You’ve always suspected that deep inside you lurks a booty-popping video vixen. Deep, deep inside. In a place even you aren’t sure exists.
Set her free. Start with a beginner pole dancing course offered by MasterJay Moves Dance Studio.
Instructors welcome all shapes and sizes into their cozy Center City space to learn sexy pole tricks in a stress-free, all-girl setting.
The ladies will start you out easy with diva strutting and runway stomping across the floor. Then it’s up on the pole, where in no time you’ll learn to swing, spin, and straddle your way into the fireman, the scoop, and the cobra.
Learning to enhance your pole personality? A hundred fifty bucks for a ten-class card.
Learning to love the jiggle of your thighs? Priceless.
MasterJay Moves Dance Studio @ 1807 Chestnut Street & 1520 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, PA 215-564-2575 masterjaymoves.com
It's all about over-exaggerating," Nicole advises her students as they practice floor work. She narrates as she demonstrates, lying face down on the wooden floor of the one-room studio. "Roll you head, go forward, and kick one leg up. Bring your head into it like you're pouncing." Transitioning up from the floor, Nicole leans on her knees and rises butt-before-body. She makes it look easy.
Known as Pocelain during her short-lived stage days, Nicole Pearlman was a student at Masterjay Moves a mere six months ago: "I heard about it while searching on the Internet, thought it was an interesting way to get in shape and decided to come in." A natural, Nicole immediately became a dedicated dancer, installing a pole in her house just two weeks after her first session. "You become obsessed. It becomes an addiction," she explains. After Nicole had faithfully attended class for six months, her teacher asked her to be an instructor.
Masterjay Moves, according to its website, is "dedicated to the art of movement through dance and exercise ? to promote body awareness and healthy living, with a distinctively entertaining and exhilarating approach." Studio "B," the more family-friendly of Masterjay's two studios, offers a variety of classes ranging from tap dance, salsa and men's lead to yoga and roller skating. On the second floor of 1807 Chestnut St., Jay's Studio "A" is reserved for women's-only Pole Dance, Exotic Dance, Girls Night Out and Bachelorette (BYO optional) parties and, starting November 14, Strip Aerobics.
With an insatiable appetite for alternative exercise, Nicole practices fire hula hooping, plans to try trapeze arts and fire poi and hopes to add burlesque to the studio's repertoire. "We'll cover classic strip tease and burlesque dancing, we'll incorporate the pole and do some modern burlesque and add some lap dancing and chair dancing."
Each class kicks off with a warm up on yoga mats consisting of stretching, ab and arm work and hip moves. Ace of Base plays as Nicole leads her class of four through a series of crunches, hiplifts and scissor kicks. Between ab pops and stretches she instructs her students with ass aflutter to "shake it out." After 15 minutes, yoga mats are ditched in favor of six-inch platforms and the divas test out their balance. They take turns cat-walking across the room under the rotating light of a disco ball, throwing in a personal kick or spin before strutting back.
Next it's time for the pole. While Nicole has no names for her floor poses, she uses an official or personal title for each pole maneuver. Tonight's curriculum consists of "The Fireman," "The Scoop," "The Backwards," "Fan Kick," "Jump n' Lock" and the "Sandwich Spin" (See side bar). The girls excel at different moves, as each requires different areas of strength. The "Jump n' Lock," for instance, is "all in the thighs," Nicole explains as she grips the pole with her legs sticking out in front of her.
A first-timer would focus on one or two moves, but these ladies have some booty-popping under their belts? G-strings. Today's dancers are three Penn sophomores and "Cricket," an amateur dancer at Centerfolds strip club, who oozes a dominatrix sensibility with dark red streaked "working hair" and towering tuxedo platforms. The Penn girls, Lindsey Brandt, Jessica Shanken and Elizabeth Fife, are on their third class. The girls go as a group, getting a workout that's a bit more exhilarating than one at the gym.
