I'm submitting this video for week 30 of @donatello's dance contest. I fully support all your effort, @donatello. I hope you appreciate mine. I don't know if this particular submission is eligible to win because I'm not featured as prominently in this dance video as much as my friend @murmaiiderr is. (I'm the Asian American dancer in the heart-shaped sunglasses). But I was doing most of my magic behind the scenes on my camera phone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5TaTQS2VdU

I'm really proud of this video because the film style is more dynamic than typical pole dance videos which tend to be pretty static. We usually plop our phones down somewhere while we dance, and that's oftentimes the best footage we can get because we are too busy dancing!

A New Dynamic Pole Dance Video Style

This week, my friend and I decided to try something different. We took turns filming each other from different angles in her Brooklyn apartment. Because we are both dancers, we were able to follow each other's movement in a way that is perhaps more effective than other videographers would be able to. I went home and was so excited to edit the videos myself! I do not have any formal video filming or editing experience, so I was so incredibly surprised at the result.

Why Pole Dancers Don't Wear A Lot of Clothes

I know that pole dancing is a controversial style of dancing because people perceive it to be very provocative. The truth is, we pole dancers drop all our clothes because it's almost impossible to stick to the pole otherwise. When I first started pole dancing, I was wearing long shorts and loose tank tops. But my instructors straight out told me that there were certain moves I couldn't do because I was wearing too many clothes!

If you don't mind that we dance in various stages of undress, I hope you can appreciate the intricacy and nuance of our movement, the precision it takes to dance in 8" heels, and the athleticism it takes to swing our body weight around the pole.

I think all forms of dance are important for art and movement. We all deserve an outlet for creative self-expression even if we can't all look or move like ballerinas. Dance is for everyone!

For this video, we were very inspired by old Lady Gaga music videos and the YouTube videos from Millenium Dance Complex in LA. I hope you enjoyed watching it as much as I enjoyed making it :) Thank you for visiting this post!