Embracing Freestyle: Falcon’s Dance Journey and Insights

In this episode of 'Science of Slink, the Evidence-based pole podcast,' the host welcomes Falcon, a seasoned dancer and fellow studio member, to discuss their experiences and insights into freestyle pole dancing. Falcon shares challenges faced transitioning from structured choreography to the fluidity of freestyle, emphasizing the importance of letting go of perfectionism and the rigidity of pre-determined movements. The conversation also highlights how dancing to unfamiliar music can ease the pressure of hitting precise beats and offer freedom in movement. Falcon’s journey illustrates the value of experimentation, playful movements, and embracing the unexpected in dance.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast

01:00 Meet Falcon: A Journey into Freestyle

01:57 Challenges and Struggles in Freestyle

04:52 Overcoming Perfectionism

06:57 The Joy of Freestyle

13:15 Advice for Freestyle Beginners

15:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Rosy: Hello and welcome to Science of Slink, the Evidence-based pole podcast. And today we've got, I guess it's a case study, is the type of evidence we're gonna be talking about today, uh, because I thought for these last two shows of 2025 'Cause I've been thinking and talking a lot about freestyle recently. It would be really cool if you got a chance to hear from some other folks who are freestylers and just learn about their experiences and what they've discovered in their bodies. So the first person who's gonna be joining us is Falcon. Uh, if you're taking class with me, you, you may have danced with them previously.

Uh, and just so you know, if you're watching it they did have their camera off. So if you see like the little camera slash icon and know that everything is fine, it's supposed to look that way. Uh, and we had a really good conversation about freestyle and bodies and, uh, I think it was a wonderful chat and I hope that you will enjoy listening to it very much.

You know, say stay warm or I guess cool if you're in the Southern hemisphere. And [00:01:00] enjoy.

So I am joined by Falcon and they are one of the, the folks who, who dances with us at at the studio, uh, actually a Science of Slink member. So, uh, get to chance to dance with them quite a lot. And when Falcon first came to the studio, they had. I would say you had like a very large movement vocabulary, right?

I know you have a dance background, you got a gymnastics background. You'd already been doing pole for quite a while, so you had a lot of things you could do in your body. And I think, one thing that folks will sometimes tell me when they're starting getting started with freestyle is like, oh, well I don't know enough things to freestyle, and once I know a lot of things, then sort of the freestyle will arise.

Um, and I would say that that was not necessarily your experience, right. But you knew a lot of things, but freestyle didn't just sort of. Arrive naturally and feel effortless for you. So do you wanna talk a little bit about what [00:02:00] it felt like for you to start freestyling and maybe just some of the things that you're like, ah, this is awkward.

Uh, I'm, I'm struggling with this in my journey.

Falcon: Sure. Um, so yeah, I did come from a dance background. I've been doing pole for quite a long time. I do aerial. I, I did competitive gymnastics, so, yeah. The body can do many things. I have learned many things from many wonderful instructors but with freestyle, you have to remember in that moment that you know how to do things, and you also have to remember that you may not be coming towards the thing, whatever you're trying to do, in from a position that's comfortable, right? You know, if you know how to do a beautiful outside leg, pirouette. In isolation, that doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to [00:03:00] automatically know the transition into that pirouette from some weird position on the floor, which if you're freestyling and you're like, I would like to put a pirouette right here, you might be in a weird position on the floor, and then you kind of have to like.

Get from that position to a position where you can start that pirouette and that might be more time than the music will allow. And you now you're off. So like the biggest problem, I think is letting go of the desire to have everything line up perfectly because you are coming from a weird position or coming from the position you are.

Maybe it's not weird, it's just different. And now the pirouette has not happened at the point in the music where you have predetermined that this pirouette needed to happen and that's [00:04:00] okay. Getting okay with that is a struggle. From somebody coming from my background where it's like everything happens at the right spot in the music everybody's doing it together. We are all doing it perfectly. Uh, there's no room for mistakes. There's no room for silliness or uh, experimentation and that rigidity couldn't be a comfort. That level of structure can absolve you of having to make decisions. So then you're thrown into this situation where it's like freestyle is like, it's all decisions.

It is only decisions. Nothing has been like predetermined for you. And that can be, uh. Something that makes you freeze up. It did for me. I froze up a lot. I would just stand in the blue screen. You've seen it. And then also one of the things that helped me get out of that a little bit was, [00:05:00] you mentioned it in class or maybe in one of the, um, science of Slink, you know, daily updates.

