Inflammatory Foods

Today marks the 19th day straight working on our contract. Roilan and I were hired for the summer at the San Diego Zoo performing our Acrobalance act 5 times a day and the Nighttime Zoo Parade in the evening. This has been a rough contract so far but I am grateful for the opportunity. The first week was the absolute hardest as my body was not used to it. It is still hard now but more easy in some ways since the body has reached a more plateau luckily. We are still trying to watch our diets pretty closely to avoid our muscles to have inflammation more than possible and luckily I found an article that talks about inflammatory foods. Give it a read here: http://breakingmuscle.com/nutrition/an-athletes-guide-to-inflammation-what-to-eat-and-what-to-avoid

also check out Roilan and I here in this advertisement for the zoo http://www.sandiegozoo.org/nighttimezoo/

Lone Ranger - Hell on Wheels behind the scenes

The Lone Ranger movie is FINALLY in theaters. It feels like yesterday that I was on set in Santa Fe, NM filming for the Hell on Wheels scene. What an amazing experience that was. I played a contortionist for the scene, here is my link for the imdb page. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5171387/ And I can't wait to actually see the movie! I am working on contract right now at the San Diego Zoo with my partner until September so it is a little difficult to find time to do anything working 7 days a week performing 6 ten minute shows per day and on top of that keeping on top of the Aerial Empowerment store and making sure you all get your equipment promptly :-) . Goesh I am so sorry I haven't been updating my blog, I promise to start doing better now. They also just released a feature of the Hell on Wheels scene that we were a part of. Check it out here:

ATTENTION AERIALISTS!!! PLEASE PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ON THIS DROP! THIS IS THE DROP THAT I FELL WITH BACK IN 2009 THAT INJURED AND NEARLY PARAYZED ME. IF YOU DO PRACTICE THE KAMIKAZE, ALWAYS DOUBLE TWIST THE SECOND WRAP, DON'T JUST TWIST IT ONE TIME BECAUSE IF YOU WRAP THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM THE FIRST TWIST THEN YOU WILL FALL! Thank you Recebba Leach for making this video, I have been meaning to demonstrate this with a foam pit but have had no access to one to make a video. Please help this video go viral and save an inexperienced aerialist her life, career, and body. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be9qdu4FNvo

I might have to have a clearance sale soon on all the circus equipment. Roilan and I need to relocate out of Utah... just trying to figure out where. Probably Las Vegas to start. More opportunities, etc. Not sure yet if or when I will reopen shop once we move. We are looking for auditions and performing opportunities. Roilan is a very skilled handbalancers, probably the best handbalancer in the world in my book. He deserves so much more than sitting in Utah with no work for him. I would be holding him as well as myself back by not leaving. Check out our demos. We posted them on the website at http://aerialempowerment.com/performers.html

I realize I have been a total slacker on the blog and this New Years, I want to change that. I post a lot on my Facebook which you can find me under "Hope McCurdy Aerialist" where I post inspirations, advice, and progress photos etc. So todays inspiration is Erika Lemay. Check out her performance for the 2012 Monte Carlo Circus Festival.

Pole Masters Cup

My good friend Charlee took first place last night at the International Pole Masters Cup 2012! I am so proud! I was asked to perform for her precompetition party and got the opportunity to see her routine in advanced and I knew she was going to win. She is so incredible and a genuinely kind and humble person. Yeah Charlee Shae Wagner! Ravan Artist also took first in the men's division. Both are from Utah! Yeah Utah dominated the pole world! Here is Charlee's winning routine!

Another Jaw Dropper

I realize that i only post whenever i find an inspirational video. Here is one that inspired me recently. It gave me the goal to have cleaner sharper transitions in and out of moves. I love his fancy dance work. Beautiful Routing all around!!

Aerial Straps in Salt Lake City, Utah

Little update in my world, business has been good, I do my best to have complete customer satisfaction, I think so far I only had one customer who got mad at me because I was out of stock of inventory so it took a little longer than usual to ship her item. So I added on the website that if something needs to be shipped by a certain date to receive on time to please write me and let me know. But so far everyone seems to be happy with Aerial Empowerments products, merchandise, apparatuses, and I am hoping to expand and get more inventory but it is going to take a lot of patience on my end.

