Written Overview
1-3 Sentence Summary of My Project
I taught a pole dance class applying the FFTT concepts to 8 pole students of widely varying levels, backgrounds and abilities. The goal was to get them out of their heads and into their bodies, while empowering them with tools to keep moving in the absence of set choreography or an instructor’s guidance. Ultimately I hoped for them to get a glimpse into their “pole flow state” to enjoy and luxuriate with the pole.
For my final project, I taught and filmed a 1 hr class called “Pole Technique: Fluidity” (edited down to a 23 minute edit). My idea was to create an accessible class that incorporates and applies Marlo’s Floor Flow philosophy to pole dance, for every level of pole student. The main theme of this particular class was activating and strengthening our bases of support, with a focus on feet and hands/arms. I chose this project because I regularly teach classes for pole dancers, and was hoping to offer something in their curriculum that would supplement and expand their typical training program. In particular, I have noticed that pole students often have difficulty with “finding their flow”, getting creative, and continuing movement after the set combination or trick is completed. Alongside this issue, I’ve noticed it’s common for students to feel “stuck” in the absence of an instructor’s guidance and / or set choreography. I hoped the Floor Flow concepts would help my pole students get out of their heads and in tune with their bodies to have better, more enjoyable movement experiences.
I really enjoyed coming up with pole loop exercises. They were designed to focus attention on the details that are typically skipped over in a lot of skills-based pole classes; for example, what our feet are doing on the ground right before taking off into a spin. I was very challenged at first when trying to come up with how to make the class truly “all-levels”, because I didn’t want the beginners to feel completely overwhelmed or the advanced students bored. So, I took quite a bit of preparation time trying to think about how each loop could be progressed and the effort increased/decreased. I was also challenged on how to focus all the material we learned into one single hour (I failed at this)! I also struggled with planning in terms of timing - the class structure felt totally foreign to me; I wasn’t sure how long each exercise / game / loop would take, or how many questions there would be, since I’ve never taught a class like this before. So, that made planning the class quite challenging and I ended up having way more material than I was able to get through, and not enough time to flow at the end.
The two main goals of the class were to provide practical tools for students to a) become more fluid and less “stuck” or bumpy while dancing, and b) tap into the mental flow state during pole practice.
If I could change anything, I would have built in much more time to just flow and move at the end of class, rather than trying to fit in more “set” material (warmup, theory, exercises, loops, explanation, questions, flow).
What did I learn from this experience that I’ll apply going forward? Many things, but to keep it brief … while watching myself answer students’ questions, I realised I am not always answering what they are asking! Or, I am answering in a much more complicated way than needed. Their questions make my brain go in multiple directions, and I get excited about all the material that I want to share with them, so I tend to go on tangents and down rabbit holes. I need to be a bit more clear and direct, I think. I will also certainly change how I structure classes, and build in more room for questions, breathing, flow, rest, synthesising the material.