- This video is not about me
comparing myself to J.Lo,
because quite frankly I would rather burst into flames
than compare myself to J.LO.
I'm gonna be real with y'all.
Hi everyone, this week I am recreating
J.Lo's routine from Hustlers.
She did it on the pole,
she did it all over the stage,
she hyped up her money,
and then left and it was incredible.
So context, if you are just tuning into Lady Like,
first off welcome.
I teach pole dancing at a studio called S Factor
in Los Angeles.
I teach intros,
so if you're in the L.A. area come and see me.
But, it's a very specific type of pole dancing.
It's kind of like pole dance therapy.
And I've been doing this since 2013, so six years.
I absolutely adore it,
it's like one of my favorite hobbies ever.
However, what I'm really trying to explore here
is that there are so many different pole dancing.
First you have exotic dancing,
which J Lo/Ramona her character in the movie Hustlers,
that's what she's doing.
But, then there's competition pole,
and then there is also burlesque and theatrical pole.
While I know like lots of pole tricks,
and I have definitely a vocabulary on the pole,
I'm not like by any means a maverick.
I used to be a maverick.
When I first started teaching back in 2013,
I taught like six cases a week,
which was like 12 hours of pole.
Then I got a full time job.
(laughing)
That pole journey quickly went on a steady decline.
I'm bringing along one of my dear, dear friends
and fellow teachers from S Factor,
her name is Natalie.
Natalie is a (beep) wizard on the pole.
I've seen her hold her legs up,
like on the pole in a full v-split,
with one hand supporting her,
and one hand holding her here.
And I've seen her do that for like four minutes.
So, of course I had to enlist this goddesses help.
- I'm Natalie Kabenjian,
I am a pole artist,
and I've been doing pole for three years.
And I just recently,
I'm about to launch my own business, Pole with Soul.
It's body and soul coaching
through pole art, voice and movement.
Basically help ignite and inspire everybody
to be themselves without limits.
- Natalie's gonna help me kind of break down
all of the tricks and all of the moves
that J.Lo uses in her routine,
and she's gonna help me break it down for myself.
What is my confidence level?
Ah, it's okay.
- Devin, she's actually one
of my favorite teachers at S Factor.
Because she teaches so much,
with teaching it's more about
you know supporting your students.
Her pole game is not where it used to be,
because she's only been teaching on Static,
and she's accustom to just free form dance.
It's gonna be interesting
to see how she's gonna walk the line
between okay having to hit these certain beats.
Especially when we're so used to at S Factor,
just kind of go like, "Oh my God,
"I'm in my thing,
"I'm in my zone, yes."
- Not that I don't believe in myself,
I believe that I will be able
to do some of these pole tricks.
I just know that with spinning poles,
you spin a lot.
And it's kind of counterintuitive,
because the closer you get to the pole,
the faster you will spin.
The more you extend out,
the slower you will go.
That's gonna be difficult.
- It's a beautiful challenge,
and I know she can do it.
She's up for it.
- In preparation for this shoot,
I had to get some new things.
I had to purchase new heels,
because J.Lo wears heels in the movie.
So, it's the morning of the shoot,
I clearly just woke up.
I just got my new shoes in the mail,
which I am so excited about.
They feel very witchy and adult.
These are my new shoes,
this is the new me.
She's a bad ass,
she's a boss,
she kicks down the walls around her.
Breaking the glass ceiling with her heel, boom.
I don't wear shoes when I pole dance,
for many reasons.
But, mostly because I'm you know 5'10,
and if I wear shoes,
then I'm like NBA level height.
I get more bang for my buck when I don't wear shoes.
I'm really excited,
because I'm gonna go see the movie by myself,
which is great.
Because, I'm probably gonna be
doing a lot of wooing in the theater.
And then I'm going to go drink a lot of water,
I'm gonna get swole tonight,
eat a lot of protein.
I might carb-load before this, who knows?
So, we're here at S Factor, my home studio.
There are a couple classes going on right now,
so we have to wait.
In the meantime,
I think I need to break in my new shoes.
Can you see your reflection in them?
- [Emilie] Yeah, just about.
How are those stairs?
- I'm fine, it's a little bit
further down when grabbing the railing.
Goddammit.
- [Emilie] Are you okay?
(beeping)
- [Emilie] How they feel?
- I needed to sit down.