I moved into my new home and I now have a permanent 20ft tall Aerial Rig in my backyard that we cemented down and everything. The neighbors thought we were nuts but then whenever i practice they all pull out little lawn chairs and watch me dance. I love my rig, I love the 3 poles in my living room, its an amazing house. It has taken away so much stress.

I finally got myself a pair of aerial straps to start training on. I've always been fascinated by aerial straps, I feel that it is an apparatus I can really bond with especially since I have been getting pretty heavy into handbalancing. I recently found a cord lisse and aerial straps artist who has completely blown me away with his strength and grace. I wrote him to inquire about lessons and found out he will be joining Felix Cane in the Michael Jackson Immortal Tour which will be here in Salt lake city in November 2011. He's super nice and I really hope I get the opportunity to meet him someday.

I present to you, IGOR ZARIPOV

"Fear" written by my dear friend, Hollywood

Pole and Aerial dancing requires vulnerability, But vulnerability puts us at risk, not just emotionally, but physically too.
So why do we struggle to be vulnerable in pole? or silks? or trap? or hoop? or love? or life? FEAR! Fear stops us from doing our best by keeping us stuck in our comfort zone. It's SO much easier to agree with our fears and insecurities than to man up and find the courage we need to do want freaks us out. It's kind of crazy but we really do find safety in being afraid. If we don't try...then we cant ever fail.
One way we let our fears pick and choose what we can or cant do...Is by sh*t talking ourselves. We somehow convince ourselves that "I'm too week", "I'm too fat", "I'm too uncoordinated", "I'll never be as good as so-and-so", or, the one I'm guilty of, "I'm not flexi enough for that" I'm sure most of you have heard me refer to my self as a brick with legs... That kind of talk has kept me from trying a lot of stuff. stuff that I have really wanted to learn. like the Oona and the Jade.
Before even trying to attempt something new, we've talked our self's out of it... Yet, underneath that fear, we want to become a bad ass poller. how are you ever going to be a bad ass when you keep telling your self that you suck...HmmMmmm? So to defend our safe choice, we look at those crazy tricks and say "I'll never be that strong/flexi/good" or "that's a stupid move any way" (i have said that before)
By telling ourselves "I'm not sexy", "I'm not graceful", "I'm not creative" or my favorite "I cant dance" we let go of pole emotionally. turning it into a mechanical experience; completely devoid of individuality or self-expression. We hide behind technical proficiency rather than allowing ourselves to feel the music inside us... Some times a pointed toe isn't as breathtaking as the look on your face, or the sway of your hips....We tell our self's that we will look stupid if we try to be sexy wile we dance, or we make Ourselves feel trashy. by saying "if i dance like that ill look like a stripper" and I say...whats your point? your a strong, amazing and sexy...ACT LIKE IT!!! pole dancing gives Lady's a unique opportunity to be super humanly strong and a lustful sex kitten at the same time...you cant do that in kick boxing...or step class, right? We deny ourselves the pleasure of experiencing our own sensuality. And for what...to make someone else 'ok' with what we do...why? who cares? You have stepped out of the norm by taking pole fitness...don't try and force it to be a spin class...all sweat and no slink....dancing without emotion is like love without passion. to be a to be a good Poler you need to have passion... Its OK to close your eyes and celebrate being you.
When we finally face our fears as pole dancers OR AERIALISTS, we're granted this amazing feeling. and we have all experienced this feeling. when you finely nail that trick you have been working on...we all do the same thing we squeal, hug or high five the closest person to us and wrap it all up with a happy dance. Our vulnerability produces strength, courage and confidence that pushes us toward bigger and better goals; even mastering that which at first seemed impossible. So, as that negative mental chatter TRYS TO CRUSH US, we have to stop it as soon as it starts... I want you to look at the pole, or silks, or hoop, or trap, or what ever...take a deep breath and say.... "I am strong, sexy and capable. And damnit, I'm amazing!" If we embrace our strengths, recognize our progress and continue to TRY and become better dancers then we were the day before, nothing can ever get in our way. If you have some crazy trick you want to learn....ask someone to spot you, pull out the big crash mat, take a deep breath and just do it. Come to a classes you think will be harder then the classes you already take, step out of your comfort zone...Push Past as Althea Austin says....Push past the fear, Push past the pain, Push past your self....FLY FIRST, THINK LATTER!!!!!!!!!

