Tuesday is S-Day

Tuesday mornings I go to S-Factor. It's an all-female pole dance fitness studio that teaches and specializes in discovering and developing your authentic feminine movement.

My class is co-taught by Sheila Kelley, the owner and feminine guru of S-Factor, and Janelle Giumarra, a lovely woman whom I took acting class with years ago. 

Every other week we have an assignment to encourage our exploration of movement and give us an opportunity to play. Today, the assignment was Jr. High. I was supposed to delve into my middle school years to find musical and tactile inspiration for my weekly solo dance. Here are the options that immediately came to mind in light of an assignment to find my favorite songs from 1993:

T H E    W I N N E R
1. Cherub Rock | Smashing Pumpkins

 

The song begins with the rattle of a snare drum. Two rolls and a snap. Then the guitar comes in (rhythm first) strumming a steady but unusual sequence of downbeats. Sweetly the snare creeps back in and continues with steadily increasing crescendo until the lead guitar — fully distorted with a sexy mesh effect — comes crashing into the room with the narcissistic insistence of Billy Corgan himself. 

By the time the intro gives way to the stiff driving pace of the first stanza — “Freak out/and give in/doesn’t matter what you believe in” — my movement is fully immersed in the room, in my body, in the present moment.

C L O S E   R U N N E R   U P
2. Come Undone | Duran Duran


Complete shift in style and energy. Simon Le Bon's sleepy velvet vocal purring laid over a lilting melodic under-water electronic symphony. It's fitting the video begins with a squirt of red ink in the undersea depths of an aquarium. The song is dark and haunting, like the bottom of the ocean. And the elemental mirroring of the deep waters of one's infatuated heart with the darkness of the song's minor key is but one reason this song was an obsession of mine. I didn't end up dancing to it, but I would have liked to :)


3. Closer | N I N


Trent Reznor might be the voice of my husband song. I still haven't found a husband song--the song I would marry, the song I could be with for decades and still want to fuck. But it's quite possible that once I do, it will be a creation of the brilliant musical mind of Trent Reznor. What else need I say? Play the song. Feel where the bass throbs inside you. The constant feather-light tickle of the high-hat in the background while the multi-faceted industrial rhythms float in mille-feuille-like pastry layers around a dark chocolate truffle creme filling. 


4. Wicked Game | Chris Issak

This song is in a class by itself. Whatever I say about it is best left to be experienced, so just listen to it :)

5. Fields of Gold | Sting

If I ever come off as anything but a vulnerable marshmallow, this is the secret to my humanity - Fields of Gold. I used to lie in my bed and let hot tears stream from the corners of my eyes, pooling into the pillow beneath my head. Dreaming of the possibility of being rescued by someone who was utterly right for me. This song taught me how to dream and filled my adolescent heart with hope.

Well, that's it! My top five Jr. High Jams. My dance today was an authentic exploration into some long-forgotten places. I donned a sweatshirt with sparkly puffy-paint cats that read Virgo. Once a treasured 8th-grade wardrobe item, now a relic of the past. But this time, rather than using it to hide my body and shield me from my peers, I spritzed it with perfume and deliberately peeled it off to free myself of its wounded implications. And the creature who no longer cringes from attention stood  petulant and triumphant in her underwear as her dance came to an end.

LMP Self-Love Suggestion: Make a cd of your favorite songs from 7th and 8th grade and keep it in your car. It can serve as a little reminder of how far you've come when you listen to nostalgic tunes and laugh at yourself.

***

S Factor is a fitness technique that teaches women the language of their bodies through fluid feminine movement. The ultimate revelation of S for any woman, is the awakening and cultivation of her own soulfully sexy Erotic Creature. When integrated into a woman’s daily life, this Erotic Creature propels a woman forward like rocket fuel, towards whatever desire she wants to attain. All of this just from enlivening the feminine body through movement? Yes. 

www.Sfactor.com