That repetition is not a bad thing. And so I would come into freestyle and maybe I would do something early on or in warmup that felt good. It felt enjoyable to do, and that would come up again and again in my dance for that, that class period because it was just in my head as a nice feeling thing to do or something that just was easy or kind of rolled off the tongue. Not really the tongue, but the body in a way that I was enjoying or, some combo that I had learned in one of my other classes. My in-person class, uh, that was on the top of my head and that would kind of show up in my dance. Uh. Somewhat rep repetitively, and you think I know how to do all of these things and I keep doing the same shit.

Oh no. Am I allowed to say that? [00:06:00] Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. We swear 

Rosy: we results. 

Falcon: It's, I keep doing the same shit over and over again. 'cause my, I'm going blank. And, uh, that was, that was the biggest struggle for me was even with this pretty decent sized movement vocabulary. I can do a bunch of tricks.

I've got a lot of choreographic experience. Uh, you have to think of it in the moment, and sometimes your brain is not very useful in the moment, and most people relate. If they have full experience with like being upside down, I don't know my left from my right. And somebody says, move your hand up.

Like, do you mean up towards my head or up towards the ceiling? Because. Those could both be classified as a, so in the midst of the movement you're not given any instruction and you just kind of have to wing it. And that can be a little distressing from some, from a background of like very rigid choreography.

But it's also relief, freeing once you get to a point where you're just like, yeah, whatever. It's fine. Which has taken me a while and I still get in my [00:07:00] head, you know, this but I really do enjoy just those moments where I'm like, yeah, whatever. It's fine because

D dance maybe shouldn't be as rigid as I have, have experienced it in my lifetime. Uh, you know, what is dance? Ultimately, like is this music made me wanna move my body? Like I was so moved by this music that I have to wiggle about it. And that's kind of like inherently undignified and silly and maybe just like a little bit weird and awkward and leaning into that has been like the really great joy of experimenting with freestyle.

And I think that you particularly have made that.

Easier and also like a more reasonable goal. Like you offer little tidbits and things and it, it just makes it. [00:08:00] Less stressful. 

Rosy: Good. I'm really glad to hear that it's, yeah, because it's, it's a skill, right? And I think you, you know, I mentioned you wrote up, you have a lot of dance training in a very specific way of moving in a very, like, specific choreographic style.

It's also often tied up with, and I know it's something we talk about a lot, perfectionism and like the idea of like, things have to be a specific way. And if they're not that way, it's wrong. And. Like psychologically moving from that to I'm in charge of everything and also I can't do something wrong just like releasing that idea of it's possible to make mistakes. Right. It's certainly possible to do a movement that didn't come out exactly the way that you intended it. Right. And freestyle like that happens all the time. Happy accidents, uh, certainly happens to, to me quite a bit. But releasing that degree of expectation and like.

It's not just an inner critic, right? It's like a, an inner [00:09:00] director who's like, no, it must be like, so, right. Those, those standards and expectations you have for yourself is such a big part of getting better at freestyle. Yeah, there's the movements, but then also there's the brain, right?

Falcon: Yeah. And there's like also the like. Having the pretty decent movement vocabulary, like my in-person class is less choreo choreography and dancey dancey focused and more skills focused. I've learned a great many skills from my awesome instructor there. And it's like you get up to dance and you're like, well, I gotta, it's, I gotta put in my hardest moves.

I gotta make this the best dance I ever danced. And I find that I can do that. But it is not as enjoyable as an ex an experience as some of the times where I'm like, I can't do any of my hardest moves 'cause I don't have skin grip. 'cause I am wearing sweatpants, but I'm dancing and I'm enjoying it. And that is sort of [00:10:00] revolutionary.

Rosy: I love that and I am so glad that you've been able to find it and also just, dancing with you a lot and seeing you go on, on that journey has been been such a joy. Because like, like you said, I think when we first started dancing together, you would just like freeze up. Like you'd stop moving, uh, and process and then get back into it. And, uh, for those of y'all who saw our most recent show, uh, Falcon did a beautiful freestyle piece, uh, that, uh, everyone really liked. I, uh, my parents-in-law actually like, gave a little comment, uh, later. They were like, oh, I really like that one. I was like, yeah, yeah, Falcons.

Thank you. Yay. Validation. Yes. Not that, not that we need to move for validation, but it's also nice to get it right. 

Falcon: It do be nice. 