Powerisers- Jumping Stilts

I recently got more aerial silks in our store inventory at aerialempowerment.com, beautiful colors. The forrest green has really grown on me. I've picked up a new hobby as well, powerisers stilt walking. The powerisers are fun cause its like stilts combined with trampoline. Its an incredible leg, butt and core workout. I just bought myself some advanced ones from powerisers.com

Here is a cool video to show what I am talking about.

Oona Kivelä- Amazing Pole Artist

I had to post this, I haven't been this impressed with a pole routine since Rebecca Butchers trixpert routine in Virginia (see previous post) But Oona Kivelä is definitely another one of my favorite Pole Artists. Just incredible!

Zoraya Judd, Switzerland 2011

Thats my girl! Zoraya was one of my first pole mentors when I began my aerial journey back in 2007. She has come such a long ways since then, we competed together in Miss Pole Utah 2009, she took first in Advanced and I took first in Intermediate. Since then Zoraya has been all over the world, done competitions including the worlds in tokyo where she won the title for Pole Art. She is just incredible. For booking info for Zoraya, see her website zorayajudd.com She also performs with a group called Zen Art! You should totally check them out!

http://www.zenartsla.com/

The Key to Handstands

I apologize for not keeping up regularly on the blog, my internet access has been limited to my cell phone until I move into my new place. I have found some incredibly info for those studying handbalancing however. Two websites run by amazing guys.

First one is http://www.legendarystrength.com
I've purchased some manuals and subscribed for the advanced body weight series. Trying all that I can to get stronger for handbalancing.

The other site I stumbled across this morning, http://www.beastskills.com/ which gave me the key to the handstand, other than strength its all in the fingers, in a way I'd never thought about. Sorry to cut this short but my time is limited but check out those sites. I am very happy i found them and that I can pass that onto you.

Happy New Year

Thank you to everyone who has been so supporting this tough time of year. Things got so hectic in my personal life that it caused my focus on Aerial Empowerment to suffer but now I am back and getting back into the swing of things. To all my customers thus far, thank you so much. I am undergoing goal setting for what I would like to see Aerial Empowerment grow into.

Pole Dancing, and Aerial Dance has indeed changed my life. I began Pole dancing at the age of 19 and now almost going onto the age of 24 in this 2011 I feel like an entirely different person. That is why I called this Aerial Empowerment because it changes lives. It finds that passion, that spark you contained as a child before anyone told you there was a wrong way of doing things, you are just free to explore the power of your body defying gravity because your muscles and stabilizer muscles become so strong, and that strong body carries over into a strong mind and a positive attitude that you cannot even comprehend unless you try it.

There are a lot of changes in Salt Lake City, Utah. I personally do not have a store location or a training location. There are a few places around and I try to advertise them on the Affiliates tab of our website aerialempowerment.com

But here on the blog I will start updating about more than just Aerial Empowerment. Its going to be quite the make over... For now I will leave you with a video I made on New Years Eve.

Buying safe aerial silks for sale

I've been noticing an increase in aerial silk, aerial sling, aerial yoga hammocks / antigravity hammocks sales online lately and I have been looking through them individually to compare quality and price. If any of you are pole artists you probably remember when someone duplicated the xpole and made a fraudulent item posing as the real thing that wasn't safe, same with silks. Some sellers are not using the right kind of material that is strong enough for your safety.

It is good to ask the seller many questions, here are some questions you can ask them and yourself before purchasing aerial fabric.

The majority of the ads don't tell you what type of fabric it is other than "chiffon" which can be any synthetic material which means the tensile strength is unknown, and they don't mention the denier, etc.

