Dance - to - Pole Dance

Ok so, originally I was going to use a normal Dancer.  I was going to have a contemporary/ballet dancer and have them work in the studio on a black background and try and get some creative long exposures - but this was a problem when I thought about it.  I don't actually know a lot about dance itself and would not be able to tell my dancer what to do, I would just have to advise and see what happens and then ask her to try different 'things', but then I thought about something else that could work =)

I used to be a Gymnast when I was younger and was very good at it, due to being light and flexible, this taught me gymnast ways, which can sometimes be used in dancing.  It certainly gives me a better perspective from once doing the sport myself.  Once you have learnt gymnastics, the simple things like poise and remembering to point toes that are the things you remember.  Before starting University I tried something breaking through in the fitness world ... Pole Fitness.  I had heard of a pole fitness class from a friend and immediately wanted to try it straight away.  The girl I went to was called Claire who had her own Pole fitness business 'Claire's Pole Fitness' and it was a 6 week course, beginners, intermediate 1, and 2, advanced 1, and 2, and advanced plus.

I loved it so much as it was a great way to keep fit, it works almost all over body muscles and is great for toning.  When I went to the classes almost 3 years ago, there was an average number in each class, but today Claire s business has hit the top and she has so many new members joining all the time.  Pole fitness has really come in and a lot of new people want to try it out.

I have included some images of myself from when I went to the classes.  The main reason for mentioning all these things is that, I know a lot more about pole dance than I do about just 'dance', and therefore could tell a model what to do and what looks good.

Photos of Myself at Pole Fitness  

Photos of Myself at Pole Fitness 

 Photos of Myself at Pole Fitness

Because her business is such a great success now, the happiest thing about this idea, is that, because I'm such good friends with Claire herself, as the creator and finder of this business she has agreed to all my ideas for this project and is more than happy to help me out. She is fantastic at what she does and really knows what looks good in a photograph.  I've included some of the photo shoots she has been on before below.

Photo-shoots

Performances in Nightclubs 

Class Instructing

THE FINAL IDEA =

Because I have done Pole fitness previously, I know a lot more about this than I do about normal dance.  It would be easier for me to stick with a subject that I way happy and comfortable with and knew what I wanted to do.  I know what moves look good for a photograph so surely they would look good in long exposures? 

My idea is to use Claire as my model/dancer and bring her to my own studio in which I have my own Pole.  I can then set up my backgrounds and lights and make sure there is enough room and shoot some creative long exposures of pole dancing.  I like to look through all these still photographs of each of the nice looking moves so that it can give me an idea of what will look good.  It is quite hard to picture what it will look like until I do the first shoot to see. But I personally think the idea of using something I know is better than something I do not.  I would like to think that these long exposures will be creative as Claire will be spinning around the pole.  I'm quite excited to try it out as I think it will be quite fun.