The first Canadian Pole Fitness Association Championships took place on Saturday, October 13 at The Edgewater Casino. I dragged my boyfriend and girlfriend to the show with the enthusiasm of an over-excited infomercial advertiser. Although I cannot speak for how the show went for the athletes back stage, I can give an account of the night from a spectator's perspective.
Another performance that I enjoyed was from Semi-Pro Tara (I don't remember where she is from, but definitely not from BC). Her performance was very lyrical and you could tell that she used to be an extraordinary dancer - my guess would be ballet as her legs look stunning, and she moves with the kind of ease that I've only seen at ballet performances. In my opinion, I would not have put her up against the Semi-Pros, but rather would have put her in the Pro division. She was heads above all the Semi Pro competitors.
Of course, I cannot go without the mention of our very own Veronica - an instructor and student at our studio, who won the Pro division with her stupefying and nothing short of amazing performance, and who now gets a ticket to Zurich, Switzerland to compete in the World's and proudly represent Canada. The entire room was on the edge of their seats when she was on stage, and the cheers didn't stop. Her routine was fast paced, complicated, and enthralling. She placed second at the provincial championships in BC due to a spin vs static pole mishap, but got through to the nationals as a wild card competitor and blew everyone away, making the most of her valuable second chance. Veronica is an inspiration to all of us and one of the main reasons we love the sport of pole with our hearts and souls. For competition reasons, there is no video of her routine at the moment, but once she has competed at World's, I will make sure to post it so that her inspiration can be shared. Veronica is currently training hard for her big chance, and is trying to overcome such challenges as non-standardized, unknown materials that will be used for the poles at the World's, as well as the fact that her preliminaries do not allow spectators, and hence will not allow her to feed off the cheers and put extra pressure on her due to the silence of the room.
Being the picky perfectionist that I am, I do have to say that, although the performances were all of top notch quality, watching a competition for the second time made me notice more technicalities in the performers. The videos that are posted above hide a lot, and generally make the competitors look much better. Watching the BC pole provincials, I was amazed from the first minute, and thought that everyone was doing so great. The stars were out of the eyes by the Nationals, and I could better see various mistakes, mishaps, and slips, but only due to the fact that I am immersed in the sport, and am sure that to a layman, none of the little imperfections would have been noticeable at all.
The show was at a Casino this year; last year, it was at the Vogue Theater Although the venue was better suited in the fact that it was the right size for the size of the crowd, as well as the fact that it served alcohol to add to the entertainment factor, I still liked the image that comes with holding the championships at a theater much more. All things considered, it was a good compromise.
The poles were provided by X-Pole, as per usual. By now my opinion of X-Pole is probably common knowledge. The poles looked solid and were attached to the stage rigging at the top. The pole cleaners were none other than our own studio's students, and looked like they were doing a great and thorough job of keeping the poles pristine between all the performances. I did notice that the competitors were slipping more on the spin pole, but that may have been to the nature of the pole, as well as to the rumors that X-pole competition spin poles have a crazy fast spin. As a side note, I think it is a good idea to have more than 2 pole cleaners and have them clean in shifts throughout the night. I saw some pictures of their poor ankles after the show, and they were blistered and pole burned after climbing up and down the poles 60+ times during the night.
There were still a couple of shortfalls that took away from the show. One was the lighting. It was just regular fluorescent lighting and made the performers look very stark. My guess is that it was like that on purpose, so the judges could see every mistake and judge accordingly. The other factor that I did not like at the provincials, and do not like at the nationals, is the costumes. Only about 5% of the performers had costumes that looked professional and clean; most of the girls do their own costumes and make up, and in all reality, they simply don't look very good. It is a step up to have costumes and make up that are finished and performance quality, and not everyone can do it. I have always been considered the crafty type, and even my costume and make up for my performance at the provincials looked amateur (in a bad sense of the word). Furthermore, there are tricks with costumes that can cover up crooked arms and legs, which causes unfair judging and unequal competitor advantages. In my opinion, the sport needs to regulate costumes more, or get rid of them all together and provide uniforms to the competitors as souvenirs.
All in all, the first Canadian Pole Fitness Association championships were a hit and a blast!
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