March 6, 2025 • 64 mins
Pole on the Call — Season 4
Pole Coach & Competitor Gothic Babydolls aka Michelina
In this episode, Cris Rivers & Mændy Mac interview pole coach and pole dance competitor Gothic Babydolls, aka Michelina about her pole dance journey and learned some great insights about healing from pole injuries, too.
BIO:
I started in 2018 because I saw a cool video and focused on Lyra mainly fair years. I had a baby in 2020 and when I came back I started focusing more on pole. I have since started competing, traveling to perform and coaching. I coach in ways that are less conventional.
LINKS:
Instagram @gothic_babydolls
Let us know how you like this episode and share with a pole friend!
Free free to Follow us and Tag us on Instagram @poleonthecall
Or email us for advice, comments, questions you would like us to answer on here and more at poleonthecall@gmail.com
Or you can visit or Website for more Episodes, Free Stuff, Courses and more at www.poleonthecall.com
Here's our Bees Knees link for amazing knee pads and much more!!
Use coupon code BEECALLED at https://www.beeskneeskneepads....
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pole-on-the-call--5317694/support.
Pole Coach & Competitor Gothic Babydolls aka Michelina
In this episode, Cris Rivers & Mændy Mac interview pole coach and pole dance competitor Gothic Babydolls, aka Michelina about her pole dance journey and learned some great insights about healing from pole injuries, too.
BIO:
I started in 2018 because I saw a cool video and focused on Lyra mainly fair years. I had a baby in 2020 and when I came back I started focusing more on pole. I have since started competing, traveling to perform and coaching. I coach in ways that are less conventional.
LINKS:
Instagram @gothic_babydolls
Let us know how you like this episode and share with a pole friend!
Free free to Follow us and Tag us on Instagram @poleonthecall
Or email us for advice, comments, questions you would like us to answer on here and more at poleonthecall@gmail.com
Or you can visit or Website for more Episodes, Free Stuff, Courses and more at www.poleonthecall.com
Here's our Bees Knees link for amazing knee pads and much more!!
Use coupon code BEECALLED at https://www.beeskneeskneepads....
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pole-on-the-call--5317694/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everyone, Welcome back to Pull on the Call podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Mac and I am Chris Rivers, and today.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
We are here with the amazing poll coach and competitor
Gothic Baby Doll also known as Midelina.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yay yay for being here with us.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you for having me. I'm sorry, my cat's being
really like loud in the background by the way. Sorry, Yes,
we love pet visits. Yes, little Greg is a loud mouth.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I know.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
That's so cute. Actually, now we need to see more
of little Greg.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh god, yeah, such precious animals. I love them so sweet.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Just a baby about to turn one.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
W wow.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Still it is, yes, so funny or experimental.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Anyway, we'll get more into little Greg later. Oh, for now,
we should start with the beginning of your pole journey.
What got you into Poldian sane?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Though it was seven years ago as of early January
twenty twenty five, so it was January twenty eighteen that
I started because I saw a really cool video of
Bethany Finlay on a lira over a stream, and I
was like, well, I want to learn to do that,
and so I started researching studios in my area that
(01:47):
did Lira and then they also did poll, so I
was like, well, I guess I'm going to do pole too,
because I want to learn Lira and it's here. So
I just started going to pole passes every week and
doing Ariel sometimes but mostly just kind of stuck with
Pole and became like primarily a poll answer. I say,
(02:11):
I'm like painfully mediocre at everything else, but I will
do any apparatus that's made of metal, so Lira trapeez.
I have an aerial umbrella that some people have seen.
I've used it at Polecon last year. I've done aerial cube,
but I don't do silks.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
M I I haven't seen the umbrella or im G,
I have to check that out. That sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It's so fun, right, I don't know that because I
looked at the pictures that you sent. It looks really
really cool.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Really fun.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's like surprisingly difficult to use because it's like having
a pole and then the world's smallest, like thinnest Lira
and it's I'm five feet tall, so I can actually
stand up in it, but not everyone can stand in it.
That's that's so cool, just barely.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
But would you say poll's your favorite so far?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
For sure. I spend the most time on pole. I
stuck with it the most out of every apparatus, and
I am a lot more advanced at pole than I
am at other apparatuses, So I think that that's part
of why I like it as much as I do.
Is I'm like, well, look, I'm good at this one though,
whereas the other ones, I'm like a very intermediate student.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Oh, I definitely understand. Do you find though, that the
other apparatuses help you with pole, like cross training or
a little.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Chain, Absolutely, especially like because you're using the same muscles
in different ways. I think it helps a lot with
like being able to to do more pole pull ups
because if you can do like a trapeze pull up,
you can do a pole pull up or climbing and
grip strength because like the ropes on the trapeez are
(04:12):
a different type of grippy than the pole is.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I love that. I agree. I've done Lira so far
and soaks, and both of them I was like, holy hell,
this is like completely different but so awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh yes, right, I like the Lira, but I am
with you, though I do not like silks.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
They're just not for me. It's too floppy.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, yeah, I love the soaks. I was obsessed with
like how everything had a procedure, like the specific ways
you had to wrap the soak. I don't know why
it was. I followed the fascinating, but I will say
it hurt my hands the most by the end of it,
like I was like, I cannot move.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think they're so pretty to look at when people
are good, especially then I'm like wow, but I just
I can't understand it. I go to climate and I'm like,
it keeps moving.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And I think soaks has the best drops.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well for sure. The crazy tumbles from like twenty something
feet in the air and they just like down to
the bottom and then they land beautifully. How that would
feel like It's just like it's like I scream. I scream,
(05:38):
but maybe it's fine.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I also did it.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I don't have any patience to wrap myself and in
all of the things I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's just not for me. It's like I'll do. I
say I'm a metals girly because my studio does both
pull and aeriel. I always just am there for the
metals and then we have like the fabrics people and
they all hang out on the silks and I'll like
sit with them and look clueless and amazed at the
(06:06):
same time.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, but did you have any dancer movement background before
trying pole and aeriels.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I didn't have any dance background. I was actually a
senior in high school when I started poll just to
make sure that everyone knows that I'm just a baby.
So I was on the cross country team, and I
was on the track team as a pole vaulter. But
I was like, once again, just like a very intermediate
pole vaulter. You know, I could get to like seven
(06:40):
feet and some change, and that's still pretty scary, you know,
just jumping that high. But only for like the four
years of high school did I do those things beyond that,
no athletic background whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Oh my gosh, have you ever thought of combining pole
vaulting and pulled?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
People always joke with me that I went from one
pole to another.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Like imagine if you, like you like did the vault
and you were like up in the air and you
did like a butterfly before you came down, like just that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I wish I would have thought of something like that
back when I was a pole vaulter, and I sometimes
say like, I bet I could go back and be
a pole vaulter and be better than I was in
high school, because now I'm a lot stronger. Like in
high school, I was one of those people that was
afraid to have muscles, like you know when the girls like,
I don't want to get bulky, and so I was
like really small, And now I am not because I'm
(07:41):
I've recognized that I actually love the way that I
look with more muscle on myself. It feels strong. I
remember being like, I don't want to do too many
arm workouts. I don't want my arms to get big,
and so I was like, that was probably part of
why I wasn't as good as other people. No, I've
(08:05):
learned my lesson. I realize now that I was wrong
and that I'm actually super cute with big arms.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yes, right, and they serve a purpose too.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Oh yeah, I'm like pulling myself up on the pole
doing all sorts of flippy tricks, and I'm like, okay, okay,
we love a strong lady.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, I wait for five ten years down the line,
you retry pole vo. I could picture a pole volting
onto the pole.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I have to make a routine about it.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I love it. Oh my goodness. So what would you
say is your favorite type of style if you have any.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm a big fan of both power pole and hard
style Exotic. Those are my two go tos.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Power Pole is amazing. Hard Style I want to I
love it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I love a good like heel clack all over everything.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, yeah, it looks too fast. I feel like I
feel like I'm not ready, like I could do power pole,
but like that those fast transition and heels.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
One day, it's so fun. You got to just get
in there and really start going for it, because I
think that what's harder is when you try to break
it down slowly for people, like when you're teaching them,
and then it's like, okay, so you're gonna hold this post,
and like, can you hold it a little longer so
I can get into it and you're just sitting there
straddling for like a minute.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Oh I can imagine. With the heels, it makes it
added challenge.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You got ankle weights on pretty much.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I love it. I have to try it. Mainly has
been telling me I have to try it.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
You should listen, right, but your footy has to heal.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Oh yeah, it will no more booboos. As the Queen
of the injuries.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I oh no, yeah, injury journey.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yes. So uh, starting last year, I had injured my
wrist and then I got a concussion right before Northeast
last year or two years ago now it was twenty
twenty three, and so I had like missed Toronto, which
(10:37):
is one of the competitions that I like to go
to in twenty twenty three because I had been in
a car accident. Healed up really nicely, everything was fine
for several months, nothing crazy happened. And then right before Polecon,
I sprained my ankle. So if you were to go
back and watch the videos from Polecon, you can see
that I'm wearing an ankle brace. I do a cartwheel
(10:58):
and kind of like wobble over because I had a
sprained ankle, and then I broke my wrist as soon
as my ankle healed. So that's why I sat out
at Liberty this year this past year in twenty twenty four,
and I was judging with you, Mandy, because I had
a broken wrist. And then now I am rehabbing a
(11:20):
shoulder injury that's going pretty well. It seems like I'm
pretty good. I can move around with full mobility again.
It just sometimes is a little pinchy.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Now, now that you have said all of those things,
I remember when we first met you were all broken. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
So now it makes me even more amazed that you
were on stage in November and you killed it and
two routines.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, well I had to use the one that I
didn't get to use, and then I had already planned
on doing the other ones, so I had to put
them both out there. I didn't get to use one
of them, but that was amazing. You healed up and
you're great. Yes, this year I'm planning on we have
people on injury patrol. I'm not allowed to hurt myself
(12:11):
this year.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Or ever.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
No more injuries. We're being very careful. But I'm hoping
that not to say that I did. I didn't do
as well as I wanted to do this year because
of the injury. And I know that that's why, because
I didn't get as much practice time and so there
was just hiccups that didn't get to get worked out.
So the goal is to not get injured this year
(12:35):
and then be able to put out my best work.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yes, and you're going to do it, yes, yes, I may.
