WE DID IT!!!!! (Warning. many explanation points used in this post!!!)

You guys rock!!!
Thank you each and every one for your contribution and your belief in this project! And to all ($$ or no), it's exciting to know that we are lifting this project off the ground with the backing of the coolest people around. Going forward, we will be posting on the behind-the-scenes adventures complete with photos and stories. Stay tuned for the photo of us raising a toast to you!

lift off?

We're 35 hours away (Tuesday, November 16, 12:46 pm) from finding out if we're going to make our money goal ($315 shy) on kickstarter. And as it gets closer and closer, the possibilities of how this project is going to fly become more and more real. You know when you have a dream that seems very far away and suddenly, inch by inch, it seems to get closer. You know those moments that you may have said something to yourself like, Are you kidding? ME? do that? Sure I want to, but....I wouldn't know how to start. Well this project has been like that. The idea to tell the story of what women often don't tell... through a movement that is beyond just movement. An idea rose up a few years ago. Now, Kathy has a script rolling, we have dancers, actors and singers interested and involved. We have a fundraising project mere hours away from meeting its goal.

It makes me think of how we go step-by-step into the world, taking on challenges, not knowing what lies on the other side. When I first stepped into the dance studio, who knew that over three years later I would be celebrating this powerful feeling so much that it would become clear that everyone should know about it (hence the idea for Taking Flight). Who knew that as I approach the age of 50 that i'd love my body enough to feel a confidence in sharing it that is sensual/powerful rather than sexual/scared. Who knew that the community of women i've met (and continue to meet) would all connect in the way we do because of this movement. I do know that if all ladies could dive into this powerful sense of self (clearly allowing for freak-outs, but those are grounded differently now), female confidence would be the new black and we'd all be wearing it proudly.

I do know that we are closer than we've ever been to sharing this vision through dance, song and spoken word. The clock ticks down, but time, of course, goes on.
--LS

We promised a behind the scenes look at the making of Pole Play: Taking Flight, so here it is. I am very bummed. I have hurt my arm, pulled a major muscle so I can't lift it at all, and had to miss my pole dancing classes this week! I seriously had to use my other hand to lift my hurt arm up to the computer so I could type this, it's that bad. You might think I injured my arm from all the pole dancing, but I didn't. It was from slinging my overly heavy purse and backpack (symbolic baggage?) over the same shoulder when I was in a hurry to get somewhere! (I live in New York, we're always in a hurry. Don't really know why.) So now I can't even lift my right arm at all, and I'm a righty! This made me stop and think, why am I carrying so much heavy stuff around? I don't need it all. Actually, I don't need 90% of it! What I need is to drop all the extra shi--I mean stuff-- that is weighing me down physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually! I need to drop the worry and the baggage so I can feel lighter and...and fly around the pole faster and higher! See there, in my world it always comes back to the pole! And...And...And I just got another idea for our play! Can't tell you all the details right now, but it involves letting go of the baggage that is weighing us down when we try to fly! Gotta go and write on the script right now, if I can keep my painful arm on the keyboard!

51 Supporters!

the asking

It's a challenge to ask! To believe in what's being asked for! This project via Kickstarter has been a real study in that. As we move into the (plus-one-day) last week of our fundraising (ends on wednesday the 17th), the act of requesting help to get to our goal reminds me of all the times I've kept quiet when I needed something. Or believed in something. Or just plain wanted something. Well all those three things are true in this case: need ($2,100 to reach our goal), believe (that this project is not only exciting and sexy, but incredibly enlightening and entertaining as well. How often can you say all that about one piece of performance?), want (I want this to lift off and reach its goal).

So in keeping with those moments, I'm challenging my normal way and laying it all out right here, so that this blog can feature even more pictures and great stories as we ramp up to showtime!! Showtime, that's what I'm talking about. We need your help to get there...
and thanks!

-LS

Stilettos

Yesterday a pole dancer said she preferred to pole dance in a simple man's shirt because "all this girly stuff is SO complicated!" By girly stuff, she was referring to all the sexy things we typically think of pole dancers wearing, fishnets, garter, boa, stiletto shoes, push-up bra, etc. And it made me laugh, because I had already ripped off the red stilettos that I was trying to dance in and in a fit of anger at the pain they caused and the restrictions they put on my movement, I had thrown them across the room where they almost hit another dancer but luckily slammed against the wall and fell useless into the shadows on the floor, where they belonged. And my bare feet literally danced around the pole once again in joy, comfort and freedom!

All this to say, you will not see me dancing in stilettos during our Pole Play! But don't despair if you love stilettos, some of our other dancers enjoy them and may dance in them, but there will be no complicated girly shoes for me!

I will, however, have girly red painted toes!

-KS

Thanks to the Suffragettes!

I just voted in our national elections, and I am reminded of the suffragettes, of their determination, voices and sacrifices that gave me the civil right I just enjoyed. Many of them went to prison, endured solitary confinement and forced feeding through the nose so they could do what I did so easily today. But they didn't just do it for themselves, they also did it for their daughters and their female descendents so their...our... voices can be heard as long as there is an America.

The story of the suffragettes is one of several women's stories we will visit in our play, Pole Play: Taking Flight. We know we stand on their shoulders even when we pole dance, because they fought for our right to have our voices, concerns and stories heard in whatever form our expression takes. Because of suffragettes, and other women who came before and after them, I have the freedom to dance and express myself however I please, and today that means I will dance on a pole!

-KS

Fundraising Website

Check out our online fundraising website and video by clicking on the blue address above or going to

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1509265282/pole-play-taking-flight-a-stage-play-featuring-pol