Seeing Jennifer Lopez performing
the role of a dancer in a movie
may not seem that surprising.
She's known for her moves.
But knowing how to dance
and knowing how to do this
are two very different things.
Turns out, even J-Lo needed some help
to get ready to assume her role
as an experienced pole dancer in "Hustlers."
That's where 10-year veteran of Cirque du Soleil
Johanna Sapakie comes in.
Johanna Sapakie: By the time we were done working together,
even though it was just a short period of time,
she's throwing out these moves
without even thinking about it anymore.
Narrator: So how did Sapakie get Lopez to the point
where she was doing upside-down splits in just two months?
Lopez took her training so seriously
that she moved a portable pole into each one of her houses
in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami,
so that she could continue to practice
wherever she happened to be living at the time.
While Lopez was already in fantastic shape,
pole dancing requires certain muscle groups
to be extraordinarily strong.
And because there are no body doubles in the film,
she had to do everything herself.
So, to get her ready for the role,
Sapakie first made sure that Lopez
was exercising the muscle groups that she'd need
to pole dance like a pro.
Lopez worked with her personal trainer
to strengthen her core and upper body.
She had to make sure that she was strong enough
to perform certain moves,
like the inverted splits,
where she's supporting her entire body weight
with just her arms and shoulders.
As Lopez continued to strengthen her body in the gym,
she also began her pole-dancing training sessions
with Sapakie.
Sapakie says that each training session
always started with stretching.
It's important to loosen the spine, shoulders, and hips
in order to provide a wider range of motion
for the undulating movements
that are essential to pole dancing.
After stretching, Sapakie slowly introduced Lopez
to the principles of pole dancing,
such as basic spins and climbing.
Sapakie: When we started, you know, the trainings are slow.
You do one movement at a time.
You rest in between.
If you're not used to a lot of rotation,
getting the feeling of spinning around the pole
takes a little bit of practice.
There's a lot of conversation about, you know,
how to do the movement
and what the movement is.
Narrator: Sapakie also emphasized
improving Lopez's pole-dancing endurance.
She knew Lopez was going to have to do
her pole-dancing scenes over and over and over again
throughout the day when they were filming.
Especially because her main routine
was a full four minutes long.
Sapakie: You're not just doing one trick at a time.
You're linking things together
into, you know, two, three, four minutes' worth of movement.
She's doing takes from different angles over and over again,
and she has to nail it every single time.
Narrator: Because Sapakie also choreographed
all of the pole-dancing scenes in "Hustlers,"
she knew exactly what moves
Lopez was going to have to perform for the film.
There were several particularly difficult moves
in the choreography,
but Sapakie was confident in Lopez's abilities.
Sapakie: There's one where she actually wraps her legs
around the pole and just squeezes with her inner thighs,
and that's all that she's using to hold on.
And that definitely took some practice
because you really have to engage those inner-thigh muscles
in order to hold yourself on the pole.
So that's not one that came on day one.
We definitely had to work up to that
in order to gain that feeling and that strength.
Narrator: Once Lopez started to get confident
with her pole dancing,
the last thing for her to master
was flipping upside down.
Sapakie: You wanna make sure that physically
you're really capable before you're inverting.
It takes a lot of core strength,
it takes a lot of grip strength,
and it takes a lot of upper-body strength
to physically pull yourself up
and then maintain that position safely.
Narrator: When Lopez was first learning the move,
Sapakie would provide a spot for her,
making sure she was safe
as she tried to master the movement.
But it wasn't too long before she was able
to do it on her own.
Sapakie: She really became comfortable with it quickly
because of her work ethic and because she was so diligent
and determined to get it right.
She was able to achieve her goal by the end,
which was turning upside down
and ultimately looking like she's been doing this
her whole life.
And that was really exciting to see and really satisfying.