Nemesis: The inescapable agent of someone's or something's downfall.

Ah the NEMESIS move... Every aspiring aerial artist has one... You know that one move that you just can't get, even though you feel like you should be able to by now! The one that everyone else seemed to get so easily that has taken you months and months just to grasp the basics? We call those moves our nemesis moves, mostly because it sounds exciting and dramatic, but also because after a while it starts to feel like that particular move has it in for us! It's not all doom and gloom this week though! We are also going to be talking about our signature move, the one that we love, the one that makes its way into all of our routines!

In the pictures below you will see us doing (or attempting to do) our nemesis moves above our words and our signature moves below! Enjoy!

Emily

Okay so nemesis move for pole is an easy one! It took me the best part of two years to get the courage to jump on the pole! I tried it with help, under pressure, when nobody was looking, when everyone was looking, to prove a point, after all hope was lost and nothing worked! This was a really frustrating thing for me because I felt like I should be able to do it! I’m not scared of hurting myself and it wasn’t even like I was dropping from a height or anything! It was a purely mental block that just stopped me before I could even try! I did get this move in the end, I’m not going to claim that it has become my favourite but I have managed to do it a few times now and I’m not scared to do it anymore. I would say with hoop that I haven’t really found my nemesis yet. I have lots of moves that I can’t do but I feel like they are appropriately hard enough not to wind me up in the same way! I tend to freak out a little bit with hoop if the grip on my hands changes, because it brings home the realisation that I am just hanging from the ceiling, and if I let go of the hoop... then I will be hanging from nothing and that doesn’t work!
 I would say my signature moves are the backwards bendy moves. I am quite flexible backwards so I tend to find moves that require back flexibility easier than splitsy moves or strength moves. My signature pole move I would say is a Remi, I find it comfortable to hold for however long, base others from that position and if I lay back then it can show how flexible I can be.
To overcome my nemesis move I practised standing in front of the pole and flapping my arms uselessly for the last five minutes of every class for a good year at least. When a move is difficult physically I find it easier to work at it and build up to being strong enough or flexible enough to do it but when it’s all in my head it becomes harder to train.

Lauren

Ok so nemesis moves, well when I started pole even just lifting myself up I felt like it would never happen. But it did and once that had happened then came the moves. So one I can remember from pole is a Superman, I don’t know how many different entries they got me to try, but there were a lot. Maybe it was my massive butt that wouldn’t let me do it, but eventually I got there and the first time I did I can remember how pleased I was to have finally done it. For hoop it was a pike. It took me over a year to eventually get this properly and lifting. Generally I have always found strength moves harder to get as I have been naturally more on the flexible side even when I was larger. Moves such as Iron X or any form of dead lifting I have had trouble or have taken longer to get. Last year we set some long term and short term goals in which dead lifting iron x was my long term goal, a few months ago I managed to finally get that too! I have a couple of signature/go to moves that I feel people have associated with me. For pole it would probably be anything relating to a body wave and hoop it would be a Tofu.

Sophie

So...although I am very splity, my nemesis move is a Oona Hocks, I can't quite bring myself to let my front leg swing whilst upside down, and if I do then I hesitate for quite a while but I know I can do it! My signature move is a splits hip hold, it's been in 90% of my routines from the beginning of my hoop journey to now and I have found loads of new combos that fit well with the move and love making up new combos including this move

Hannah

So....I've been dancing at SAAS now for over 2 years and there are still moves that elude my routines as I still can't master them. The main move I would consider to be my nemesis is the knee hold from an invert. I feel this holds me back from the progression I am desperate to make. I have got closer to achieving the move but not close enough to achieve grip! I am pretty sure it will continue to haunt me for some time yet but you never know, watch this space! On the flip side I have recently achieved my cross knee release. It has taken some time but I finally nailed it! No handed as well! There are some firm favourites to the move kit bag, there is the sailboat and the wrist seat. I like to seek variations on each move so keep your eyes out to see if any of them make it into the routine for the solent final!

Lexi

My nemesis move is the splits and, consequently, anything that requires leg flexibility like split gazelle (let's not talk about optical splits, that move actually gave me an injury and is now out of the repertoire until I am super flexy). I am working on my splits, and they are getting better, but it always seems like there's still a long way to go! I'm doing regular (nearly daily) stretches according to a program put together by Zorena so hopefully my flexibility will improve so that I can conquer these moves. My signature move, apparently, is Peter Pan. It seems to be my goto transition move when improvising routines and looks pretty good. I also like moves where there's a big shift in height or rotation, like inside cobra to mermaid; it looks like you're going to fall out of the hoop but then (ideally) you don't!