When buying aerial silks the width and length are extremely important.
You want them to be long(tall) enough for what you are doing, and the width is important because it affects the tensile strength of the fabric. The shortest amount of fabric I recommend is no shorter than 10yards because 10yards can reach a 12ft-16ft ceiling, so you can practice but I don't recommend doing drops on that short of silks unless you know what you are doing.
As far as length goes you have to double the height of your ceiling because you are pretty much taking a long length of fabric and folding it in half at the ceiling so both strands reach the ground so example if you have a 12ft ceiling you need at least 24ft (8yards) of silks (though I recommend a little extra like the 10yds just because attaching silks to equipment such as rescue 8 etc takes extra of the length) and if your silks barely touch the ground from the ceiling you are not going to have any beautiful tails to play with to create that dramatic performance, you'll have little short nubs under your footlocks instead of gorgeous fabric fanning the audience.

A 60 inches width is generally recommended for children
Minimum of 75inches up to 110inches is recommended for teens and adults.
I'm seeing silks being sold on ebay and other sites for only 64inches wide and only 8yards.
I am also seeing on online silks rigged to rings which have no info of what kind of rings they are or what the weight limit on them. You can buy similar rings at home depot that say right on the package "NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN WEIGHT" make sure if you get a set with a ring that it is an authentic steel O ring from a reputable climbing company example: pretzel, etc.

Yes the price is cheaper on some of these fabrics but at what cost? Do you really want to save money if it means putting your life in jeopardy?

We sell safe aerial fabric at http://www.aerialempowerment.com

How to assemble aerial silk to a rescue 8

This video demonstrates one of the easiest and effective ways to rig aerial silks to a rescue 8 so that if you ever need to wash them etc, you can put them back together safely.

How to Rig Aerial Apparatuses from Trees

This is not a recommended method of rigging according to professionals because of the potential danger from not knowing how strong the tree is, etc. Aerial Empowerment is not liable if you attempt to rig from trees.

I personally rig my apparatuses (Aerial Silks, Hoop, Trapeze, Hammock, etc) from trees.
AllI use is:
*Climbing/Arborist Rope: A minimum of 60ft or longer, high tensile strength rope (Rock climbing rope, I personally am using an arborist rope which I prefer for trees because they have a tough outside layer that is abrasion resistant which is ideal for trees).
*Smaller rope: tied to one end of the thicker rope, this one should be lighter weight to throw over the branch, trust me, you're not going to want to throw over just the thicker rope unless you don't have to throw very high.
*Heavy Object- attached to smaller rope to throw over the branch. Should be heavy enough that it will come back down to the ground on the other side of the branch so that you can grab it and pull the rope over. You can use scrap metal, horse shoe (though I don't personally recommend incase it gets stuck on a branch.) You can use rocks, one of my students used her shoe, etc just get creative but beware whatever you throw can potentially get stuck in the tree.

I had a video but I had quite a few professional riggers get very upset about my method so I took it down. It is not the safest method to rig according to them, but I personally have been doing it for over 3 years and have not had any problem, failures, or have harmed any trees in the process they are all still growing and blossoming every year. Note that if you leave a tree tied up over time it could kill the tree so NEVER leave the tree rigged when not in use.

Rafaela Montanaro

One of my new favorite pole dancers that I have come across recently won 3rd place in the World Pole Competition Championship in Zurich. I found her youtube probably about 4 months ago and I was very impressed (which is not easily accomplished anymore since I've been watching pole videos on youtube for going 4 years now)
I wrote her my compliments and asked her how long she had been a poler which she responded only one year. ONE YEAR? I've been doing pole for 4 years and she was already caught up to my level and beyond. That made me curious so I looked into her background and found that Rafaela was a hand balancer or equilibrist and aerialist prior to picking up the pole. That definitely demonstrates how much strength is involved in the art of hand balancing.

Rafaela as a hand balancer


and Rafaela's winning routine in the World Pole Championship



If you would like to buy a handbalancing board or aerial silk set, I sell them on my website http://www.aerialempowerment.com

You know you're a pole dancer when....

