Stockholmblogholm

1. Go in Spring and Summer! Fall is nice too. But try to skip winter. It is like two totally different cities, people and vibe. In summer there are so many hours of sunlight, and if you travel north, there is even 24 hours of sunlight! People are outside all the time, wearing cute outfits, soaking up the sun while they can. It is the opposite in the winter. It’s really dark, really cold and really snowy. But enough about the weather!

Stockholm is wonderful to walk around, explore and get lost. It’s not a huge city, so if you have a sense of direction (or like me, a map) you won’t go to far off path. I loved to walk down to the water and look at all the boats. If you walk along the water on Strandvägen you can ogle the most expensive real estate in the city on one side and you can peek into all the boats docked in the water on the other side. Here are a few other things I would check out.

1a. Stockholm by boat. Walk down and around the harbor on Nybrokajen and take a boat tour—a three hour tour throughout the beautiful, expansive archipelago (maybe stop at an island for lunch) or an hour and a half tour of “The Bridges of Stockholm.” If you are going through the archipelago, sit upstairs, outside, on the right side. The boat should have a bar so you can enjoy a snack…like a glass of red wine and fresh kanelbulle (cinnamon buns). I found that was a perfect mid-way snack. Check out this website.

2. Walk through Gamla Stan (“Old Town”) square. Make sure you bring your camera because it’s very photogenic. Check out Restaurant 1650 (I don’t know if that’s the name, but that’s the date on the front door plaque and it’s restored in its original condition, mostly candlelight inside. It’s on the 1st floor of the red building below); the Nobel Museum (as in the Nobel Prize); and all the shops.

Gamla Stan

3. Le Rouge. The bar is really fancy and a great place to relax, feel cozy, special and rich (in spirit not necessarily money!). Red velvet, gold fringe, luscious Italian Baroque paintings (my favorite!), chandeliers. And the restaurant was…gaaahhh…melt in your mouth delicious and savory French food. Tres romantic!

Le Rouge

4. Vasa Museum. I have a major obsession with the movie “Goonies” and used to create my own “Goonie” adventures when I was a kid and. . .maybe I still dream of going on such and adventure underground and discovering a hidden pirate ship! And I found it! When I first walked into the building and saw this GIGANTIC, wooden boat so elaborately carved my jaw dropped and eyes popped in awe and my heart filled with the sense of mystery and adventure! Where was Chunk? And Mouth? And the Fratellis? and Mikey and Brandon Walsh?! The museum, however, does an amazing job at taking all the mystery away. It offers so much information on the history of the ship, decoration, people, lifestyle and how and why it sank in 1628 (on its maiden voyage. about 1300 meters off shore. d’oh). The gift shop has some pretty cool stuff like candles that smell like firewood (mmm!). From there walk around that area called Djurgården and enjoy the beautiful gardens, architecture and further along, Tivoli, Sweden’s oldest amusement park, open May-September—ride the rides if you are there in summer!

Vasa

5. Bars I liked: #1 is Bar 1900—They put so much care and skill into each cocktail. Enjoyable to watch and drink! Cafe Opera—get dressed up and go dancing; Hotellet—big place with many places to sit and eat or drink at the bars, by the fireplace, in the restaurant, even a really nice outdoor garden, for summer.

Whiskey sour at 1900

6. Eat fresh, made-to-order, authentic Italian food at Vapiano. I seriously ate here way too much. But it was so good! The concept, the design, the food, the price. Everyone is handed a swipe card when they enter. And you find a seat. You may be sharing a long, wooden table with some other people. They plant fresh basil in the tables, so you can always pick a leaf or two if you want. There is no wait staff. So when you want a drink, you go to the bar, order it, get it and they swipe your card. Same for your food. You walk to the counter and choose the pasta you want and it is made fresh in front of you with authentic ingredients. Swipe your card. Eat! My favorite pasta dishes were the mushroom ravioli with truffle oil and the shrimp scampi with spinach. Then when you leave, you swipe your card and pay. Plus there are free gummy bears at the exit. Other restaurants I liked were East (sushi) in Stureplan and Ciao Ciao (pizza) in Ostermalm.

Vapiano

7. Museums: Music Museum (lots of instruments), Nordic Museum (learn about Swedish history inside an incredible “cathedralesque” building), Fotografiska (just opened in 2010 and it offers contemporary and modern photography exhibits). Def a must-see as it becomes a greater and greater international museum. Apparently there is also a toy museum, which seems…strange and creepy…I picture a lot of old dolls and clowns in their original boxes…I only learned about it from reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” I am sometimes into the “strange and creepy” so I am sad I missed out on this one!