I ask yeah, did you learn from the injuries and
do you mind sharing for other fold dancers who might
go through the same thing or be going through the
same thing.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yes. So the heart part for me was that it
took a lot away from my training, but I learned
how to work around my training. So with the ankle,
that was actually not as hard to deal with because
luckily you can kind of be on one foot, and
it made me have to train like up in the
air more, which was good. I felt a lot stronger,
(13:20):
and then I broke my wrist actually doing pole. I
did like a cool flip I caught and then I
fell on the floor after I like landed, so it
was like I stumbled and then I fell and it
was just snapped right at the wrists. I was like,
what an embarrassing injury because it was just me tripping
(13:42):
on the floor essentially. But I did a lot of
core and I learned how to train one handed, so
just doing like tucks where instead of holding the pole
in like a stronghold true grip situation, I'm using only
one hand and then like stay my armpit to hold
(14:02):
on and just kept making sure I was keeping up
with conditioning, a lot of core with the broken wrist,
a lot of stretching, just trying to not lose too
much strength. And luckily it wasn't a super bad break,
so it was only a couple of months before I
was able to get back up and be able to
hold weight on it again. It still sometimes gets sore
(14:24):
with like handstands and stuff. But I actually developed one
of my workshops based on that. So I have one
that's called Oops All Elbows because I would do elbow
grip tricks because that's all you had.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's genius. So I love a good elbow grip.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh they're my favorite.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Now there's fun and you can surprisingly do so many
things with them, like right side up and upside down.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Oh yeah, I was like upside down climbing in like
a caterpillar climb. Broken. There's a video on my Instagram.
I think it's pinned where you can see I'm like
invert climbing.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I like, no, oh, I think you were frozen.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh no, no.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We're stuck in a caterpillar climb.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I love it. I've been working on that lately.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh there you are. Oh my gosh, thank you for
reminding us, like how creative you can be when you
have an injury, Like how creative you have to be,
Oh yeah, and like what good could come from it
and you don't have to be totally out of your practice.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Oh yeah. I was very sad about it, for sure,
because I was like, I can't train and I can't compete.
I remember being in Philly and I had to walk
out for a little bit because I was so sad.
I wasn't up on stage competing, and I like just
walked out into the parking lot with my partner and
I was like, I'm just really depressed. Now I got
(16:11):
back in there.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
It was fine. It was at the end of the day.
I was like I learned by watching how everybody else did,
and I just got myself back on the horse as
soon as I was better.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, right, And you were super supportive through all of it,
so like you were all part of everything.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Even I felt like I was still a part of
everything because I was helping with the judging and volunteering.
So it was nice because I got to cheer everybody on.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Oh, thank you for sharing all of that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I think that's important for people to hear because unfortunately,
injuries are a part of that many people's pull dance dream.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, oh goodness, good times. I love the elbow grip
stuff too.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Counterpillar, I do not like the elbow group, but I
feel like for my hypermobility is probably something I should
work on more.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I understand.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Well, let's talk a little bit about how long into
your poll dance journey did you start being a coach.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I started coaching only in the end of twenty twenty three.
It was after I started competing and traveling more for
pole that people at my studio and in my area
started being like, oh, I wish that you were teaching,
And so I started offering private coaching because I wanted
to be able to spread pole dancing and traveling for
(17:43):
poll dance and like the wider community outside of our area.
And now I was I'm working on getting more online
coaching set up so that I can teach people via
videos and from outside my area. I actually am coaching
one girl that lives in Connecticut for this upcoming season.
(18:05):
I'm very excited.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
That is exciting, and I love private coaching. It's so fun.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
It's so fun. I love taking private lessons, which is
definitely something that pushed me is I was taking private lessons,
both in person and online, and the private lessons I
took online helped a lot with like cleaning up my fundamentals,
like shoulder mounts and inverts.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I agree, it's a different FEO.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Are great things you can practice at home because a
lot of you know, home polers, we've got like short poles. Yeah,
do on like combos and stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I'm very fortunate that my ceilings are almost ten feet tall,
so I do have a pretty tall home pole. But
I certainly think that home polling is still hard because
like I don't know if it's just me, but when
I'm at the studio, for some reason, I can grip
ten times better than I can know my home pole.
My home pole is four years old now, it's broken in.
(19:13):
It just doesn't like I'm not sticky on it sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right, I feel like that too, Like I'll try my
best at home, but it's something about like I don't know,
you need like all your friends around or something.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, I need moral support. But no.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I love the online classes and I love that you
offer them, and I think that it's really important, especially
if there's not like a lot of whole studios in
your area. Yeah, and I noticed in your bio you
said that you coach in ways that are less conventional,
and I wondered if you might offer some examples as
to some of those ways.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, So that tends to be because I learned how
to invert in a really not great technique kind of way,
and I learned how to shoulder mount with bad techniques.
So those were habits I had to break before I
was able to do them properly. And so because of that,
(20:15):
I learned how to like handspring before I was able
to have a good shoulder mount and before I was
able to have a good invert. Like my shoulder mounts
are still up there on tricks that y'all almost never
see me do. But I learned to handspring a lot
faster because I learned that with good technique. And I
had also influenced me to encourage people to drop down
(20:41):
into like a jazmine rather than inverting a lot, so
that they can get into those harder tricks. And so
I tend to push people to get into tricks that
are what they might think they can't do just because
they can't like conventionally invert and chopper very well, just
because if you can drop down an invert, you can
(21:02):
get into a lot more tricks than you realize. And
I think that a lot of people can do harder
tricks than they realize.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I agree, there's so many ways to get upside down
besides inverting.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Or like the like baby invert where you're doing like
a split grip and you kind of like apprentice your
way up.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I love it. That's a fun one too. I find
that one it's tough.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I think that just because of how I learned, that
one tends to be a little bit easier for me
because I was taught to just run and jump to
invert when I first learned. My first ever teacher was
not someone who was the safest. So it took me
a couple of years to break some bad habits.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I believe it. We all get those bad habits.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Might yeah, just makes us better coaches because we know
what we don't we should not be doing, or what
was not good. Yeah. Yeah, I agree that the lowering
down into the inverts is you know, empowering because then
(22:18):
you can do so many more things.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, well, like I would be teaching someone who's a
lower level inverter and can only drop down. I think
they can still do moves like Pegasus and things like that.
Or I learned how to get into a brass monkey
in every other way besides shoulder mounting, like handstand into it,
(22:43):
drop down into it from Genie. Every single way that
you could think of besides shoulder mounting is how I
learned how to do it first.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Right, Yeah, there's a bizillion different ways, Like everybody, everyone's
body is different. I think it's funny to eat you
mentioned you're like stronger in the split grip, Like I
don't even understand what that means. Like that's like my
least favorite and I'm so weak and I'll never do
an ayesha.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
See I love. I love a split grip. I can't
do the behind the back grip because I just have
short little dinosaur arms. Same right, I feel like they're
gonna like spring off, yes, Like I feel like I'm
gonna dislocate my shoulder if I do.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah right, those are for me either, And it's
okay to say no, yes, we gotta start teaching that more.
I feel social media is just like do the thing. No,
it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Right yeah right, And like I can't do it an
iguana in the air, but I can do.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
A floor iguana. Oh I think that's harder.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I agree, really, yeah, it was much harder.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Everybody's body is so different. That's why I coach based
on how your body wants to move rather than like
a you have to do it in ABC order kind
of way. Yes, I love that.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Do you have any other teaching philosophies to share?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I this is something I was working on a lot
with my friends when we were on our way to Northeast,
because I was coaching a lot of them on how
to do competitions. None of them have had ever done one,
and I was the only person in our circle or
in our area really that had done competitions. And I
was like, I want you to just remember you're supposed
to be enjoying yourself and you're supposed to be like
(24:44):
doing moves that feel good to you, Like poll is
about feeling good. Because they were all stressed out, and
I was like, guys, stop being stressed.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
That's some great advice for competitive and for teachers. Are like,
just keep having fun.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Mm hmm. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I was talking to somebody about that the other day
because I was like, why would you want to be
on stage showing a trick that makes you feel terrible when.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
You're like fake smiling through the trick because it hurts
so bad, Like I can't.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Why would you want to do that?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Because I want to put a spash cock on stage.
That's why I put my body through it. Let me you.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Know, we all want to put a spatchcock on stage.
Everyone wants to broken Mirchenko's so bad, but I can't.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I don't know. I'll be happy with a broken.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Doll, right, Like, if the broken doll feels good, then
I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Most of the time it.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Does not feel good, so we'll have a broken doll variation.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yes, a stiff broken doll.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
A Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, since we're on poll tricks, do you have any
favorite pull tricks to share?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
My favorite pull trick is probably Bird of Paradise Love It.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That is a beautiful one.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's just it was one that when I figured out
I could do it, I was like, well, I'm never
putting this away. It's in my pocket forever now.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Any flexibility training tips.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I before I had my son, which my son is
four and a half years old now, so this is
it's been a while. I was a contortionist, and so
I stretch every day for fifteen minutes now at least
fifteen to thirty minutes, because I don't want to lose
that flexibility. And I try to just change positions every
(27:05):
minute to thirty seconds or so and go between different
splits and backbending things. Some days I focus more on
my back, some days I focus more on my splits.
But just make sure you're stretching as often as you can,
like even active rest days where you stretch.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, I was gonna say, you have like a pretty
good balance of like strength and flexibility. I thank you
for that tip. Like I need to get better with
my stretching, especially my backbending.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Every day, my partner and I we do fifteen minutes
of core and then we do fifteen minutes of flexibility training,
which is mostly him pushing me into flexibility tricks rather
than him doing it. But we do our best.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Oh my god. Also, your partner is like the most supportive,
amazing part nor ever shout out yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Matthew was lovely. He was so excited. He loves going
to competitions and just cheering everybody on. He's like the
happiest little thing.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes, right, and didn't he have to he had to
go to work at one of them, didn't he we extra?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
It was his stage monitor. Yes, and he had so
much fun. He like made an Instagram because of the
amount of people that were like, you're so nice, let
me follow you Instagram. So now he has an Instagram
solely because I want to say it was. The owner
of Ari's Aerial Arts came up and was like, my
girls keep telling them to keep telling me that you're
so nice.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I'll have to volunteer again because everyone will be waiting
for it.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah. He shows up with a suit on. He's like
in a three piece suit and ready to roll every day. Love.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
It was awesome everyone together. Hopefully it should Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yes, he will be doing a Level one routine hopefully
this year as well. So fingers crossed there. That's amazing. Yeah,
tell yeah, that is exciting.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
See how the whole industry just scoops.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Everyone up as it should, like the best industry to
be in the Yes, oh we should.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
We didn't go into your whole competition journey. Do you
want to go into Have you only done pso? Have
you done other competitions?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
So I've only done PSO because I was supposed to
do the US Aerial Federation competition this past July, but
I had a broken wrist. So this year I will
be doing it, but as of right now, I've only
done PSO.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
That's gonna be awesome. Good grip. US Aerial Federation. Goodness,
I I know I know about them. When you have
to do a virtual submission for that first, right, you
actually don't.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So. I am on the Membership Committee and the Athlete's
Advisory Committee for the US Aeral Federation, so I was
quite lucky because I get to like pick at the
brains of Tanya, the head of the US Areal Federation,
a little bit more than other people will do. And
they were at Pole Collon this year. That's how I
(30:28):
got involved with them. And they let you just sign up,
so if you're signing up for amateur, you can just
kind of show up and do whatever I was doing. Amateur,
not sport, amateur, artistic. I'm an artistic pollar more than
(30:51):
a sport pollar for sure.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
That's awesome. I did not know they did that. That's
good to know.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
You can submit the videos to get feedback ahead of time,
and like get an idea of what they're looking for,
but you aren't required to.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I was thinking about becoming a member because I know
it's a wonderful federation. She does Anya Christopher does an
amazing job.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Oh yes she does. And we're trying to get pull
into the Olympics. So you know, the more people the
better that goes.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yes, and Morris is a beautiful studio.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Oh my gosh. I love looking at their videos because
it's just pretty like visually and they're so professional.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yes they are. I got to do her website. That
was fun. Oh that was a good time. US Areal
Federation yond other competition, you should try out.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yes, yeah. If Land of Lakes happens again this year,
I know Miss Angie, the her of Whole Artco that
runs Land of Lakes, I would consider competing with them.
