Pole Magnets is a pole dance school nestled in the market town of Long Eaton. We have three main instructors: Beccy Summers (owner), Emma Maill and Clare Jackson.
Beccy has been a professional pole dancer since 1999 and made the transition to teaching after her first child was born and when Pole Magnets was first established in 2008. She is a fitness instructor and has a keen awareness for body positioning in movement, having studied Occupational Therapy at University.
Emma has been with the school since Beccy’s first class and is a Horse Riding Instructor as well. This skill massively complements her teaching style.
Clare has been with the school for around two years and started teaching a few months ago. During the day she cares for people with learning disabilities and her caring, patience and communication skills come out when she teaches.
All the instructors have REPS level 2 instruction and qualifications from Vertical Dance.
Our main ethos is if we can’t teach you how to do something, it’s a reflection on us, not you. We also hold safety high on our agenda – not just in terms of falling off, but taking into account range of movement, body balance, effective use of muscle application and injury prevention.
Our main venue is within an arcade – The Mayfair Walk – however we are in the process of branching out to North and South Derbyshire. The studio has a light and fresh feel with oak floors. Bottled water and tap water are available at any point and we have a fridge to keep these cool. We have 6 poles in total, 2 x 45mm and 4 x 50mm. We also have 4 stage poles that we use for performances in other venues.
We have a policy of no more than 2 to a pole, so our classes are fairly small in number but the atmosphere is really nice. Many of our students have become firm friends through our classes. Classes are 1 hour and 15 minutes including warm-up, stretches and aerobic elements, all of which make use of the poles where possible. All levels of ability are welcome – most of the classes are mixed ability and there are three instructors per class, so you will be guaranteed to get a good level of tuition. Routines are taught usually once a month and are designed around the students’ abilities and strengths, so there may be 7 or 8 different versions of the same routine. We teach all of the common pole moves: The Chair Spin, Front Hook, Scorpio, Crucifix, etc. and we encourage students to put their own mark on a move. Quite often during our teacher development sessions, we come up with interesting alternatives to moves, so we teach these as well.
We are planning a show in the town at Christmas with over 20 performers.
By Beccy Summers
