Josh Taylor - workshop classes review ("Unicorn Porn" and "Get Bent")
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“Josh Taylor is a Pole Dance Instructor and Performer who travelled the world, he taught, trained teachers, coached professional pole dancers and performed internationally. He has a strong reputation in the pole dancing community as a talented instructor, choreographer and coach.”
Earlier this year thanks to Emily Ford (owner of Contours Pole) I was able to attend a chair workshop given by Josh, I was so impressed with his class as well as his amazing personality that when I heard he was back at Contours Pole for some new workshops I knew I had to go! Unicorn porn is a heels and exotic dance class and get bent, a deep stretch class, that combines elements of yoga, contortionism.
Josh started the class with some fun breathing exercises (and jokes) to get everyone relaxed and ready for the warm up and then the fun began.
At first, when Josh showed us what we would be doing, a gorgeous and sexy routine involving some shoulder rolls (one of my many nemesis' still to be conquered), my reaction was “oh-oh there’s no way I can do this”, but not to worry! With Josh, there is no movement that you can’t achieve, no matter how much you might be afraid and perhaps doubting yourself! He has such an incredible and calm way of coaching and breaking down the moves, as well as reminding you of how important it is to breath throughout the moves without holding in, and he reminds you of something (that may seem evident at times, but we all commit the same mistake at some point) truly important, no matter how many times you look at your teacher or other do the routine, it will never be as good as doing it yourself, and there I was doing it (a bit wonky dahouse I will admit, but I it did nonetheless). We did a few reps Josh came through every single one of us and helped us get the moves right and then we all danced together, and it was over, time to head out to the park and get bent!
We started with a brief instruction on different stretching methods and another warm up (ALWAYS warm up) and then we proceeded to doing several types of exercises that could be extremely handy to help you achieve your splits, which consisted of forward and sideways lunges held for a good long time, followed by some postures (that looked like yoga to me, but I’m still new to the Yoga game so I won’t confirm that 100%) designed to deepen the stretch on your hamstrings. We did some great and practical shoulder warm up and stretch exercises, I felt my shoulders in a completely new way! Back bending exercises came last (but not least), we were given some great exercises, I was most terrified of getting into the bridges and kept saying I couldn’t do it, and once more magic; Josh showed me that I could, and I did. Never have I felt so excited, and guess what? Two days later I was doing bridges by myself (well...sort of).
Just as we were about to get into some “cool down” exercises, Josh took the time to answer any questions we had and see if there were any specific exercises we wanted to check with him, and I felt truly relaxed after this day!
To conclude, aside from exploring the sensuality of the unicorn realm and gaining some further flexibility, I have strengthened my self-confidence. Should Josh be in your town, don’t miss the opportunity to learn from one of the best!
First posted: July 31, 2018
About Isis: "A Gothic girl with an insane passion for all things fashion, pole dance, aerial hoop, and all things spooky. I shall share with you my latest findings in alternative fashion, as well as talk about my pole dance and aerial hoop journey, or anything else that might come through my mind. It is my sincere hope you like it :)"
Find her other blogs here: http://bit.ly/2LJk7Dy