She was saying she's not sure if she's gonna run
the festival again this year. I taught there last year
and I performed there, but I didn't compete.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Somebody else imagined that. I forget who.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
I saw it on Instagram the post she put about it.
So I hope everything for the best. Miss Angie's another dancer.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I love Miss Angie so much. She's actually someone I
took a lot of online private lessons with.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Yay I was but the best for her this year.
Oh yeah, m we never asked about your Poe nemesis neither.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Uh. It's probably dragontail because of the fact it's like
the behind the back move and it just makes me
feel like I'm gonna fall down and die.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
That it's so bad. So I trained my ass off
to get that one until I felt good. But every
time I go into it, I'm like, remember, Mandy, if
it doesn't feel good, don't do it.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
It scares me and I'm always like I'm about to
fall on my face. So I don't even try it anymore.
I just accept that that one's not going to live
in my in my repertoire who.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
It is a beautiful shape, not an everyday thing. It's beautiful,
it's gorgeous and there's so many things you could do
with the shape.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Too, But like, if it goes wrong, I feel like
I'm going to just like roll out of it everything.
That's how it feels like.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
It's if you're not like if you're shoulder Yeah, oh
my gosh, I would never fang in it. Though, Oh no,
like really people do that.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I think it looks so cool when they do. I
just can't write. I would like, you're just on that
arm bar.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, I can't even imagine the amount of shoulder mobility
and flexibility to be able to do that have your
arm wrapped around. Like even now I do this, it's like,
ooh are you tight right now?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Right? Yeah? Right, must be lots of mobility exercises.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Oh yeah, solder mobility.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I have.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Less so than I have, like a back mobility, but
it's still there, just the like whole I'm like a
wider lady and then I got dinosaur like t rex arms.
It's just it's never happening. Oh my gosh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Our bodies are always changing and growing.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Anything's possible in the future. It's just not for me
at this time.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, so I understand completely.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well I was when we were talking about online learning too.
Did you learn mostly online or did you learn mostly
in person?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Or probably about fifty to fifty. So there's two studios
in my area now that are both very good, reputable studios.
It's a real Arts of Rochester and rock Pole Fitness
shout out to both of them, great teachers at both.
But when you start to get to like higher levels,
(35:29):
then I think it's harder to find people to train you,
and it's harder to find classes to go to. So
that's when I've found that online lessons have helped a lot,
and then cleaning up my technique and learning things that
aren't taught at either of those studios.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I think that's awesome because just going back to like
sometimes there's poll answers in areas that don't have any
studios and like, do you have any tips or anyone
who wants to like dedicate themselves to an online learning
journey because you have to be more dedicated, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I agree. I think that you have to make sure
you're setting a schedule for yourself, So try and go
like three days a week or something like that for
an hour or however long you feel is the correct amount.
I try to train almost every day doing either pole
or some form of cross training for pole, and use
(36:31):
more than one program. So I like a lot of
the different like Pull Power Academy, Pull Destroyers, lots of
different programs like that are all really good and you
should try a bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I love that those are all very good programs and
good advice. It's hard to be a home poler because
you're right Mandy as well too. You have to the
motivation and like gothic baby does make. Alina said as well,
it's not easy to find like higher level classes all
the time.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Speaking of online classes, I am working on setting up
a website right now for online classes, so it'll be
up soon, should be up when this episode comes out.
It's baby Dolls poll Studio dot com. Very simple and
it's got conditioning and so far low and intermediate level
(37:35):
classes with comprehensive videos.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
I love that. And we'll have that link in the
notes and comments for when this video airs for people
and we get it. Yes, exciting, that's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I'm very excited about it. I have multiple different people
helping me film so that we have more than one
body type on there, and it's men and women helping
me film so that we can show anyone can pull
dance and how it'll look with different body types. I
know my partner is always preferred learning from men because
it just like you better understand how your bodies are,
(38:12):
like wait center mass difference and everything, So it's nice
to see everybody's teaching styles. Love the representation.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yay, very excited about it, right, Yeah, thank you so
much for making that available to everyone, and also for
thinking about multiple body types in the same video too,
because that's something that I don't think I've seen.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yeah, each course will have at least two different people
showing you how to do the moves, so that you
can always like get an idea. Even if it's not
two people that one of them looks like you, you know,
different bodies will do it. Like, I'm not built the
same way as one of my teachers, who we call
her our sexy stick figure. I call her sexy stick figure.
(39:07):
She's like almost six feet tall and she's very thin
and she's lovely, but she's not built anything like me.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I found learning to teach that was one of the
biggest things that they did not emphasize in the certifications
I took, except Body by Friend that was a good
one where body types was a key figure. Not only
learning styles, but the different body types is so important
to learn how to teach. Oh yeah, and I feel
(39:41):
like a lot of certifications can do a better job
right there.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
I agree, right, even what we just discussed about, like
having short t rex arms and not being able to
reach behind us. Yes, that is a real thing that
you know, two of us in this space have, so
it must be more people as well.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Well, thank you for bringing up your website. Do you
have any other things that are up and coming for
you happening soon?
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I just set up time to be going down to
Metropolis Studio down Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with Metro Mike. I'm going
to be teaching some workshops down there on kIPS and
hard style, and I'm working on just setting up workshops
around visiting studios and getting things like that set up.
(40:36):
But that's the only one I have currently set. It's
for the first weekend in April.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yes, Metropolis. That's going to be so fun and kIPS
are always fun.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I know.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I don't see a lot of people teaching kIPS, so
I'm very excited to do it.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Oh, that's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
You're ever in the Springfield, Massachusetts area.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
I would love to We will talk after.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Right. I don't know if I'll be learning kIPS, but
provide that for those who want to.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
You can do it.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
I tried, and I'm scared.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
There's so many different kinds of kIPS though, you don't
even have to necessarily do like a full kip. You
can do like pole kIPS, you can do like lower
level kibs, se.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Funk, so many different ones kIPS for.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Mandy, for many hips, for many.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yes, one kip that you're obsessed.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
With, that'd be cool. I would do that well, especially
because you always do so much heal stuff.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
That just makes sense the hamstrings, trust them, I understand.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, I love this tour.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
I hope there'll be more dates on the tour soon.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Here's hoping yes. And then competitions this year, so I
will be doing PSO Liberty again. I am doing the
US Aerial Federation in South Carolina, and then i do
PSO Toronto every year because I'm very close to Toronto.
It's like a two and a half hour drive. And
(42:32):
I'll be back at Northeast And I'm also performing at
POCON this year in the freestyle showcase.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Oh this year is POCON is going to be fierce.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I'm so excited. I know we'll be admiring from Afar again.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Well, I don't know pocon has. Now they have a
grant to help people go. We can apply. I got
the email. I was like, oh, I should apply. Was
it Ipia something like one of them offers a grant.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I was like, oh my right, because that's really the
money thing is really the only thing.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Only it's expensive, but it's a great experience if you
can afford it.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
Yeah. Like I wanted to do a Body by Frands
train cation again because I absolutely loved it, but I
just cannot make it happen.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Yeah, mm hmm. Things are expensive.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
It's hard, yeah, right, but everything will happen in its
own time.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yes, more online stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Do you have a specific hand in body grip that
you use?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
I rotate it based on what I'm doing, So most
of the time I'm an eye tech on the body
and then dry hands on the hands, kind of girly.
But if I'm just doing like a quick training session
where I just want to practice a trick I found
on Instagram really fast, then I either do rosin spray
or I do monkey hands. But like the green bottle
(44:05):
gluey and that's just my quickie grips.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I love the eye tack and the monkey hands. I
don't know if I've heard the rosin spray.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
They're not allowed a lot of competitions because they're hard
to get off the pole, So that's why I only
use them for like quick things. But I don't even
know which one I have.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
I know that.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
It's just rosin, like the little rocks that they use
for silks and stuff put in alcohol.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Oh wow, I love fascinator.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
It's very sticky.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I wonder if that's the spray someone left us spray
at our studio, Chris, I don't know if you tried.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
It the purple one.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, it's really sticky, like it will stick your clothes
to yourself.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
It's like.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
I love.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah. Oh well, I think, oh, do you have any
free time? And what do you do with that free time?
Speaker 2 (45:19):
So I spend a lot of my free time either
at school or at work. Usually, like pole is my
free time, and then the rest of my life is school,
work and hanging out with my toddler. He's not a
toddler anymore. He's a child. He's four. He's a baby.
I don't know, he's just my little baby. But I
(45:41):
am in school working on some pre med stuff. I'm
working on finishing up a bachelor's degree right now in
biology and a planning planning to apply to med school.
And I work doing tissue procurement. So after you die,
after they take out all your organs, they can still
(46:02):
take your skin and bone and nerves and everything else.
And that's what I do.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
That is fascinated. OMG, I love that.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Oh yeah, I have a bunch of anatomical models next
to me. Actually, this is for those who are viewing.
There's a heart and a well anatomical person next to me.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
I am not about it.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
I saw the skeleton and I was like, oh, that's normal,
but no, you have some extra unnormal anatomical models that
people don't usually have. I didn't know you were in
the medical field.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
That's so awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh yeah, well that I guess that came in handy
when you got injured.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Unfortunately. Yes, I have all kinds of muscular and skeletal
models in my dance room actually, so I can see
exactly what's hurting me at certain times and understand how
to rest it. Oh my gosh, well.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
To your benefit, I guess.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
But no more.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Injuries though, like an amazing coach, because you also you know,
know all of everything. Oh, yes.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
I can't believe you have all the time to do
all of those things though, and still study.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I know, thank you for sharing that, because I'm like
in the same boat and sometimes I'm like why.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
It's overwhelming sometimes, but I make do I know?
Speaker 3 (47:37):
That's right? Oh no, that's right. That's all we can do.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Right then, do you have any self care or community
care tips to share with everyone?
Speaker 2 (47:51):
I personally just take a lot of time to decompress.