While Jessica's ultimate dream is to do the "Snake Charmer," an advanced move in which the dancer swings freely and then throws the rest of her body, wrapping it around the pole, each student comes with her own agenda. "Most of the girls are between 22 to 25, all different shapes and sizes, all types of girls," explains Nicole, "Everybody comes with a different purpose but everybody works out and gains a lot out of the class."
Despite her mother's initial objections, pole fitness student Kayla has been attending classes twice a week for the past month. She's already benefited from them both mentally and physically: "[Before pole dancing] I didn't have any rhythm or upper body strength at all? you get major abs right in your stomach, a lot of strength and better confidence." Kayla's working on her mother, "trying to get her and the other mothers in the neighborhood to try it out."
Lindsey, Jessica and Elizabeth's mothers had less reservations about the girls' new hobby. "All of our moms love it!" they agree, "They think it's funny." The three became adept on the floor during strip aerobics classes this summer in New York and have plans to install a pole in their house next year.
Following floor practice, each class ends with the opportunity for each girl to let loose and try out her new moves to music. They divide themselves between the two gold poles, the pink and coral walls and girls-only regulation contributing to an intimate and comfortable atmosphere where inhibitions are easily shed. As Elizabeth spins into "The Fireman," she claims, "I swear I'm usually a conservative person!"
Hello Everyone,
Philadelphia Weekly has done a write up on us about Pole Dancing, please check it out @ http://philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=11028 Its a fantastic write up about the studio please pass along the good word.
NBC10.com Full story on Pole Dance at MasterJay Moves Dance Studio
Instructor Demonstrates Pole Dancing Technique Pole dancing instructor Jamie Capaldi Gargani gives a demonstration at Master Jay Moves Dance Studio in Philadelphia. http://www.nbc10.com/video/9748954/detail.html- 0.0KB- video
Pole traveler: MasterJay is ready to teach a men's class too.
There's a lot of talk these days about the pressures of balancing the roles of professional woman and sex kitten-or as Ludacris puts it, being "a lady in the street but a freak in the bed." This has led to gym studios packed with alpha moms slinking and thrusting their "inner sluts" around the room. Corny? A little. But here's something that balances a little cheese with some serious fun: pole dancing. Philly's legendary dancing man Master Jay just opened a bright, cozy Center City studio where Philly gals can learn sexy pole tricks in a stress-free setting. Bring some skin-bearing clothes (you'll slide right off the pole in sweatpants) and heels (elevation is key), and sweetheart instructor Jamie will start you out easy-circling the pole, flirting with yourself in the mirror. In no time you'll forget your thighs are jiggling and you're wearing skimpy old pajamas as you twirl around and hang upside down. Delilah's should expect a few more lady customers popping up in their club soon-scoping out the new moves. (Kate Kilpatrick
Check out this link. Another highlight about MasterJay and the Studio from Philadelphia Weekly..
Although Master Jay is treading dangerously close to 50 years old, it doesn't stop him from, as he puts it, "getting my groove in." "I'm gonna be out there dancing when I'm 70," Master Jay exclaims. "To be alive is to move!" And the man can indeed move. He's a fixture on the local club scene, where pretty girls wait their turn to be rocked, twirled, lifted off the floor and spun in circles-as Master Jay all the while encourages them to, "Yeah girl, work it out!" And better yet, he does it all on skates. This dance enthusiast got his start rollerskating in the '70s before being picked up by rollerskating performance troupe Rhythm on Wheels. Rollerskating soon led Jay to explore dancing. In addition to his day job running a plumbing company, he currently heads up the Master Jay Moves Dance Studios @ 18th and Chestnut & 15th and Sansom. "The dance studio is geared toward all kinds of alternative dance classes like pole dancing, rollerskate exercise and a partner class geared toward men," he explains. Outside the studio Master Jay makes regular appearances at Walnut Room on Wednesday nights and Marmont on Sunday afternoons. "I'm an old head. I like house music," he says. "I used to go out seven nights a week, but now I've reduced it to three or four." Whether he's out three nights or seven, one thing remains true: "I'll be the first one out on that dance floor, and at the end of the night I'll be the last one left." Something tells us he has no problem keeping that promise. (M.S.)