I walked maybe like four blocks to this coffee shop,
and I'm already like oof.
I'm pooped.
- So, we're learning the routine?
Okay, great.
So, I watched it,
and I think we're gonna totally
bang it out of the park.
I think it's only gonna take us what,
15, 20 minutes?
- No.
- Yes.
- So, what do we have to focus on when we're warming up?
- A lot of core,
there is gonna be a lot of leg movement too,
and then naturally our shoulders.
You know, our wrists.
Because, we're really gonna be using it
for this bad boy here.
- All right, so we should probably get started, yeah?
- Cool.
- All right, so let's break this puppy down.
- Starts with the walk around your kingdom.
- So then she takes her hat off, right?
- Yeah, she takes off her hat.
Away with you hat.
- I got a surprise in store there you go,
and then she go and take off your coat,
yeah slowly give a little shimmy.
- I shimmy too hard, I fell.
- Roll over, yeah play with the coat.
Bring it all the way down,
release one arm,
and arm closest to the pole,
so you can grab onto your magic wand again.
That's right, yeah.
And you're just gonna put all your weight on the pole,
and toss that.
- First trick on the spin pole.
- Leg closes to the pole,
it's in a chair position,
knees towards your chest.
Your pole arm is gonna be your push arm,
top arms gonna be.
Turn towards the pole.
- [Devin] And around.
- Then you're gonna bring it back,
and mount.
You can do it,
you can do it.
- Oh, I'm slipping.
- [Natalie] Have it all in one sweet motion.
Bring the knees to the chest,
and then turn towards the pole.
That's it baby, yes look at you,
you're fine now.
- Oh, wow.
Spin pole is a different beast everyone.
You may not know the difference between a stag
and spinning pole, like at first glance.
But, you've seen me do some of the tricks.
I'm just gonna show you what some
of these tricks look like on a static pole,
so you can kind of see the difference.
So there you go, that's the difference.
- That's the beauty about this,
nobody's gonna know, right?
Unless you let them know.
- Okay.
- Like oh I slipped up.
- You're right.
So, then she gets out of it?
- She gets out of it,
right hand is still on the pole.
And facing your left hand,
is gonna come towards your right armpit.
So, one, two.
- Gotcha.
- Hair toss.
And then, I mean this is where you can really flaunt it.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
- And then she's waving.
- And she's just waving,
she's just loving all up on herself.
Yeah, that's right.
Such a brilliant opportunity,
what a gift you're giving everybody.
- Yeah, merry (beep) Christmas.
- Hello.
This is where we're gonna get into our next trick.
Right leg is gonna come up again,
you're gonna cross your outside leg,
it's almost like you're sitting.
- Okay, she closely comes down?
- Yeah, turning towards the pole.
And then she finds her way to the front.
- I want to find that front hook,
because it's like a ballerina with a leg cross.
- One of my favorite things about pole dancing,
is how not uniform it is.
From studio to studio,
you see tricks that are called different things.
So, even in J.Lo's video
where she's training for six weeks,
she calls it like a front leg hook.
Which in my studio, we call it a ballerina.
We call it pole sits,
she calls it thigh grips.
And it's just really, really interesting,
because every person leaves their mark
on the sport in different ways.
- So, we're here.
- Yes, oh my gosh.
Natural.
- And then she comes around.
- And just take a walk,
and then once you hit the center,
back up that's it.
Give it your own flavor.
And then plie, and then wrap.
And I love that you're taking your time.
That's what this is.
Just owning it.
The more contact points you have,
the stronger you are.
- Gotcha and the hold, okay.
All right, let me try to see if I can do it all together.
My heart's beating so fast, Natalie.
Now, pretend I have a hat on,
I don't have a hat.
Emilie can I borrow your hat?
All right, so I'm gonna walk around the pole,
in my own Devin way.
- Use your own flavor,
flavor's right here.
Teasing, taking off the, yes.
And then folding over,
draping your coat all the way down.
Releasing your right arm,
grabbing onto the pole,
that's sitting into your pressers.
Put it on your wing, yes.
Toss that coat.
- Get mad at your coat.
- Taking a walk,
and then go into that.
- The chair spin, okay.
Here we go.
- Yes, that's it, that's it.
- All right, I feel like I need to master that one
a little bit more.
Where am I dropping off,
like what am I doing wrong?