Like I take a nice hot bath once a week
and just waste the I don't care that it's like
people like, oh, baths are gross or anything. You know,
what rints off before or after, it doesn't matter, because
I think that, like it's nice to just get into
the zone, listen to either music or a podcast, and
(48:12):
just like relax and like let everything out. And then
I try to make a time to hang out with
my family and my friends and the people that matter
to me, because I think that that just helps decompress.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
I agree, eat.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
A comfort meal while you're sitting around, you know, have
some ice cream for dinner.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Comfort meals are my favorite, right, especially this time of year.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Oh yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Tonight, we're having game night with my step son, and
we're gonna have my favorite comfort food pizza.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yes, that sounds like fun.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
We had pizza last night.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
I love it. Mgee, where do you hope to see
yourself in the with Poe in five years? Yeah? Five years.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
I was love to be able to do all of
the tricks that are like my current work in progress
tricks or like dream tricks in the next five years
and be just pushing harder at getting new tricks. So
right now I'm working on flick flax and fly bys
and all sorts of power pole fun stuff, and my
(49:35):
goal is to have all new Nemesis tricks by the
time that the five year mark rols around and be
teaching more.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
I love that. And when you get your website started,
I will tell you it will be a lot of
admin work.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I'm sure, yeah, but fun. I'm worth it. I'm excited
and also like a little bit overwhelmed by it. But
it's okay, it's I know it'll be worth it.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Yeah, like I say it, Start your email list, email,
email list.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
Yes, and then just take it one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Oh yeah, you got this.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yeah, super exciting. Yay.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
I think that was all the questions that I had
for Mchaeleena.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
I know.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Lately we've been asking, do you find have we been asking?
I find sometimes we forget and sometimes we ask is
nutrition important for pol?
Speaker 2 (50:48):
I think to some extent, nutrition is important. Like I'm
a big like eat your protein kind of girl. But
I'm also not going to be like clean eating or
anything like that, because I think that that most people
don't need to think too hard about beyond just getting
like eating enough protein and eating enough food. I think
(51:13):
that one of the more important things is making sure
that you're eating food that you like. Thank you for
sharing that. Yeah, as someone who has tried so hard
in the past to like eat nothing but healthy foods,
you're just it's just sad. I would rather eat some
(51:34):
pasta and just have broccoli mixed into it than not
eat the pasta.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Yes, make it more tolerable. Like, yeah, I can't do
it about treats.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Oh my gosh, I'm literally gonna have ice cream after
we get off of this, So.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I can't do it without a treat.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
I need a sweet treat.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Sweet trees are fun. I'm cheese is like my thing,
but now I'm back tape the woods. You have to
take before you eat the cheese.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
The cheese betrayal. It's okay, you know what, cheese. It's
got a lot of protein that it's worth it.
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Yeah, I agree, I love it. I did. Oh, go ahead,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
Maybe when you train for competition, do you have to
like up the protein or anything like, do you find
you should change your.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
I think I stick with the same amount of protein
for the majority of the year. So I usually have
a protein drinker protein bar one of the two every
day because it gives me like a forced twenty grams.
And then I'm pretty good about eating a lot of
protein with my meals because I just keep like large
(52:57):
amounts of chicken breasts in my house and I usually
just make sure I'm having something like that with my food.
So if I'm having pasta, for example, because that's like
a comfort food for me, then I just make sure
I have either like chicken or beef in it, and
then put some broccoli or something in it. And then
I'm like, look, I still get to have my comfort food,
(53:18):
but I have protein in it and vegetables. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
It's the best of both worlds, comfort food and the
healthy stuff.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
Right. Yeah, that's not subtract.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
Because I think that's something that I always lack, is
the protein. And I always because I'm also vegetarian. But yeah,
I can like put some like like walnuts or something
in pasta. Probably lentils are great, just something else to
because I also like pasta.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
Yeah, black bean avocado pizza.
Speaker 2 (53:54):
Right, that sounds really good.
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Actually it is black bean avocado feta tomato Pizza's nice.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
Yeah, just some ways I'll get really tired and then
I'll be like, it's the protein.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Okay, it's the carbs that make me sluggish. Really, I
love the carbs.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
Thing. It's important to have them. Though your body runs
on carbs. People would say don't eat carbs or people
that are sad.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Right energy, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
M hmm.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Well, thank you for sharing those bits on nutrition and protein.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
You oh go ahead.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Oh no. I was wondering if you had any tips
for anyone who is starting out pole dancing.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
Try multiple teachers if you can, especially if there's more
than one studio in your area, Try multiple studios. Try
multiple teachers. I know it gets expensive, so even if
you're not going every week to a different person or
every week to the more expensive studio, because I know
there's one in my area that's a little more expensive
than the other. Just try to pop into any teacher
(55:14):
that you can find so that you can get more
of a broad learning spectrum.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
I love that, but it is a huge important tip.
The way you grow is to learn from different people,
different studios, different styles.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Right too.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Not every teacher is for everyone.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
Too.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
You might not really connect with the first teacher, Like,
don't let that turn you away.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
Yeah, don't get discouraged just because you don't click with somebody.
I've had teachers that I don't click with. There's one
teacher I don't click with that. I still sometimes go
to classes with her just because she's really good.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
I love it. Yes, and it's okay. I mean sometimes
we don't click with people, right.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, we're not supposed to be for everyone.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
I know almost eight billion people in the world. You'll
find your tribe.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Yeah, oh yes, right, especially since there's more online teachers
like you.
Speaker 4 (56:17):
Yes, I'm moving just because my phone's about to die,
I have Yeah, I did have one more question.
Speaker 3 (56:29):
We won't keep you longer.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Eye a POWERI you're good. I was good. I should
have brought my charger closer to where I was sitting.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
At least we get another view now, which is always fun.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Yes, there's my my bat picture.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
I love.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
I could see it a bit.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah it's kind of behind my head. Yes it's a
bat sitting on the moon.
Speaker 3 (56:55):
I love that. Gee, I did have one more thing
that I want to start asking, because yeah, a lot
of things in the poe industry. What do you hope
to see change in the poe industry in the future?
And this could be anything, maybe the way we portray
(57:15):
ourselves on social media, maybe gatekeeping in regards to people styles.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
I would like to see more people on social media
showing like their attempts to get a trick before they
just show like the perfection, Like I would, you know,
post your perfect video and then post your fails video
next to it and just show you're human. Because sometimes
I see those videos and I'm like, all right, I've
(57:47):
never done anything on the first try that beautiful even
though it's three thousandth try. And I think that I
would like more people to also start pushing instead of
the ABC see like you have to learn in this
order philosophy, like learning how your body feels best.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
I love that. Both things that I would love to
also see in the pole industry because it's it's so true,
and that is why I wanted to start asking this question.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
Is right, we definitely need more authenticity and the showing
all of the fails. I know Chris is really good
about that.
Speaker 3 (58:28):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
I try.
Speaker 3 (58:31):
People love to watch that show them love it though,
and it always is encouraging to show that other people
do like to watch that because it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
I love seeing fail videos. I know. I try to
post videos that are not necessarily like perfect, but it
shows how I got into it a little more clearly
if I'm posting a trick. I post a lot of
flow recently because I was dealing with the shoulder injury.
But now my shoulders feeling fun and so I'll be
back on posting tricks hopefully soon.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
Right, Like it's always good to show the journey and
I need to follow this advice.
Speaker 3 (59:11):
Yeah, And is this so hard to show how you
did it? Like what conditioning did you do, or like
you just woke up and said I'm gonna do it, or.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
How you got out of the trick, because sometimes you
get into it and you're like, cool, I'm going to
fall out now though, like.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
I'm not trying that again because look at what happened.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
I would love to see more people posting how they
get out of tricks thank you?
Speaker 5 (59:36):
Yes, oh my gosh, they probably didn't get out because
they just caught the video after they fell, just like
we did that.
Speaker 3 (59:48):
They need to post, right, Yeah, but like, just so.
Speaker 1 (59:51):
You know, I didn't get out of this in a
good way.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Yes, people like, go get out the same way you
got it, and I'm like I got in with nine
steps and hopes and three really tag me if you
get out of this safely? Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Oh, I like that question, Chrish, I like that good question.
Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Yeah. I mean there's been a lot of stuff in
the poe industry and especially about authenticity and how we
want to change and grow and think maybe we should
all start sharing it. I'm tired of the mean post
stars like making people feel like crap. How about we
learn and grow together?
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Yeah? Yeah, sharing and caring.
Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
And now I'm singing, I'm not going to do have
anything else to say to anyone listening or watching this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
I can't think of anything I think I've really touched
on all I wanted to talk about like you know,
check out my website. Keep being a positive influencer yourself,
eat enough protein and make sure you have ice cream
for dinner. Sometimes you know, what's.
Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
The next metal song you're gonna dance to?
Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
So my next song is actually I'm doing a performance
just in my studio to a cover of Paparazzi. It's
by Kim Dracula, who's an artist I like a lot.
I love Kim Dracula. Yes, so that's my next song
(01:01:31):
that I'm performing to in my studio. I'll be posting
those videos once those are once that performance is done.
It's for Valentine's Day. It's cute, so they should be
up by the time this is out. Yeah, and then
my song for competition next year, I'll share because you
know what, worst case scenario, someone else realizes it's good
(01:01:52):
and then I get to show them up. Anyways, it's
actually Overdose by Grandson.
Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
I have not heard that one, Yeah, but I will
Overdose by Grandson.
Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
It's a good song.
Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
May all start creating a routine and I'm just kidding me.
Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Versus Mandy, we both show up with the same song
at the company. We're both at Northeast. I danced to
Overdose by Grandson in the evening.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I could already I already know what I say. Didn't
we hear the song?
Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Oh my god, that would.
Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Be so funny if we did that just for like
a joke. We were like, oh my god, it's like
the same routine.
Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
I'm doing it in sneakers, so you're gonna have to
pull up.
Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
It's interesting, like so many people go to PSO and
it's rare that people have the same song, like, it's interesting.
It doesn't happen quite often.
Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Well, there was.
Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
It was two in a row of the I Put
a Spell on You And it was so funny too
because it was like zip Bird, so it was like
different category com Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
And they had the same song and we were like.
Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
The second person it was.
Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
The same version of the song, because you know, there's
all sorts of different copy like covers and yeah, yeah,
but that was wild. Yeah, but that would be funny.
Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
It would be funny. I wouldn't even be mad if
it happened to just be funny. If someone hears this
and like listens to it and it's like I'm gonna
go to Toronto with that one, then you know what that's cool.
I hope I compete directly against you, and I hope
that we both kill it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Yes, well, you have a beautiful, wonderful attitude. Well, thank
you so much for sharing your your wonderful journey and
all of the stories that you shared, and all of
your brilliant wisdom as well.
Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Of course, yeah, yes, this has been farn It's been
so nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Can't wait to see you again on the PSO journey,
of course.
Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
I can't wait to see you again. Yes, yes, love
to That would be so awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
I will be contacting you commedtely, following lovely. But in
the meantime, Thank you everyone so much for listening to
or watching this episode of Pull on the Call podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
My name is Mardy, Meg.
Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Christopher.
Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Mcalina also us or sorry Gothic Baby Doll also known
as Mikalina, for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
This was fun.
