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Pole dancers participate in a workshop at PoleCon 2015

Updating Workshop Levels at PoleCon (2025 and Beyond)

Historically PoleCon has held workshops that were labeled:

  • Beginner or All Levels
  • Intermediate (basic climbing and basic inversions)
  • Advanced (advanced inversions and combinations)

A few workshops every year get labeled with a mixed tag such as Intermediate-Advanced.

Most of the time the workshop leader provides the level designation but sometimes after reading the workshop description, PoleCon adjusts the level.

Moving forward, updating levels to bring clarity

Every year, a consistent theme in the PoleCon post-event survey is that the levels listed for workshops are inaccurate from the content actually taught.

For the last several years, PoleCon has encouraged paid workshop leaders to put move specific pre-requisites in workshop descriptions and any tools/accessories (such as shoes, leg warmers, etc.) the student needs to be successful in the workshop. For 2025, this is mandatory.

To help better define workshops for participants at PoleCon, we are introducing a more granular level system with the following definitions.

All levels will no longer be a level designation.

Each level includes any category of movement in the level below.

Any workshop with a hyphenated level designation should start with the first version of the movement and then progress to the second. For instance, beginner-intermediate might show the descent into an inverted pose AND THEN the ascent into the same inverted pose.

  • Beginner: upright spins and upright poses on the pole (static or spin). Off the pole may including any floorwork, flexibility exercises, pure dance or movement (no acrobatic elements), conditioning exercises, acrobatic moves like shoulder stands, and head stands.
  • Beginner-Intermediate: combinations of upright moves and spins, climbing, descending inversions, and descended inverted poses (3 points of contact or more) on the pole (static or spin). Off the pole, acrobatic moves like forearm stands and handstands on the floor or wall or with a chair.
  • Intermediate: inversions from the floor and inverted shapes (3 points of contact or more), upright drops on the pole (static or spin). Off the pole, dynamic acrobatic moves like the fish flop.
  • Intermediate-Advanced: aerial inversions and inverted shapes (2 points of contact or less), inverted drops and tumbles, working toward dynamic moves, and flips from the ground on the pole (static or spin). Off the pole, dynamic sequences of acrobatic movement like leaps, tumbles, “falls.”
  • Advanced: aerial flips and tumbles, dynamic releases, and combinations of poses on the pole (static or spin). Off the pole, “deadlifting” handstands/forearm stands without the wall.

All workshops should follow the format below:

Name: Use Your Butt—Low-Flow, Pole-Assisted Body Part Balances

Level: Intermediate

Description: Love working the base but running out of ideas? Learn Colleen’s favorite ground-based tricks using your butt, your forearm, knee pits, and other body parts to hold onto the pole while never going higher than standing.

Tricks taught include floor steel panther, floor sneaky-V, violator, forearm stands, and more!

Pre-requisite(s): basic inversion from the floor

Needed: must wear shorts or sticky leggings. Heels optional (not heels-centric).

If the forearm stand was removed from the list above, this could be list as Beginner-Intermediate as all moves are upright or descended.

Not all workshops may need to include a list of specific moves taught.

PoleCon will continue to work with instructors to provide the clearest information to potential workshop attendees.

 

Colleen
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