Rosy: Yeah. Ah, and it's, you know, it's just showing up and keeping practicing skill get better at it. Right? 

Falcon: Yep. It's also interestingly helped my aerial practice where that I'm, I have a performance coming up and it is highly [00:11:00] choreographed, but freestyle has really helped me.

Put some glitter on my transitions from one like insane, ridiculous skill where I'm doing the splits upside down to the next upside down split. Because that's now just keep going and, you know, use the music and move your body is now part of my movement vocabulary. It's a new language.

It's not just putting together the words you already know. It's its own thing. And that's, you know, AF froze up. I blue screened a lot. And also that's a thing. That's okay if you are like, I was gonna do this thing and I am in the wrong position and I don't know what to do right now. You can just stop like it's not illegal. Absolutely. I don't think anybody's gonna arrest you for it. 

Rosy: Hopefully not. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. Being able to give yourself that, that grace, that permission to just like be [00:12:00] still. I also really like the point you made about, I often think about transitions as co articulation, right?

Like. The, anyway, I don't wanna get too much into speech stuff, but basically, uh, there's, uh, very little bit, very little in the speech signal is actually the same between repetitions. Mostly it is, you know, movement between things and that's what we pick up on, right? We pick up on the, the sort of the smear in between things.

Uh, and I think as movers and particularly as movers in a tradition where we, we learn things as individual pieces it can be hard to forget that. Most of moving, most of dancing is that sort of smear in between place. And it's not like if you are a pole dancer and you're like, I'm doing this for sick photos, and you know, that is my point.

That is an absolutely valid way to pole dance. But if you're a pole dancer and you're like, I want gooey movement, I wanna be able to really dance and express, then yeah, gotta get smearing sometimes. 

Falcon: I like [00:13:00] it. And it, it allows me to be, uh, a silly goose in ways that, uh, you know, traditional ballet and gymnastics don't, don't allow for, yeah, yeah.

Play with 

Rosy: it. 

Falcon: Lot of playfully, flexed 

Rosy: feet. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Exploring more places. 

Falcon: I defy your pointed feet. 

Rosy: Uh, so before we wrap up, um, I do, I mean, I think you've given lots of great things for people to think about if they're, if they're coming into freestyle, but if it was somebody's first time freestyling ever what little tidbit of advice would you give them to, to take with them into their, into their maiden voyage, as it were?

Ooh.

Falcon: Hard question. It is. 'cause there's like so much. But one of the things that I haven't touched on yet, like obviously you can stop, you don't have to do your hardest trick like just move body. But the thing that is was surprising to me that has been [00:14:00] really eyeopening dance to songs you don't know, especially if you get locked up in perfectionism.

Uh, or you're used to a very rigidly choreographed scenario and you're trying to do freestyle, and that's just really a, an a foreign language to, you dance to songs you don't know because your expectations of yourself are gonna be quite different. You're gonna be like, well, of course I didn't hit that beat.

I don't know this fricking song. And I've noticed for me, when I dance to songs, I don't know, I give myself a lot more like freedom, uh, and I have more expectations for myself when I'm dancing to songs. I do know. And that's okay. That's not a problem. But I do get like. A lot of good free movement out of songs that I don't know.

So I like that I get that opportunity in your classes because we all take turns picking songs and stuff, and I'm like, well, I'm gonna dance to it. I never heard it before in my life, but we're gonna figure it out or we're [00:15:00] not. Either way, it's not. Again, the police are probably not coming probably. 

Rosy: Yeah. I I'm certainly not gonna call 'em.

Thanks. Yeah. I think that is, uh, wonderful advice and wonderful thing to to try out, especially if you are narrative freestyle. Uh, and I know you and, and Brooke Falcon, I, you dance with them as well. Uh, Brooke also really likes dancing to, uh, just. When it comes time to pick songs, uh, if, if they're in class, I'll ask and they'll just be like, surprise me.

Pick. So yeah, 

Falcon: whatever y'all want. It's gonna make my time different. 

Rosy: Ah, alright. Thank you so much, Falcon. Uh, thank you. I think there were lots of great gems in there. That hopefully y'all who are listening, uh, have. Can take with you and your little, your little sack as you go onto your, your dance journey.

And yeah, if you come to some of my classes, you've met C Falcon and one of them, and you can say hi. I'll be like, oh no, you're from the internet. 

Falcon: Thank you very much Rosie, and I'll see you soon for dancing. I [00:16:00] appreciate it.