- When I'm turning towards the pole,
I'm using my forearm,
to press of my forearm.
So, then that way I can come down.
- I also think I'm closing my eyes,
which is crazy.
I typically dance with my eyes closed,
because that's what we do.
It's very lyrical,
it's very much feeling based,
and in kind of release emotion that way.
However, I don't really dance with my eyes open,
because I really don't dance for anyone else.
So, because there's such a tight turn around
for this video,
I didn't really have time to invite people
to come witness me dance.
Instead of getting clients,
or like an audience,
I'm gonna have some stuffed animals.
These are my clients,
oh yeah I forgot about the coffee cup.
- They're so excited for you.
- They're so excited.
So, we're gonna do a rehearsal with my arm men in tact.
And for nothing else,
I'm dancing for coffee and pancakes right now.
So, they may not pay me,
but this bitch is gonna eat.
And in the movie Hustlers,
that's the whole point of the movie.
They have to make a connection
with who they're dancing for,
so they can make that person feel scene,
so that person can pay them money.
All right, here we go.
One more time.
- [Natalie] That's it, yes!
Yes!
- All right.
- [Natalie] So exciting.
- Yeah, that form thing,
much better.
And opening my eyes.
Let's take a break for a second,
and talk about inverts.
What do the people at home
need to know about inversions?
- Don't try it at home.
(laughing)
The key with an invert,
you have this grip right here, the armpit.
Okay, so when you're in your strong hold,
so really making sure
that your elbow is aiming towards your belly, right?
So, you have this whole grip.
Your booty is a wee bit in front of the pole too,
so there you go.
You have another contact point.
Once you get that,
knees come to chest.
- [Devin] You do that so seamlessly.
- Well, everybody will get literally pulling
the pole into the ground.
And then both my legs come,
and now here's another contact point.
And this is what she does,
she's right here.
She let's go,
and then she slowly comes down.
- At S Factor we call this trick the helicopter.
So, basic invert is what Natalie just did.
Fun fact about me and the helicopter,
this was my nemesis trick.
- What?
- Before I became a teacher.
It took me years to get this trick.
I've never done it on a spinning pole,
nor have I ever done it with these shoes on.
So, there's some stakes, dun, dun, dun.
So, she's down here,
she comes up,
she crepes,
Oh, these shoes are heavier.
Oh my God, wow, wow, wow.
It's so much heavier,
to do it with these shoes.
- Try really sinking into that pit right here,
and it's like you're pressing your booty
into the pole too.
- I thought that this would be not simple,
but I have a pole background,
so I thought I'd be a little bit use to this.
But, wow I am exhausted.
Holy snipes.
So, right now I'm just taking a short rest.
I've marked through the routine,
two or three times,
no it's two times.
And I'm just going to then do it.
Who knows if it'll be as good as the movie,
but she sure will try.
- [Emilie] It's going to be amazing,
because you have my hat.
- Because I have her hat.
We're gonna add a very important element,
that hasn't been in our run throughs so far,
and that is the money.
Maybe the money will awaken something in me, who knows?
Let's try it out.
(upbeat music)
Huh.
That was hard.
J.Lo, you know what?
Here's what I have to say about J.Lo,
she is a queen and a goddess.
You gotta hand it to exotic dancers and strippers.
Not only do they put all this effort
into the dance, into the routine,
into the pole,
but then they have to play clean up
for all the money that they have to get.
But, I learned a lot.
Thank you Natalie, come in here.
Share this money with me.
- Yes, I know.
(laughing)
- Share this money.
What did we learn today, Natalie?
- We learned how to be a bad ass,
we learned a few spins on the spin pole.
- [Devin] We learned about Natalie,
how amazing she is.
- We did learn about me.
- Check her out on Instagram, polewithsoul.
- Check her out too.
But, you probably already knew that.
(laughing)
- I'm exhausted you guys.
- You did so good.
- I only did a routine like maybe twice,
three times full way.
But, I'm ready to go home,
and drink a glass of wine.
- Oh my gosh, yes.
- That was exhausting.
Trying J Lo's pole dance routine
from the movie Hustlers, lady tested.
Lady hustle.
If you haven't seen the movie,
you need to see it.
This video is not sponsored,
I just really like the movie.
- [Natalie] Yeah.
(upbeat music)