My personal classification of the pole dancing moves

When I was first trying to learn some pole dancing moves, I got a little bit overwhelmed... Because I wanted to learn all their names all at once! Do not do this.. Take it easy.

There are so many... Too many!

And their names are sometimes cute and beautiful, but they are not always very meaningful. They don't give you any hint on how the moves can look like. So if you are a beginner, you have no way of knowing how the moves might look like without seeing a picture of that move.

Attitude ankle spin

You should join me so we can show off together.

I'm gonna post my pictures here and feel free to comment on them. When you're ready for it, post yours too!

Enjoy!

Another problem that happens when you are first trying to remember the different pole dance tricks, is that there sometimes exist a lot of names for the same trick.

It's nothing big, but a simple conversation on pole dancing becomes a bit more complex.

Pole dancing has been developing differently depending on the continent, the country, the region, etc. All the way down to the different studios in the same town.

It's normal that it happened that way, but the pole dancing discipline has now reached a certain maturity that now requires a more globally accepted terminology.

Somebody is probably already working on that... But, it doesn't exist yet.

My way of going around this difficulty is to classify the pole dancing moves. It helped me understand the different moves. Then remembering the names became easier after understanding them.

So here is the classification and I hope it helps you in your journey.

Enjoy!

The Pole dancing moves classification

The very first thing you will learn, or just do, in pole dancing is a handgrip. It's usually an unconscious learning, but that's really the first thing you need to know: how to hold the pole. There are a lot of different handgrips and you will learn more and more of them as you progress.

At this stage, learning good body posture is very important. I cannot stress this enough.. This alone will keep you away from injuries that happen over a prolonged period of time.

Then you learn how to walk around the pole. Spending some practice time on your walking technique will make you understand how to use your own weight and gravity to gain momentum. This is an important concept to grasp for the spinning moves.

The dance moves and the floor work are very useful to help you move around the pole with more fluidity before and after the other pole dance moves. You gain a better spacial orientation and with practice you'll fell more and more free when performing routines. You need to practice a lot but it's the best feeling!

No stress... Just take one step at a time, learn one move at a time and you will notice your progress soon enough.

Caterpillar

The spinning pole dancing moves or the spins are usually the next type of moves you will learn. Spins are moves that make you swing around the pole even when the pole is on static mode. Most moves can be done with the pole on spinning mode.

But doing spins with good technique helps you understand how your body reacts with gravity and the pole as your axis. You'll then be able to obtain and maybe maintain nice spins.

Another thing you will learn as a beginner and continue to work on as your experience in pole dance grows are the holds. The holds are areal moves in which you don't use your hands to hold yourself in the air.

The climbs and the slides are opposites. They are the pole dancing moves that make you climb UP the pole and the ones that makes you slide DOWN the pole. You can also slide down from most moves you are in, but some of them have their own names.

The next family of pole dance moves I call the complex moves because they use many pole dancing techniques in one move. These pole dance tricks are a different mixture of holds, climbs, playing with your weight and gravity (as we do in walks and spins) and they also use the techniques used when doing handstands.

The complex moves also introduce the concept of inversion. The other concept you will deepen with them are the hand grips, the mounts and the dismounts. I will get back on the mounts after this important detail.

A lot of complex moves have variations. A simple leg placement or hand grip can create a variations and thus have a name of their own (not all the time). The nice thing about this is that you have a choice. That means that you can easily increase your pole dancing vocabulary by being creative. Have fun with this!

Mounts are ways to get ON the pole and dismounts are ways to get OFF the pole.

Another different type of pole moves are the stands; the handstands, elbow stands and head stand. Like in gymnastic and circus, in these moves, you stand on your hands, your forearms or your head with the help of the pole.

Finally, you have the falls. These are super advances pole dance moves where you slide or fall really really fast down the pole. The particularities that make the falls different from the slides is that in a fall you catch yourself back before touching the floor and that you catch yourself with a hold (or without your hands).

Another category of moves you will work with are the transitions. They are not pole dancing moves per se, but they are part of the pole dancing technique. The transitions are a list of body and hand position changes that makes you go from one pole move to another pole move. Simply said they are the "how to get from this move to that move" explanations. They are really important to achieve a nice fluidity and variety in your routines.

If you want even harder moves, you enter the realm of circus with Chinese pole. If you are interested maybe try a circus school. These moves are highly acrobatic and they require you to do saltos and twists. You definitely need to train with a coach for this. This is serious stuff in the do not try this at home category.

I hope this classification help you in your learning and good luck in your progress!

You can do pole dancing moves from one of these categories? Then, Show off your skills!

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View the names of pole dancing moves seperated by level

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Enjoy ;)