MPDO Recap and Recovery
I’d have to say that Miss Pole Dance Oklahoma has been my best competition yet. My goal with this competition was simple: to do better than I had done at my Houston competition…and I feel like I was successful in meeting that goal. My MPDO competition journey started off with a last minute decision to submit an audition video and ended with what has proven to be a tremendous improvement in my competitive performance ability.
I believe that a big part of my personal success with this competition had to do with preparation; I was more prepared for this competition than my previous competitions. This time around I had a better game plan and a great support system. I knew from previous experience that I needed to pay extra attention to the small performance details that I’d overlooked with previous competitions. This included working on my toe point, attention to lines and direction of tricks, facial expressions and also planning and styling practice for my costume, accessories, hair, nails and makeup. It was all of these little things that helped me put on a better performance.
I did the majority of my competition training at Vertical Fitness Dallas…even adding in Aerial Yoga classes to help supplement my flexibility and strength training. The Vertical Fitness Dallas team was great in helping me get my routine together and working on my overall presentation. I also took quite a few level 2 classes which allowed me to work on the fundamentals of pole, as well as Pole After Dark at Zensual which helped me improve my fluidity and dance transitions. In addition to pole training, I put in work at the gym and was able to drop an additional 10 pounds…which made a huge difference on the pole. I do think that I was a little behind in getting my routine together and think that I should have scheduled things out a little better. At least now I have a better handle on developing my own competition timeline that I can use for future competition prep. Unlike my Houston competition routine, I was able to run this competition routine from start to finish several times before the competition and felt comfortable with every part of the routine.
Jumping forward to competition day…
Our ride to Oklahoma was fun. I always have a great time with my travel buddy who gets us to each destination safe and sound. A few hours of great conversation and our favorite jams… well at least the part of it that I was awake for lol. Upon arriving in Oklahoma, we had just enough time to check into the hotel and get in a quick nap before I had to be at the competition venue. From the moment I walked through the door of Will Rogers Theatre it was Go, Go, Go! Warmup, practice, pictures, interviews, makeup and more. The only hiccup was that my contacts wouldn’t cooperate and I had to get help putting them in, and in turn left me doing my competitor pictures and interview without my makeup done. I was second in the competition lineup and surprisingly calm (compared to my past competitions).
At my last competition in Houston, all I remembered from my performance was bright lights and lots of screaming in the audience. This time around I was more in-tuned with my audience and my surroundings. I remember smiling and actually seeing people in the audience and connecting with them. My honey was sitting front and center which also helped give me a positive point of focus during my performance. Overall I was extremely pleased with how my competition routine came out. Now, I didn’t perform it as well as I would have liked (my mind went blank after my twisted grip flip over), but I did improve on some key performance areas that had previously been an issue for me.
Despite the stress, sleeplessness, soreness and occasional frustration, I was proud of myself. I’ve decided on a little bit of rest & recovery, then time to catch up on some work, drop a few more pounds and then it’s back to the pole drawing board!
Check out my Performance Highlights! and watch my MPDO competition performance below:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxj7IbpIra8