Nordic museum

8. Best massage ever: Sabaii Sabaii. Thai massage place, not Swedish massage. Go figure. Heated beds, good pressure, thai + oil massage. A one-hour mixed massage (thai + oil) was about $60. Totally worth it for this exhausted, sore, hard-working, cold pole dancer! Plus it was a block away from the studio and my apartment, so…score!

9. Sturebadet. If you have the time and money for a luxuriously relaxing day at the spa in an historic, grand, quiet oasis from the city this is it. The pool is the first indoor pool in Sweden and has been restored in its original, Moorish-inspired style. They have a restaurant, gym, classes, spa treatments, saunas, a special lavender-scented sauna for super-relaxation, lounging by the pool areas where you can sit and drink champagne…! I think this is a must-do, especially if you are trekking through the city in winter. I, fortunately, attended for free because my boss and two of my pole students worked there! Sturebadet first opened in 1885.

Sturebadet

10. Places to hang out, bring your laptop, eat/drink and not be bothered: Sturekatten (tucked away in a gate and upstairs on Riddargatan, it feels like you are in an old living room), Music Museum restaurant.

Blogging at the Music Museum restaurant. Really cheap food too. And cozy, rustic atmosphere.

11. 7-11′s are your one-stop shop for snacks, groceries, subway ticket, tram ticket, stamps, cell phone minutes, everything

12. You are in the H&M HQ! And the stores’ selections are the best. So go shop!

It’s my last night. View my last photo album here. Thank you for everything. What an amazing experience. I hope to come back in the SUMMER!

One of the best parts of my Stockholm experience was teaching the students here at Dancing Queen. I was with them for about 3.5 months and I am so impressed with their progress. And, they are ALL so hard-working, sweet, funny, nice and just amazing girls. And one guy. So, here are most of them:

wednesday level 2 rock the house!

about 1/2 the advanced students who worked HARD!!!

1/2 of Level 4. AMAZING girls!

Members of the Swedish Government! They get srsly sassy Wednesdays at noon. Keep running a great government ladies! And dance your way through lunch! You deserve it.

Monday level 2. These girls always started my week off good! I LOVE them!

1/2 of level 3. I am SO impressed with them! All are beautiful and strong pole dancers.

And the staff: Sara, Frida and Jenny (we lost one, Aliette! since I began. But are adding more-the apprentices) I WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH!

For my last week I was asked to train a group of 5 girls who want to be pole dance instructors at DQ. Save for one, they have all been taking my pole classes. And they are all on different levels. So, we focused on choreography—an essential ingredient to being a good pole instructor since many students want to learn how to move and dance, not just do the tricks. Other essential ingredients, in my humble opinion include: Confidence, approachability, sex appeal, high skill level, Patience (yes, with a capital P), strength (you never know when you are literally going to have to catch a grown person), clarity in both movement and verbal vocabulary (some people learn by listening, others by seeing, many by both), awareness of your own body and awareness of space, and a lot of common sense.

So on Monday, I taught the girls three clips of old pieces of choreography (“Addicted to Love” from Danish Pole Championships; “Veronica” from EMW Polarity competition; and one my my favorites, “Give it to Me Right,” that I use a lot in classes). Each piece of music had a different message and feeling, and that had to be reflected in the style of movement. They did an AMAZING job embodying the different styles! I was very impressed! They went for it! Yeah!

Then their assignment for Friday was to pick a song they loved, choreograph about 45 seconds of it (no big tricks, just dance and style) and teach it to everyone else. I really enjoyed being the student, for once! I recognized that many of them used movement similar to my choreography I taught them—and I love it! Please enjoy it, adapt it, re-use it when it fits…this is what I was here for! I am glad I could help add to their movement vocabulary. Many have never choreographed, esp on pole, before, so this was a great springboard.

It takes a LOT of work to be a good, no great, pole dance teacher. Who just wants to be good? Or take from a teacher who is just good?! Students need to admire you, trust you—with personal issues and also trust that you won’t ever let them get hurt. And it is a daily exercise in keeping your body and mind in shape. Every class I teach and take, I become a better teacher. The more I *try* to demonstrate and explain the “Rockstar” spin the better I get at it and the more efficient I get at teaching it. So, there is a lot more work to constantly do. But I am very proud and I am so glad I could help them get started! Keep it up ladies!

such a nice note from rebecca

another one from katerina

Emma getting excited to work it out!

Rebecca, Katerina, Theresia, Artemis, Emma and me. love them!