Hello everyone, Welcome back to Pull on the Call podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My name is Mandy.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
Mac and I am Chris Rivers, and today.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
We are here with the amazing poll coach and competitor
Gothic Baby Doll also known as Midelina.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Yay yay for being here with us.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Thank you for having me. I'm sorry, my cat's being
really like loud in the background by the way. Sorry, Yes,
we love pet visits. Yes, little Greg is a loud mouth.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I know.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
That's so cute. Actually, now we need to see more
of little Greg.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Oh god, yeah, such precious animals. I love them so sweet.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Just a baby about to turn one.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
W wow.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Still it is, yes, so funny or experimental.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Anyway, we'll get more into little Greg later. Oh, for now,
we should start with the beginning of your pole journey.
What got you into Poldian sane?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Though it was seven years ago as of early January
twenty twenty five, so it was January twenty eighteen that
I started because I saw a really cool video of
Bethany Finlay on a lira over a stream, and I
was like, well, I want to learn to do that,
and so I started researching studios in my area that
(01:47):
did Lira and then they also did poll, so I
was like, well, I guess I'm going to do pole too,
because I want to learn Lira and it's here. So
I just started going to pole passes every week and
doing Ariel sometimes but mostly just kind of stuck with
Pole and became like primarily a poll answer. I say,
(02:11):
I'm like painfully mediocre at everything else, but I will
do any apparatus that's made of metal, so Lira trapeez.
I have an aerial umbrella that some people have seen.
I've used it at Polecon last year. I've done aerial cube,
but I don't do silks.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
M I I haven't seen the umbrella or im G,
I have to check that out. That sounds fun.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
It's so fun, right, I don't know that because I
looked at the pictures that you sent. It looks really
really cool.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Really fun.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
It's like surprisingly difficult to use because it's like having
a pole and then the world's smallest, like thinnest Lira
and it's I'm five feet tall, so I can actually
stand up in it, but not everyone can stand in it.
That's that's so cool, just barely.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
But would you say poll's your favorite so far?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
For sure. I spend the most time on pole. I
stuck with it the most out of every apparatus, and
I am a lot more advanced at pole than I
am at other apparatuses, So I think that that's part
of why I like it as much as I do.
Is I'm like, well, look, I'm good at this one though,
whereas the other ones, I'm like a very intermediate student.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Oh, I definitely understand. Do you find though, that the
other apparatuses help you with pole, like cross training or
a little.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Chain, Absolutely, especially like because you're using the same muscles
in different ways. I think it helps a lot with
like being able to to do more pole pull ups
because if you can do like a trapeze pull up,
you can do a pole pull up or climbing and
grip strength because like the ropes on the trapeez are
(04:12):
a different type of grippy than the pole is.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I love that. I agree. I've done Lira so far
and soaks, and both of them I was like, holy hell,
this is like completely different but so awesome.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
Oh yes, right, I like the Lira, but I am
with you, though I do not like silks.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
They're just not for me. It's too floppy.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
Yeah, yeah, I love the soaks. I was obsessed with
like how everything had a procedure, like the specific ways
you had to wrap the soak. I don't know why
it was. I followed the fascinating, but I will say
it hurt my hands the most by the end of it,
like I was like, I cannot move.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I think they're so pretty to look at when people
are good, especially then I'm like wow, but I just
I can't understand it. I go to climate and I'm like,
it keeps moving.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And I think soaks has the best drops.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Well for sure. The crazy tumbles from like twenty something
feet in the air and they just like down to
the bottom and then they land beautifully. How that would
feel like It's just like it's like I scream. I scream,
(05:38):
but maybe it's fine.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I also did it.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
I don't have any patience to wrap myself and in
all of the things I couldn't.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's just not for me. It's like I'll do. I
say I'm a metals girly because my studio does both
pull and aeriel. I always just am there for the
metals and then we have like the fabrics people and
they all hang out on the silks and I'll like
sit with them and look clueless and amazed at the
(06:06):
same time.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, but did you have any dancer movement background before
trying pole and aeriels.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
I didn't have any dance background. I was actually a
senior in high school when I started poll just to
make sure that everyone knows that I'm just a baby.
So I was on the cross country team, and I
was on the track team as a pole vaulter. But
I was like, once again, just like a very intermediate
pole vaulter. You know, I could get to like seven
(06:40):
feet and some change, and that's still pretty scary, you know,
just jumping that high. But only for like the four
years of high school did I do those things beyond that,
no athletic background whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Oh my gosh, have you ever thought of combining pole
vaulting and pulled?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
People always joke with me that I went from one
pole to another.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Like imagine if you, like you like did the vault
and you were like up in the air and you
did like a butterfly before you came down, like just that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I wish I would have thought of something like that
back when I was a pole vaulter, and I sometimes
say like, I bet I could go back and be
a pole vaulter and be better than I was in
high school, because now I'm a lot stronger. Like in
high school, I was one of those people that was
afraid to have muscles, like you know when the girls like,
I don't want to get bulky, and so I was
like really small, And now I am not because I'm
(07:41):
I've recognized that I actually love the way that I
look with more muscle on myself. It feels strong. I
remember being like, I don't want to do too many
arm workouts. I don't want my arms to get big,
and so I was like, that was probably part of
why I wasn't as good as other people. No, I've
(08:05):
learned my lesson. I realize now that I was wrong
and that I'm actually super cute with big arms.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yes, right, and they serve a purpose too.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Oh yeah, I'm like pulling myself up on the pole
doing all sorts of flippy tricks, and I'm like, okay, okay,
we love a strong lady.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, I wait for five ten years down the line,
you retry pole vo. I could picture a pole volting
onto the pole.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
I have to make a routine about it.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
I love it. Oh my goodness. So what would you
say is your favorite type of style if you have any.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm a big fan of both power pole and hard
style Exotic. Those are my two go tos.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Power Pole is amazing. Hard Style I want to I
love it.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
I love a good like heel clack all over everything.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, yeah, it looks too fast. I feel like I
feel like I'm not ready, like I could do power pole,
but like that those fast transition and heels.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
One day, it's so fun. You got to just get
in there and really start going for it, because I
think that what's harder is when you try to break
it down slowly for people, like when you're teaching them,
and then it's like, okay, so you're gonna hold this post,
and like, can you hold it a little longer so
I can get into it and you're just sitting there
straddling for like a minute.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Oh I can imagine. With the heels, it makes it
added challenge.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You got ankle weights on pretty much.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I love it. I have to try it. Mainly has
been telling me I have to try it.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
You should listen, right, but your footy has to heal.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Oh yeah, it will no more booboos. As the Queen
of the injuries.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I oh no, yeah, injury journey.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yes. So uh, starting last year, I had injured my
wrist and then I got a concussion right before Northeast
last year or two years ago now it was twenty
twenty three, and so I had like missed Toronto, which
(10:37):
is one of the competitions that I like to go
to in twenty twenty three because I had been in
a car accident. Healed up really nicely, everything was fine
for several months, nothing crazy happened. And then right before Polecon,
I sprained my ankle. So if you were to go
back and watch the videos from Polecon, you can see
that I'm wearing an ankle brace. I do a cartwheel
(10:58):
and kind of like wobble over because I had a
sprained ankle, and then I broke my wrist as soon
as my ankle healed. So that's why I sat out
at Liberty this year this past year in twenty twenty four,
and I was judging with you, Mandy, because I had
a broken wrist. And then now I am rehabbing a
(11:20):
shoulder injury that's going pretty well. It seems like I'm
pretty good. I can move around with full mobility again.
It just sometimes is a little pinchy.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Now, now that you have said all of those things,
I remember when we first met you were all broken. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
So now it makes me even more amazed that you
were on stage in November and you killed it and
two routines.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Yeah, well I had to use the one that I
didn't get to use, and then I had already planned
on doing the other ones, so I had to put
them both out there. I didn't get to use one
of them, but that was amazing. You healed up and
you're great. Yes, this year I'm planning on we have
people on injury patrol. I'm not allowed to hurt myself
(12:11):
this year.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Or ever.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
No more injuries. We're being very careful. But I'm hoping
that not to say that I did. I didn't do
as well as I wanted to do this year because
of the injury. And I know that that's why, because
I didn't get as much practice time and so there
was just hiccups that didn't get to get worked out.
So the goal is to not get injured this year
(12:35):
and then be able to put out my best work.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yes, and you're going to do it, yes, yes, I may.
I ask yeah, did you learn from the injuries and
do you mind sharing for other fold dancers who might
go through the same thing or be going through the
same thing.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yes. So the heart part for me was that it
took a lot away from my training, but I learned
how to work around my training. So with the ankle,
that was actually not as hard to deal with because
luckily you can kind of be on one foot, and
it made me have to train like up in the
air more, which was good. I felt a lot stronger,
(13:20):
and then I broke my wrist actually doing pole. I
did like a cool flip I caught and then I
fell on the floor after I like landed, so it
was like I stumbled and then I fell and it
was just snapped right at the wrists. I was like,
what an embarrassing injury because it was just me tripping
(13:42):
on the floor essentially. But I did a lot of
core and I learned how to train one handed, so
just doing like tucks where instead of holding the pole
in like a stronghold true grip situation, I'm using only
one hand and then like stay my armpit to hold
(14:02):
on and just kept making sure I was keeping up
with conditioning, a lot of core with the broken wrist,
a lot of stretching, just trying to not lose too
much strength. And luckily it wasn't a super bad break,
so it was only a couple of months before I
was able to get back up and be able to
hold weight on it again. It still sometimes gets sore
(14:24):
with like handstands and stuff. But I actually developed one
of my workshops based on that. So I have one
that's called Oops All Elbows because I would do elbow
grip tricks because that's all you had.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's genius. So I love a good elbow grip.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Oh they're my favorite.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Now there's fun and you can surprisingly do so many
things with them, like right side up and upside down.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Oh yeah, I was like upside down climbing in like
a caterpillar climb. Broken. There's a video on my Instagram.
I think it's pinned where you can see I'm like
invert climbing.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
I like, no, oh, I think you were frozen.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Oh no, no.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
We're stuck in a caterpillar climb.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
I love it. I've been working on that lately.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Oh there you are. Oh my gosh, thank you for
reminding us, like how creative you can be when you
have an injury, Like how creative you have to be,
Oh yeah, and like what good could come from it
and you don't have to be totally out of your practice.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
Oh yeah. I was very sad about it, for sure,
because I was like, I can't train and I can't compete.
I remember being in Philly and I had to walk
out for a little bit because I was so sad.
I wasn't up on stage competing, and I like just
walked out into the parking lot with my partner and
I was like, I'm just really depressed. Now I got
(16:11):
back in there.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
It's fine.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
It was fine. It was at the end of the day.
I was like I learned by watching how everybody else did,
and I just got myself back on the horse as
soon as I was better.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Yes, right, And you were super supportive through all of it,
so like you were all part of everything.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Even I felt like I was still a part of
everything because I was helping with the judging and volunteering.
