull-ups, I’ve added lefty Candy conditioning into the mix. And you know I actually hate that right?t! Nobody likes Candy conditioning…

For now, I’m just doing it to strengthen my left arm, shoulder and back muscles but hopefully one day (probably in the very far-off future) I’ll be able to Candy up on the wrong side!

Erm, but for now I’ll be happy if I can consistently get it on the right side…

Principal of Bobbi’s Pole Studio Singapore, and overspilt extraordinaire, Linna Tan

One thing that I never take for granted is the fact that I get to train at Bobbi’s Pole Studio Singapore. And that there even is a Bobbi’s Pole Studio here in Singapore for me to train at!

I know there are loads of pole dancers all over the world who greatly admire the Bobbi’s style and who wish they could train at Bobbi’s too, but are just too far away and don’t live in Sydney, Perth, Singapore or Malaysia.

Luckily, there’s one right here where I live, where I’ve been training for more than 2 years since January 2011 and having even more fun now than when I first started! And boy, am I ever thankful about that!

So when I got the chance to feature our principal of Bobbi’s Pole Studio Singapore for International Women’s Day, it was a perfect chance to find out everything I wanted about how she got started back then when there were no pole studios here and how she eventually made that huge step to open the studio. I even got her to dish out some advice for us on both dance and tricks.

I haven’t actually taken any of Linna’s regular classes yet since she used to focus mainly on the more advanced levels, but I’ve always admired her incredible dance style. (Duh, she’s the one who’s trained most of our instructors!)

And like Po.lita says, not that many dancers can switch so effortlessly between nailing the ballerina-like lyrical style one moment, and then drip pure hot sex appeal the next. Sigh.

If you haven’t already seen these on the Bobbi’s Pole Studio Singapore blog, check them out here:

http://www.bobbispolestudio.com.sg/2013/03/interview-with-linna-tan-part-1-the-woman-who-brought-pole-dancing-to-singapore/

http://www.bobbispolestudio.com.sg/2013/03/interview-with-linna-tan-part-2-tricks-of-the-trade/