- you are proud of your bruises.
- you can't find shorts that are short enough.
- you spend more time watching women pole dance than the man in your life.
- you hear a song and immediately rate it for pole compatability.
- you have spent any amount of time trying to convince someone that pole dancing is different than stripping.
- you find that your closet is slowly (or quickly) filling up with plastic shoes with 6 inch heels and plastic boots that range in height from ankle to thigh-high and previously, the highest heel you ever wore were 1 inch sturdy shoes.
- you've cleared everything you possibly can out of your family room to make space for your pole.
- your husband gets a huge grin on his face when you say you're going to work out.
- you walk past your husband in platform heeled black boots a bra and teeny shorts and he glances at you and then goes back to whatever he was doing.
- you're looking at every stop sign, lamp post, children's playground thinking, "I wonder if I can do a invert on that?"
- your kids are so familiar with pole moves from watching you watch YouTube obsessively that they can critique you pretty well when you're practicing. "Mommy, you should keep your back straighter when you do that!"
- you have to schedule life events (weddings, balls) around poling so you won't be bruised in pictures.
- you get ceiling height envy.
- you took the furniture out of the guest room to make a pole room and your company has to sleep on the couch.
- you assess the weather each day wondering how it will affect your grip more than to see what you should wear.
- you have to explain to other people, especially doctors and anyone that sees you unclothed, why you are bruised so bad.
- people have thought you were abused from all your bruises.
- you're asked "what's new?" and the first thing that goes through your head is the move you nailed the other day.
- you start a detailed description of your last practice with non-polers, easily forgetting that they don't know what you're talking about when you say "inverting", etc.
- you get the biggest grin whenever people ask you if you work out.
- you won't buy certain shoes because you're afraid the buckles or whatever may scratch your pole.
- your husband/boyfriend doesn't bat an eye when he walks in the room and you're hanging upside down.
- you get strange looks from people when you're going through the store shopping for work-out clothes saying things like "no there won't be enough skin showing if I get that one!"
- you have a huge bookmarks/favorites list in your web browser for pole dancing.
- you dream about pole dancing and/or pole in your sleep.
- you can dance in those 6-inch clear heels, but can't walk across the room in them.
- "Peek-a-boo" is a bad word... won't even say it to a baby.
- you have to think long and hard about how to respond to the question "So, what do you do for fun?"
- you've answered the door in your pole workout clothes and made whoever was there blush.
- you know exactly, to the second, how long it takes for you to take down your pole when company is on their way over.
- your child's behavior on the fireman pole on the playground has been the reason for several parent-teacher conferences.
- your day-time shoes are falling apart but you find yourself passing up buying "real" shoes because you would rather spend your money on hot red stilettos.
- you judge every house by its flooring and ceiling height.
- your pole gets wiped clean more often than your coffee table.
- you rate couch cushions for their cushioning ability under your pole.
- you go to your hairdresser and ask to cut your hair in a way that it may floooow when you turn your head (and even demonstrate).
- you walk into a club and instantly start wondering weather their poles are steel or chrome, spinny or static.
- you stopped using lotion because it makes you too darn silky smooth - you have tricks to do!
- you just can't find mirrors big enough.
- someone asks if your heels are stripper shoes and you say "No! Those are my workout shoes!"
- you have ever replaced carpet with a hardwood floor so you could be more stable in your heels.
- you are willing to loose you security deposit on your apartment in order to keep your crappy pole up (Peek-a-boo, Flirty Girl, etc.) despite the damage it's doing to your floors and ceiling while you're waiting for a good one to be delivered, just so you can keep poling.
- you intend to go clothes shopping for work or personal and end up searching for that perfect top or shorts to pole dance in instead of regular clothes.

Testing Aerial Silks on the Machine that Breaks Things

Phil Servita is an amazing aerialist and inspiration. He recently conducted some tests on fabrics. See the results here:

http://flyingsquirrelconsortium.com/ptest2007/index.html

He also created the silks wiki.

http://www.antepenultimate.org/mediawiki/index.php/Glossary

Enjoy and happy flying ;-)