So it was nice because I got to cheer everybody on.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Oh, thank you for sharing all of that.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
I think that's important for people to hear because unfortunately,
injuries are a part of that many people's pull dance dream.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, oh goodness, good times. I love the elbow grip
stuff too.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Counterpillar, I do not like the elbow group, but I
feel like for my hypermobility is probably something I should
work on more.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I understand.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Well, let's talk a little bit about how long into
your poll dance journey did you start being a coach.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I started coaching only in the end of twenty twenty three.
It was after I started competing and traveling more for
pole that people at my studio and in my area
started being like, oh, I wish that you were teaching,
And so I started offering private coaching because I wanted
to be able to spread pole dancing and traveling for
(17:43):
poll dance and like the wider community outside of our area.
And now I was I'm working on getting more online
coaching set up so that I can teach people via
videos and from outside my area. I actually am coaching
one girl that lives in Connecticut for this upcoming season.
(18:05):
I'm very excited.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
That is exciting, and I love private coaching. It's so fun.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
It's so fun. I love taking private lessons, which is
definitely something that pushed me is I was taking private lessons,
both in person and online, and the private lessons I
took online helped a lot with like cleaning up my fundamentals,
like shoulder mounts and inverts.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I agree, it's a different FEO.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Are great things you can practice at home because a
lot of you know, home polers, we've got like short poles. Yeah,
do on like combos and stuff.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
I'm very fortunate that my ceilings are almost ten feet tall,
so I do have a pretty tall home pole. But
I certainly think that home polling is still hard because
like I don't know if it's just me, but when
I'm at the studio, for some reason, I can grip
ten times better than I can know my home pole.
My home pole is four years old now, it's broken in.
(19:13):
It just doesn't like I'm not sticky on it sometimes.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Right, I feel like that too, Like I'll try my
best at home, but it's something about like I don't know,
you need like all your friends around or something.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yeah, I need moral support. But no.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
I love the online classes and I love that you
offer them, and I think that it's really important, especially
if there's not like a lot of whole studios in
your area. Yeah, and I noticed in your bio you
said that you coach in ways that are less conventional,
and I wondered if you might offer some examples as
to some of those ways.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Yeah, So that tends to be because I learned how
to invert in a really not great technique kind of way,
and I learned how to shoulder mount with bad techniques.
So those were habits I had to break before I
was able to do them properly. And so because of that,
(20:15):
I learned how to like handspring before I was able
to have a good shoulder mount and before I was
able to have a good invert. Like my shoulder mounts
are still up there on tricks that y'all almost never
see me do. But I learned to handspring a lot
faster because I learned that with good technique. And I
had also influenced me to encourage people to drop down
(20:41):
into like a jazmine rather than inverting a lot, so
that they can get into those harder tricks. And so
I tend to push people to get into tricks that
are what they might think they can't do just because
they can't like conventionally invert and chopper very well, just
because if you can drop down an invert, you can
(21:02):
get into a lot more tricks than you realize. And
I think that a lot of people can do harder
tricks than they realize.
Speaker 3 (21:11):
I agree, there's so many ways to get upside down
besides inverting.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Or like the like baby invert where you're doing like
a split grip and you kind of like apprentice your
way up.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I love it. That's a fun one too. I find
that one it's tough.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
I think that just because of how I learned, that
one tends to be a little bit easier for me
because I was taught to just run and jump to
invert when I first learned. My first ever teacher was
not someone who was the safest. So it took me
a couple of years to break some bad habits.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I believe it. We all get those bad habits.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Might yeah, just makes us better coaches because we know
what we don't we should not be doing, or what
was not good. Yeah. Yeah, I agree that the lowering
down into the inverts is you know, empowering because then
(22:18):
you can do so many more things.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, well, like I would be teaching someone who's a
lower level inverter and can only drop down. I think
they can still do moves like Pegasus and things like that.
Or I learned how to get into a brass monkey
in every other way besides shoulder mounting, like handstand into it,
(22:43):
drop down into it from Genie. Every single way that
you could think of besides shoulder mounting is how I
learned how to do it first.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Right, Yeah, there's a bizillion different ways, Like everybody, everyone's
body is different. I think it's funny to eat you
mentioned you're like stronger in the split grip, Like I
don't even understand what that means. Like that's like my
least favorite and I'm so weak and I'll never do
an ayesha.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
See I love. I love a split grip. I can't
do the behind the back grip because I just have
short little dinosaur arms. Same right, I feel like they're
gonna like spring off, yes, Like I feel like I'm
gonna dislocate my shoulder if I do.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Yeah, yeah right, those are for me either, And it's
okay to say no, yes, we gotta start teaching that more.
I feel social media is just like do the thing. No,
it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
Right yeah right, And like I can't do it an
iguana in the air, but I can do.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
A floor iguana. Oh I think that's harder.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
I agree, really, yeah, it was much harder.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Everybody's body is so different. That's why I coach based
on how your body wants to move rather than like
a you have to do it in ABC order kind
of way. Yes, I love that.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Do you have any other teaching philosophies to share?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I this is something I was working on a lot
with my friends when we were on our way to Northeast,
because I was coaching a lot of them on how
to do competitions. None of them have had ever done one,
and I was the only person in our circle or
in our area really that had done competitions. And I
was like, I want you to just remember you're supposed
to be enjoying yourself and you're supposed to be like
(24:44):
doing moves that feel good to you, Like poll is
about feeling good. Because they were all stressed out, and
I was like, guys, stop being stressed.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
That's some great advice for competitive and for teachers. Are like,
just keep having fun.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Mm hmm. Right.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
I was talking to somebody about that the other day
because I was like, why would you want to be
on stage showing a trick that makes you feel terrible when.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
You're like fake smiling through the trick because it hurts
so bad, Like I can't.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Why would you want to do that?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Because I want to put a spash cock on stage.
That's why I put my body through it. Let me you.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Know, we all want to put a spatchcock on stage.
Everyone wants to broken Mirchenko's so bad, but I can't.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I don't know. I'll be happy with a broken.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Doll, right, Like, if the broken doll feels good, then
I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
Most of the time it.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
Does not feel good, so we'll have a broken doll variation.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yes, a stiff broken doll.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
A Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Well, since we're on poll tricks, do you have any
favorite pull tricks to share?
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
My favorite pull trick is probably Bird of Paradise Love It.
Speaker 3 (26:28):
That is a beautiful one.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
It's just it was one that when I figured out
I could do it, I was like, well, I'm never
putting this away. It's in my pocket forever now.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Any flexibility training tips.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I before I had my son, which my son is
four and a half years old now, so this is
it's been a while. I was a contortionist, and so
I stretch every day for fifteen minutes now at least
fifteen to thirty minutes, because I don't want to lose
that flexibility. And I try to just change positions every
(27:05):
minute to thirty seconds or so and go between different
splits and backbending things. Some days I focus more on
my back, some days I focus more on my splits.
But just make sure you're stretching as often as you can,
like even active rest days where you stretch.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
Yeah, I was gonna say, you have like a pretty
good balance of like strength and flexibility. I thank you
for that tip. Like I need to get better with
my stretching, especially my backbending.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Every day, my partner and I we do fifteen minutes
of core and then we do fifteen minutes of flexibility training,
which is mostly him pushing me into flexibility tricks rather
than him doing it. But we do our best.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Oh my god. Also, your partner is like the most supportive,
amazing part nor ever shout out yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Matthew was lovely. He was so excited. He loves going
to competitions and just cheering everybody on. He's like the
happiest little thing.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes, right, and didn't he have to he had to
go to work at one of them, didn't he we extra?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
It was his stage monitor. Yes, and he had so
much fun. He like made an Instagram because of the
amount of people that were like, you're so nice, let
me follow you Instagram. So now he has an Instagram
solely because I want to say it was. The owner
of Ari's Aerial Arts came up and was like, my
girls keep telling them to keep telling me that you're
so nice.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
I'll have to volunteer again because everyone will be waiting
for it.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Yeah. He shows up with a suit on. He's like
in a three piece suit and ready to roll every day. Love.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
It was awesome everyone together. Hopefully it should Yes.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
Yes, he will be doing a Level one routine hopefully
this year as well. So fingers crossed there. That's amazing. Yeah,
tell yeah, that is exciting.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
See how the whole industry just scoops.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Everyone up as it should, like the best industry to
be in the Yes, oh we should.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
We didn't go into your whole competition journey. Do you
want to go into Have you only done pso? Have
you done other competitions?
Speaker 2 (29:33):
So I've only done PSO because I was supposed to
do the US Aerial Federation competition this past July, but
I had a broken wrist. So this year I will
be doing it, but as of right now, I've only
done PSO.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
That's gonna be awesome. Good grip. US Aerial Federation. Goodness,
I I know I know about them. When you have
to do a virtual submission for that first, right, you
actually don't.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
So. I am on the Membership Committee and the Athlete's
Advisory Committee for the US Aeral Federation, so I was
quite lucky because I get to like pick at the
brains of Tanya, the head of the US Areal Federation,
a little bit more than other people will do. And
they were at Pole Collon this year. That's how I
(30:28):
got involved with them. And they let you just sign up,
so if you're signing up for amateur, you can just
kind of show up and do whatever I was doing. Amateur,
not sport, amateur, artistic. I'm an artistic pollar more than
(30:51):
a sport pollar for sure.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
That's awesome. I did not know they did that. That's
good to know.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
You can submit the videos to get feedback ahead of time,
and like get an idea of what they're looking for,
but you aren't required to.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
I was thinking about becoming a member because I know
it's a wonderful federation. She does Anya Christopher does an
amazing job.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Oh yes she does. And we're trying to get pull
into the Olympics. So you know, the more people the
better that goes.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Yes, and Morris is a beautiful studio.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Oh my gosh. I love looking at their videos because
it's just pretty like visually and they're so professional.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yes they are. I got to do her website. That
was fun. Oh that was a good time. US Areal
Federation yond other competition, you should try out.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yes, yeah. If Land of Lakes happens again this year,
I know Miss Angie, the her of Whole Artco that
runs Land of Lakes, I would consider competing with them.
She was saying she's not sure if she's gonna run
the festival again this year. I taught there last year
and I performed there, but I didn't compete.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Somebody else imagined that. I forget who.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
I saw it on Instagram the post she put about it.
So I hope everything for the best. Miss Angie's another dancer.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
I love Miss Angie so much. She's actually someone I
took a lot of online private lessons with.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Yay I was but the best for her this year.
Oh yeah, m we never asked about your Poe nemesis neither.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Uh. It's probably dragontail because of the fact it's like
the behind the back move and it just makes me
feel like I'm gonna fall down and die.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
That it's so bad. So I trained my ass off
to get that one until I felt good. But every
time I go into it, I'm like, remember, Mandy, if
it doesn't feel good, don't do it.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
It scares me and I'm always like I'm about to
fall on my face. So I don't even try it anymore.
I just accept that that one's not going to live
in my in my repertoire who.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
It is a beautiful shape, not an everyday thing. It's beautiful,
it's gorgeous and there's so many things you could do
with the shape.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Too, But like, if it goes wrong, I feel like
I'm going to just like roll out of it everything.
