How do you progress from Beginner to Pro?

Hands up if you think you need to be super strong to pole dance? Well, you’re wrong!

Pole dancing will make you super strong, but you can totally still pole dance if you’ve got the strength of a sloth and the arms of a sapling. In fact, that's how most of us start. And then you’ll find that as you start pole dancing, you will find strength you never knew you had (inside and out)! With every class you’ll get stronger and stronger, which will, of course, means you can do cooler and cooler tricks.

Here at Altitude, we structure our classes in a way to work with you from that beginner sloth, to the kick-ass pro. How? Start at the beginning of course! Every single move in our Altitude curriculum is there for a reason, it will teach you something that you can build on at each step and progress you through the levels.

Our level 1 classes are designed for everyone! No matter what strength you have, or background you’re coming from, you’ll start in level 1. You’ll learn the basics of pole from simple spins, to floorwork (and of course a nice way to the floor and back up). We’ll start off with basic conditioning and drills that will prepare you for level 2.

We’ve even designed Level 1 so that you can do 90% of the class in full leggings so no skin is needed. You definitely don’t need to be able to hold your own weight in this class, the ground is there for that! But you will learn to hold your own weight in this class.

This is where you will first start inverting (yep, turning upside down!). Level 1 would have prepared you for the technique of inverting and now in Level 2, we’ll keep working it until you get it. Hands remain on at all times and safety is our number one priority, and there’s no rush to get upside down. Once you do, though, we will work through a range of upside down (but hands-on) moves to make you look like a graceful monkey.

An invert happens for everyone at different points. Some will get it first go, some will get it after a year of trying, everyone is on their own journey and in the end, it really doesn’t matter when it happens - as long as you’re having fun trying!

We’ll just slowly but surely work towards it in Level 2. We’ll also start linking together those Level 1 moves into some fun mini routines.

Now we’re getting into the real core moves of pole dancing. Inverted moves with just leg grips, armpit grips or thigh grips, woop woop!

Here come the pole kisses (aka bruises!)!

These are the moves that once conquered, will allow you to dance around and up that pole in any way you like. Once again we’ll take our time through Level 3 to really nail those moves. Our goal isn’t to just get you into a move as quickly as possible, our goal is to build your body awareness, allowing you to understand and perform the move with strength and stability.

Things get pretty fancy in Level 4. We’re working on some cool moves now, with less and less grip points. By this point you need some pretty strong active flex so hopefully, you started working on that back in Level 2. We’ll start linking up those level 3 moves as well as bringing in some of the trending moves of the pole world. By this point, polers have usually cultivated their own style, whether it’s tumbles, flips, split moves, or strength moves. And moves take a lot more persistence to get by this point. No more learning a move in a session.

By level 4 you’re probably pretty addicted though, so training 4-5 times a week is normal.

Our highest level, and invite-only. Things are a little more experimental in this class as the polers figure out together some of the hardest tricks out there in the pole world. These dancers usually either have super strength or super flex. Ideally both! Most are competing nationally in the pro level and are working full combos of about 5 moves linked together.

But nothing about this level is impossible, it just takes consistency and commitment and anyone can get there.

So to get started with pole isn’t anywhere near as scary as some people think it is. Nothing will stop you getting to that Level 5 class except your mindset. How long it takes is irrelevant, just stay committed and consistent and it will happen. This is a journey and it’s your journey, no one else's. We’ll guide you through every step of the way, all you have to do is show up. And we promise you’ll have fun along the way!