Pole 3 Graduation: Brought to you by Icy Hot

I missed my last class (and chance to practice) due to my inability to book travel correctly. I was a little stressed about that.

I since I couldn't really practice the whole routine at home, I spent a few days memorizing the order because I'm not ready to free style the whole thing, and this gives me an outline to embellish. Before hitting up the studio I did a run through of the floor work and marking everything else to make sure it felt right with my song options. I ended up going with "Birthday Cake Remix" by Rihanna ft Chris Brown. I had originally planned on wearing my cupcake costume, but was afraid it would get in the way of my invert.

My glute/hip issue has shown progress, but still flares up a few days a week. It chose this day. Betrayed by my own body. I got to the studio early, generously applied icy hot to the left half of my butt, lower back, and hip. Good times.

I stretched it out, tried to maintain easy breathing, warmed up my spins, and did a run through of the dance. I practiced the invert 4 times...a few times too many because it really wears you out!

As soon as I heard Erica arrive I volunteered to go first. I went to the bathroom to wash the sweat off of my legs and hands.

And then it was show time.

By the time I finished the floor work and took to the pole I was already super sweaty again...which makes for less than smooth transitions. Betrayed by my own body again. Much like public speaking, when I'm nervous I dance faster. At the last two graduations I was able to slow down, but I didn't do as well this time. I hit everything except for the superwoman hold because I was too slick. It wasn't a big deal to miss it, it just would have helped with the time factor. I hit the invert, even though there was a fraction of a second when I thought I was going to miss it because I could tell my back was already tired. While inverted I did the crucifix hold...but it didn't last long because my legs started to slip and that could have been a broken neck disaster.

Not my fave performance out of the tree...but then again I'm overly critical of myself.

I can't wait to start 4 and have my original pole sistas back in my life!