That's how it feels like.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
It's if you're not like if you're shoulder Yeah, oh
my gosh, I would never fang in it. Though, Oh no,
like really people do that.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I think it looks so cool when they do. I
just can't write. I would like, you're just on that
arm bar.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
Come on.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Yeah, I can't even imagine the amount of shoulder mobility
and flexibility to be able to do that have your
arm wrapped around. Like even now I do this, it's like,
ooh are you tight right now?
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Right? Yeah? Right, must be lots of mobility exercises.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Oh yeah, solder mobility.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I have.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Less so than I have, like a back mobility, but
it's still there, just the like whole I'm like a
wider lady and then I got dinosaur like t rex arms.
It's just it's never happening. Oh my gosh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
That's all right.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
Our bodies are always changing and growing.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
Anything's possible in the future. It's just not for me
at this time.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, so I understand completely.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well I was when we were talking about online learning too.
Did you learn mostly online or did you learn mostly
in person?
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Or probably about fifty to fifty. So there's two studios
in my area now that are both very good, reputable studios.
It's a real Arts of Rochester and rock Pole Fitness
shout out to both of them, great teachers at both.
But when you start to get to like higher levels,
(35:29):
then I think it's harder to find people to train you,
and it's harder to find classes to go to. So
that's when I've found that online lessons have helped a lot,
and then cleaning up my technique and learning things that
aren't taught at either of those studios.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
I think that's awesome because just going back to like
sometimes there's poll answers in areas that don't have any
studios and like, do you have any tips or anyone
who wants to like dedicate themselves to an online learning
journey because you have to be more dedicated, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
I agree. I think that you have to make sure
you're setting a schedule for yourself, So try and go
like three days a week or something like that for
an hour or however long you feel is the correct amount.
I try to train almost every day doing either pole
or some form of cross training for pole, and use
(36:31):
more than one program. So I like a lot of
the different like Pull Power Academy, Pull Destroyers, lots of
different programs like that are all really good and you
should try a bunch of them.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
I love that those are all very good programs and
good advice. It's hard to be a home poler because
you're right Mandy as well too. You have to the
motivation and like gothic baby does make. Alina said as well,
it's not easy to find like higher level classes all
the time.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Speaking of online classes, I am working on setting up
a website right now for online classes, so it'll be
up soon, should be up when this episode comes out.
It's baby Dolls poll Studio dot com. Very simple and
it's got conditioning and so far low and intermediate level
(37:35):
classes with comprehensive videos.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
I love that. And we'll have that link in the
notes and comments for when this video airs for people
and we get it. Yes, exciting, that's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:50):
I'm very excited about it. I have multiple different people
helping me film so that we have more than one
body type on there, and it's men and women helping
me film so that we can show anyone can pull
dance and how it'll look with different body types. I
know my partner is always preferred learning from men because
it just like you better understand how your bodies are,
(38:12):
like wait center mass difference and everything, So it's nice
to see everybody's teaching styles. Love the representation.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, that's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Yay, very excited about it, right, Yeah, thank you so
much for making that available to everyone, and also for
thinking about multiple body types in the same video too,
because that's something that I don't think I've seen.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Yeah, each course will have at least two different people
showing you how to do the moves, so that you
can always like get an idea. Even if it's not
two people that one of them looks like you, you know,
different bodies will do it. Like, I'm not built the
same way as one of my teachers, who we call
her our sexy stick figure. I call her sexy stick figure.
(39:07):
She's like almost six feet tall and she's very thin
and she's lovely, but she's not built anything like me.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
I found learning to teach that was one of the
biggest things that they did not emphasize in the certifications
I took, except Body by Friend that was a good
one where body types was a key figure. Not only
learning styles, but the different body types is so important
to learn how to teach. Oh yeah, and I feel
(39:41):
like a lot of certifications can do a better job
right there.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
I agree, right, even what we just discussed about, like
having short t rex arms and not being able to
reach behind us. Yes, that is a real thing that
you know, two of us in this space have, so
it must be more people as well.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Oh for sure.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
Well, thank you for bringing up your website. Do you
have any other things that are up and coming for
you happening soon?
Speaker 2 (40:15):
I just set up time to be going down to
Metropolis Studio down Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with Metro Mike. I'm going
to be teaching some workshops down there on kIPS and
hard style, and I'm working on just setting up workshops
around visiting studios and getting things like that set up.
(40:36):
But that's the only one I have currently set. It's
for the first weekend in April.
Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yes, Metropolis. That's going to be so fun and kIPS
are always fun.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I know.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
I don't see a lot of people teaching kIPS, so
I'm very excited to do it.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
Oh, that's going to be awesome.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
You're ever in the Springfield, Massachusetts area.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
I would love to We will talk after.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yay.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Right. I don't know if I'll be learning kIPS, but
provide that for those who want to.
Speaker 3 (41:17):
You can do it.
Speaker 2 (41:19):
I tried, and I'm scared.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
There's so many different kinds of kIPS though, you don't
even have to necessarily do like a full kip. You
can do like pole kIPS, you can do like lower
level kibs, se.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
Funk, so many different ones kIPS for.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Mandy, for many hips, for many.
Speaker 3 (41:39):
Yes, one kip that you're obsessed.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
With, that'd be cool. I would do that well, especially
because you always do so much heal stuff.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
That just makes sense the hamstrings, trust them, I understand.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, I love this tour.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
I hope there'll be more dates on the tour soon.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Here's hoping yes. And then competitions this year, so I
will be doing PSO Liberty again. I am doing the
US Aerial Federation in South Carolina, and then i do
PSO Toronto every year because I'm very close to Toronto.
It's like a two and a half hour drive. And
(42:32):
I'll be back at Northeast And I'm also performing at
POCON this year in the freestyle showcase.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
Oh this year is POCON is going to be fierce.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I'm so excited. I know we'll be admiring from Afar again.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Well, I don't know pocon has. Now they have a
grant to help people go. We can apply. I got
the email. I was like, oh, I should apply. Was
it Ipia something like one of them offers a grant.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
I was like, oh my right, because that's really the
money thing is really the only thing.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Only it's expensive, but it's a great experience if you
can afford it.
Speaker 3 (43:18):
Yeah. Like I wanted to do a Body by Frands
train cation again because I absolutely loved it, but I
just cannot make it happen.
Speaker 2 (43:25):
Yeah, mm hmm. Things are expensive.
Speaker 1 (43:28):
It's hard, yeah, right, but everything will happen in its
own time.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Yes, more online stuff.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Do you have a specific hand in body grip that
you use?
Speaker 2 (43:45):
I rotate it based on what I'm doing, So most
of the time I'm an eye tech on the body
and then dry hands on the hands, kind of girly.
But if I'm just doing like a quick training session
where I just want to practice a trick I found
on Instagram really fast, then I either do rosin spray
or I do monkey hands. But like the green bottle
(44:05):
gluey and that's just my quickie grips.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
I love the eye tack and the monkey hands. I
don't know if I've heard the rosin spray.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
They're not allowed a lot of competitions because they're hard
to get off the pole, So that's why I only
use them for like quick things. But I don't even
know which one I have.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
I know that.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
It's just rosin, like the little rocks that they use
for silks and stuff put in alcohol.
Speaker 3 (44:37):
Oh wow, I love fascinator.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
It's very sticky.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I wonder if that's the spray someone left us spray
at our studio, Chris, I don't know if you tried.
Speaker 3 (44:49):
It the purple one.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Yeah, it's really sticky, like it will stick your clothes
to yourself.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
It's like.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
I love.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
Yeah. Oh well, I think, oh, do you have any
free time? And what do you do with that free time?
Speaker 2 (45:19):
So I spend a lot of my free time either
at school or at work. Usually, like pole is my
free time, and then the rest of my life is school,
work and hanging out with my toddler. He's not a
toddler anymore. He's a child. He's four. He's a baby.
I don't know, he's just my little baby. But I
(45:41):
am in school working on some pre med stuff. I'm
working on finishing up a bachelor's degree right now in
biology and a planning planning to apply to med school.
And I work doing tissue procurement. So after you die,
after they take out all your organs, they can still
(46:02):
take your skin and bone and nerves and everything else.
And that's what I do.
Speaker 3 (46:09):
That is fascinated. OMG, I love that.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Oh yeah, I have a bunch of anatomical models next
to me. Actually, this is for those who are viewing.
There's a heart and a well anatomical person next to me.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
I am not about it.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
I saw the skeleton and I was like, oh, that's normal,
but no, you have some extra unnormal anatomical models that
people don't usually have. I didn't know you were in
the medical field.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
That's so awesome.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Oh yeah, well that I guess that came in handy
when you got injured.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Unfortunately. Yes, I have all kinds of muscular and skeletal
models in my dance room actually, so I can see
exactly what's hurting me at certain times and understand how
to rest it. Oh my gosh, well.
Speaker 1 (47:10):
To your benefit, I guess.
Speaker 2 (47:12):
But no more.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Injuries though, like an amazing coach, because you also you know,
know all of everything. Oh, yes.
Speaker 2 (47:21):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
I can't believe you have all the time to do
all of those things though, and still study.
Speaker 3 (47:27):
I know, thank you for sharing that, because I'm like
in the same boat and sometimes I'm like why.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
It's overwhelming sometimes, but I make do I know?
Speaker 3 (47:37):
That's right? Oh no, that's right. That's all we can do.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Right then, do you have any self care or community
care tips to share with everyone?
Speaker 2 (47:51):
I personally just take a lot of time to decompress.
Like I take a nice hot bath once a week
and just waste the I don't care that it's like
people like, oh, baths are gross or anything. You know,
what rints off before or after, it doesn't matter, because
I think that, like it's nice to just get into
the zone, listen to either music or a podcast, and
(48:12):
just like relax and like let everything out. And then
I try to make a time to hang out with
my family and my friends and the people that matter
to me, because I think that that just helps decompress.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
I agree, eat.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
A comfort meal while you're sitting around, you know, have
some ice cream for dinner.
Speaker 1 (48:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Comfort meals are my favorite, right, especially this time of year.
Speaker 2 (48:40):
Oh yeah, I'm.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
Tonight, we're having game night with my step son, and
we're gonna have my favorite comfort food pizza.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yes, that sounds like fun.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
We had pizza last night.
Speaker 3 (48:55):
I love it. Mgee, where do you hope to see
yourself in the with Poe in five years? Yeah? Five years.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
I was love to be able to do all of
the tricks that are like my current work in progress
tricks or like dream tricks in the next five years
and be just pushing harder at getting new tricks. So
right now I'm working on flick flax and fly bys
and all sorts of power pole fun stuff, and my
(49:35):
goal is to have all new Nemesis tricks by the
time that the five year mark rols around and be
teaching more.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
I love that. And when you get your website started,
I will tell you it will be a lot of
admin work.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I'm sure, yeah, but fun. I'm worth it. I'm excited
and also like a little bit overwhelmed by it. But
it's okay, it's I know it'll be worth it.
Speaker 3 (50:11):
Yeah, like I say it, Start your email list, email,
email list.
