How do I know my level?

At Studio Nightshade, we do levels a little differently than your typical pole fitness studio. As a dance-based studio, our levels are based on a variety of factors from strength, to knowledge, to body awareness, to your own personal goals. You can be an advanced dance student and not have your invert. Alternatively, you may have your Bird of Paradise but be a beginner level dancer - and that’s ok.

So what does that mean for you?

• Newbie - Brand new student. Typically has taken 5 or fewer pole dance classes. We recommend starting with Like A Virgin, our intro to pole dance class. From there, take a handful of newbie-level classes to build a basic knowledge base - or even better, sign up for our 4-week Beginner Course!

• Beginner - Student has a baseline knowledge including pole walks, pirouettes, and some basic spins. The focus for beginner level students is not perfection, but to build strength, stamina, and a tool belt of movement vocabulary. For aerial-oriented students, this is where we begin to learn to climb the pole.

• High Beginner - Student has built the strength, stamina, and skill necessary to learn and dance a beginner level choreography with relative ease. At this level students should have some comfort with a variety of pirouettes, spins, sits, and grips. For aerial-oriented students, our focus is on building strong, clean climbs, executing upright aerial tricks, and beginning to work on our invert.

• Intermediate - At the intermediate level, students have great body awareness, a wide knowledge base, and a high level of comfort with foundational pole dance movement and variations. For aerial students, this means you have a rock-solid climb, reliable invert from the ground, stringing together trick combos and beginning to work on inverting aerially.

• Advanced - Students at the advanced level have a mastery of foundational pole movement. You can do these things in your sleep. You have excellent body awareness, strength, stamina, and a wealth of knowledge that gives you the ability to confidently adapt to just about anything. At this level, we focus on expertly combining the body, mind, and spirit to focus on intentionality, fine detail work, and fine tuning transitions to take your movement quality from good to great. Aerially, you have a variety of strong inverts in your arsenal and can confidently execute trick combos. The goal for aerial movement now is to build comfort dancing into, out of, and through these skills so you can combine dance and tricks into one cohesive, seamless flow.