Healing Hearts And Feelings with Flow

Pole doesn't just take care of our bodies. It also takes care of our hearts. When we have feelings to express, the time when our hearts are just about to explode with all those feels, we can just dance it out.

Two summers ago, we had a class known as Pole Flow. In this class, we do not learn tricks. We do not condition or work on backbends and splits. We do not learn footwork or choreo. We learn how to feel. We learn how to put sense in our numbers so it isn't just a string of tricks and spins with floorwork for break. Come to think of it, I love dances that have sense and feels, not really much on the complicated crazy tricks.

Imagine my happiness when CD announced that she will be bringing flow back in our lunchtime classes. I really missed pole flow and amidst learning tricks and spins, I miss dancing (I secretly love to dance. As in really dance.) and although I'm not as pretty as the real dancers who have been dancing at the same time as they learned how to walk, I am determined to look just as pretty, and I know it's bound to happen at one point, like shoulder mounts, which up to this point I am still  working on.

Last Monday, the title of our lesson is Feelings Flow, where we brought to class - well, feelings! Contrary to popular belief, I have feelings, feelings that can sometimes be expressed, and there are also feelings that stayed bottled up. Social convention tells us something similar to what Elsa's parents said, "Conceal it, don't feel it. Don't let it show." school tells us that. corporate world tells us that. Heck even social media tells us that. Also, even we tell ourselves that. We are afraid to be vulnerable and afraid to be judged. In expressing feelings, we have fear, just like our fear in tricks.

In this class, we were told to let go of that shell, and let the feelings out. And we let it out through dance. Also, some unchoreographed tears. Tears are welcome, and they are welcomed with no judgement. Our dance steps and whatever dance skill level we had were also welcome with no judgement.

The theme of our dance is missing someone, so it was very sad, and also something everyone can relate to. There's always someone we miss. It may be a relative, friend, lover, or even something dear to you. Reality tells us to move on, and admittedly we all have to. But it's easier said than done, and oftentimes, we find ourselves either in that state of denial, or once again in fear - of facing reality that the person we longed for is gone in our lives. either by fate or by choice.

Aside from the choreography, we were given a few sets of 8 in the song to do some improv, and how we interpret the whole concept is up to us. The only rule was that it should be transitions, instead of doing tricks. That part I found liberating for me because it gave that part of me in the dance, and it made me "feel" the concept more.

It was amazing at how movement can help release a lot of pent-up feelings that we had all bottled up for whatever reason. Sometimes when we keep concealing things, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's gone completely. It's just like concealing a pimple. It may look like it's not there, but it's actually there hidden under all that makeup and skincare layering. Im glad for this exercise, that enabled us to just release and let go of that feeling with no judgement/ And what better medium to let it out than dance?

I don't know though if I became that super pretty dancer I dream I could be. I may still be in that process. But I know for sure that somehow there's a healing that happened that day. Here's a short preview of our dance.

Thanks CD for that awesome class.