Speaker 1 (50:16):
Yes, and then just take it one day at a time.
Speaker 3 (50:22):
Oh yeah, you got this.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yeah, super exciting. Yay.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
I think that was all the questions that I had
for Mchaeleena.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
I know.
Speaker 3 (50:36):
Lately we've been asking, do you find have we been asking?
I find sometimes we forget and sometimes we ask is
nutrition important for pol?
Speaker 2 (50:48):
I think to some extent, nutrition is important. Like I'm
a big like eat your protein kind of girl. But
I'm also not going to be like clean eating or
anything like that, because I think that that most people
don't need to think too hard about beyond just getting
like eating enough protein and eating enough food. I think
(51:13):
that one of the more important things is making sure
that you're eating food that you like. Thank you for
sharing that. Yeah, as someone who has tried so hard
in the past to like eat nothing but healthy foods,
you're just it's just sad. I would rather eat some
(51:34):
pasta and just have broccoli mixed into it than not
eat the pasta.
Speaker 1 (51:38):
Yes, make it more tolerable. Like, yeah, I can't do
it about treats.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Oh my gosh, I'm literally gonna have ice cream after
we get off of this, So.
Speaker 1 (51:52):
I can't do it without a treat.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
I need a sweet treat.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Sweet trees are fun. I'm cheese is like my thing,
but now I'm back tape the woods. You have to
take before you eat the cheese.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
The cheese betrayal. It's okay, you know what, cheese. It's
got a lot of protein that it's worth it.
Speaker 3 (52:19):
Yeah, I agree, I love it. I did. Oh, go ahead,
go ahead.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
Maybe when you train for competition, do you have to
like up the protein or anything like, do you find
you should change your.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
I think I stick with the same amount of protein
for the majority of the year. So I usually have
a protein drinker protein bar one of the two every
day because it gives me like a forced twenty grams.
And then I'm pretty good about eating a lot of
protein with my meals because I just keep like large
(52:57):
amounts of chicken breasts in my house and I usually
just make sure I'm having something like that with my food.
So if I'm having pasta, for example, because that's like
a comfort food for me, then I just make sure
I have either like chicken or beef in it, and
then put some broccoli or something in it. And then
I'm like, look, I still get to have my comfort food,
(53:18):
but I have protein in it and vegetables. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
It's the best of both worlds, comfort food and the
healthy stuff.
Speaker 2 (53:27):
Right. Yeah, that's not subtract.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
Because I think that's something that I always lack, is
the protein. And I always because I'm also vegetarian. But yeah,
I can like put some like like walnuts or something
in pasta. Probably lentils are great, just something else to
because I also like pasta.
Speaker 3 (53:50):
Yeah, black bean avocado pizza.
Speaker 2 (53:54):
Right, that sounds really good.
Speaker 3 (53:56):
Actually it is black bean avocado feta tomato Pizza's nice.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
Yeah, just some ways I'll get really tired and then
I'll be like, it's the protein.
Speaker 3 (54:07):
Okay, it's the carbs that make me sluggish. Really, I
love the carbs.
Speaker 2 (54:16):
Thing. It's important to have them. Though your body runs
on carbs. People would say don't eat carbs or people
that are sad.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Right energy, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
M hmm.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Well, thank you for sharing those bits on nutrition and protein.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Of course.
Speaker 3 (54:39):
You oh go ahead.
Speaker 1 (54:41):
Oh no. I was wondering if you had any tips
for anyone who is starting out pole dancing.
Speaker 2 (54:52):
Try multiple teachers if you can, especially if there's more
than one studio in your area, Try multiple studios. Try
multiple teachers. I know it gets expensive, so even if
you're not going every week to a different person or
every week to the more expensive studio, because I know
there's one in my area that's a little more expensive
than the other. Just try to pop into any teacher
(55:14):
that you can find so that you can get more
of a broad learning spectrum.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
I love that, but it is a huge important tip.
The way you grow is to learn from different people,
different studios, different styles.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Right too.
Speaker 1 (55:32):
Not every teacher is for everyone.
Speaker 3 (55:34):
Too.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
You might not really connect with the first teacher, Like,
don't let that turn you away.
Speaker 2 (55:41):
Yeah, don't get discouraged just because you don't click with somebody.
I've had teachers that I don't click with. There's one
teacher I don't click with that. I still sometimes go
to classes with her just because she's really good.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
I love it. Yes, and it's okay. I mean sometimes
we don't click with people, right.
Speaker 1 (56:04):
Yeah, we're not supposed to be for everyone.
Speaker 3 (56:07):
I know almost eight billion people in the world. You'll
find your tribe.
Speaker 1 (56:11):
Yeah, oh yes, right, especially since there's more online teachers
like you.
Speaker 4 (56:17):
Yes, I'm moving just because my phone's about to die,
I have Yeah, I did have one more question.
Speaker 3 (56:29):
We won't keep you longer.
Speaker 2 (56:29):
Eye a POWERI you're good. I was good. I should
have brought my charger closer to where I was sitting.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
At least we get another view now, which is always fun.
Speaker 2 (56:40):
Yes, there's my my bat picture.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
I love.
Speaker 3 (56:46):
I could see it a bit.
Speaker 2 (56:48):
Yeah it's kind of behind my head. Yes it's a
bat sitting on the moon.
Speaker 3 (56:55):
I love that. Gee, I did have one more thing
that I want to start asking, because yeah, a lot
of things in the poe industry. What do you hope
to see change in the poe industry in the future?
And this could be anything, maybe the way we portray
(57:15):
ourselves on social media, maybe gatekeeping in regards to people styles.
Speaker 2 (57:23):
I would like to see more people on social media
showing like their attempts to get a trick before they
just show like the perfection, Like I would, you know,
post your perfect video and then post your fails video
next to it and just show you're human. Because sometimes
I see those videos and I'm like, all right, I've
(57:47):
never done anything on the first try that beautiful even
though it's three thousandth try. And I think that I
would like more people to also start pushing instead of
the ABC see like you have to learn in this
order philosophy, like learning how your body feels best.
Speaker 3 (58:07):
I love that. Both things that I would love to
also see in the pole industry because it's it's so true,
and that is why I wanted to start asking this question.
Speaker 1 (58:18):
Is right, we definitely need more authenticity and the showing
all of the fails. I know Chris is really good
about that.
Speaker 3 (58:28):
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (58:29):
I try.
Speaker 3 (58:31):
People love to watch that show them love it though,
and it always is encouraging to show that other people
do like to watch that because it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (58:43):
I love seeing fail videos. I know. I try to
post videos that are not necessarily like perfect, but it
shows how I got into it a little more clearly
if I'm posting a trick. I post a lot of
flow recently because I was dealing with the shoulder injury.
But now my shoulders feeling fun and so I'll be
back on posting tricks hopefully soon.
Speaker 3 (59:03):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (59:04):
Right, Like it's always good to show the journey and
I need to follow this advice.
Speaker 3 (59:11):
Yeah, And is this so hard to show how you
did it? Like what conditioning did you do, or like
you just woke up and said I'm gonna do it, or.
Speaker 2 (59:21):
How you got out of the trick, because sometimes you
get into it and you're like, cool, I'm going to
fall out now though, like.
Speaker 1 (59:28):
I'm not trying that again because look at what happened.
Speaker 2 (59:32):
I would love to see more people posting how they
get out of tricks thank you?
Speaker 5 (59:36):
Yes, oh my gosh, they probably didn't get out because
they just caught the video after they fell, just like
we did that.
Speaker 3 (59:48):
They need to post, right, Yeah, but like, just so.
Speaker 1 (59:51):
You know, I didn't get out of this in a
good way.
Speaker 2 (59:55):
Yes, people like, go get out the same way you
got it, and I'm like I got in with nine
steps and hopes and three really tag me if you
get out of this safely? Yes?
Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Oh, I like that question, Chrish, I like that good question.
Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
Yeah. I mean there's been a lot of stuff in
the poe industry and especially about authenticity and how we
want to change and grow and think maybe we should
all start sharing it. I'm tired of the mean post
stars like making people feel like crap. How about we
learn and grow together?
Speaker 2 (01:00:35):
Yeah? Yeah, sharing and caring.
Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
And now I'm singing, I'm not going to do have
anything else to say to anyone listening or watching this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
I can't think of anything I think I've really touched
on all I wanted to talk about like you know,
check out my website. Keep being a positive influencer yourself,
eat enough protein and make sure you have ice cream
for dinner. Sometimes you know, what's.
Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
The next metal song you're gonna dance to?
Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
So my next song is actually I'm doing a performance
just in my studio to a cover of Paparazzi. It's
by Kim Dracula, who's an artist I like a lot.
I love Kim Dracula. Yes, so that's my next song
(01:01:31):
that I'm performing to in my studio. I'll be posting
those videos once those are once that performance is done.
It's for Valentine's Day. It's cute, so they should be
up by the time this is out. Yeah, and then
my song for competition next year, I'll share because you
know what, worst case scenario, someone else realizes it's good
(01:01:52):
and then I get to show them up. Anyways, it's
actually Overdose by Grandson.
Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
I have not heard that one, Yeah, but I will
Overdose by Grandson.
Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
It's a good song.
Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
May all start creating a routine and I'm just kidding me.
Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Versus Mandy, we both show up with the same song
at the company. We're both at Northeast. I danced to
Overdose by Grandson in the evening.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
I could already I already know what I say. Didn't
we hear the song?
Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Oh my god, that would.
Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Be so funny if we did that just for like
a joke. We were like, oh my god, it's like
the same routine.
Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
I'm doing it in sneakers, so you're gonna have to
pull up.
Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
It's interesting, like so many people go to PSO and
it's rare that people have the same song, like, it's interesting.
It doesn't happen quite often.
Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Well, there was.
Speaker 1 (01:02:52):
It was two in a row of the I Put
a Spell on You And it was so funny too
because it was like zip Bird, so it was like
different category com Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
And they had the same song and we were like.
Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
The second person it was.
Speaker 1 (01:03:10):
The same version of the song, because you know, there's
all sorts of different copy like covers and yeah, yeah,
but that was wild. Yeah, but that would be funny.
Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
It would be funny. I wouldn't even be mad if
it happened to just be funny. If someone hears this
and like listens to it and it's like I'm gonna
go to Toronto with that one, then you know what that's cool.
I hope I compete directly against you, and I hope
that we both kill it.
Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
Yes, well, you have a beautiful, wonderful attitude. Well, thank
you so much for sharing your your wonderful journey and
all of the stories that you shared, and all of
your brilliant wisdom as well.
Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Of course, yeah, yes, this has been farn It's been
so nice to meet you.
Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Can't wait to see you again on the PSO journey,
of course.
Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
I can't wait to see you again. Yes, yes, love
to That would be so awesome.
Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
I will be contacting you commedtely, following lovely. But in
the meantime, Thank you everyone so much for listening to
or watching this episode of Pull on the Call podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:04:29):
My name is Mardy, Meg.
Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Christopher.
Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
Mcalina also us or sorry Gothic Baby Doll also known
as Mikalina, for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
This was fun.
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