Appropriately titled as my time in Stockholm comes to an end. As I was strolling through Copenhagen this weekend, where I was judging and performing at the Danish Pole Championships, I came up this lovely arrangement of the classic song. Even when cold, tired and broke this song makes me feel grand, grateful and a little sad.

This past weekend I went to Denmark to judge and perform in the first ever Danish Pole Championships. I went to Copenhagen for the day and night by myself.

I didn’t see that much. But I did spend some quality time at the Danish Design Center (reliving all the words of my past career—process, innovation, design and business—with mixed emotions).

One of the designers, Boris Berlin of Komplot Design, represented in the “Design Forecast” exhibit happened to be there that day, filming some interviews.  A prison in Sweden put out a design brief for a new chair that the inmates could not use for hiding objects or as a weapon. Komplot created a chair from recycled plastic bottles. It’s reworked in a way that makes a soft, felt-like material but hard enough to be molded into a very simple chair. For sitting only. Here is a video of the process. Partly in English.

After walking around the city for a bit I was excited to just chill out in my hotel (Hotel Ascot), just off Hans Christian Andersen Blvd and get a much needed massage! The hotel had a small bar, which looked like an old home-library with shelves full of books placed there by the hotel and also by travelers unloading a book or two (I love that) and a restaurant for breakfast (which was great!) but no real room service. But you could order room service from a bunch of the restaurants in the area–pizza, sushi, etc. I ordered a pizza! I got a glass of wine from the bar and snuggled up to CNN, where I unfortunately heard about the explosions in Stockholm. Scary. Everyone I know is fine and I was far away from all the action.

room service

The next morning I took the train to Odense, Denmark for the competition. Rehearsals were underway when I walked in. I gave the sound guy my music file did a quick run through and then got ready for the show. The Danes are a bit behind in the world of pole dance. But everyone has to start somewhere! And it was amazing to be a part of this. Especially seeing the surprise, joy, shock and tears of pride and accomplishment on the top 3 winners. Some of the girls had rough performances. Nerves, inexperience performing and not having the level of pole training so you can perform strongly, anywhere. So they came up to me to ask for advice, which I happily provided. Here is a short clip of the event on a Danish news station. I show up at .14-.19.

The judges

The winner. Sarah Plesner. She was so happy!!! I even got teary! Why did she win? Pointed toes! Fully extended legs! Fluid! She smiled—She looked comfortable and like she really enjoyed dancing up there! Plus her song was "Empire State."

Viva la Pole Dance in Denmark ladies!!

My performance was fun. I really had not prepared for it, which really, really stressed me out. But thanks to Gigi (major source of my choreo and music inspiration!) who sent me a song idea—”Addicted to Love” by Florence and the Machine, I was able to enjoy the 3.18 performance a lot. I loved this song! It has drama, sass and rock n roll! And I pulled out some of my favorite pole tricks (allegra, jade, marley with my foot to my head, which is a new accomplishment for me), added a lot of body waves and threw some sass to the audience. And voila!

Stine, one of the other judges who is originally from Denmark but decided to move to Australia to study at Bobbi’s Pole Studio (!) kindly drove me back to Copenhagen. Pole talk and boy gossip ensued. She is great! I look forward to seeing here somewhere in the Poliverse again!

See all my photos here.

Now I am back in Stockholm for my last 7 days! Seeing my students, and how far they have come in my classes, is bitter sweet. I am so so so proud of them. And I see how much they have improved and gotten stronger and they see it too. I am excited to go home to New York, but I will miss everyone and all the opportunity here a lot.

Go level 2! No hand outside leg hold from beautiful choppers! Get it!

Last night I participated in a reality show episode! The show is called Stylisterna (The Stylists). It’s very similar to Project Runway where 10 people are selected as contestants to compete in challenges to become…Sweden’s. Next. Top. Stylist. One of the contestants won a challenge and her prize was being able to pick a friend and attend a pole dance class…with me! The two girls, Kajsa and Melody (who are also the two shortest contestants) plus the host, Sofi, who is a big deal in the stylist world, were my students. I had to wear a mic, repeat certain phrases, stage a few things…very reality show! And they were great students! Very fun and sweet. I am also certain I can teach anyone, ANYONE, how to do the fireman spin and fan kick at this point. Even the camera and sound guys took a turn during a break.

All of their interviews with the girls were in Swedish, so I didn’t understand. But they talked about how stressful the challenges are and how everyone back at “the house” (!!!) were going to be so jealous that they went to pole dancing class. I love reality shows.

The episode should air online sometime in late Jan/early Feb.

Kajsa and Melody

Post-class interviews

Sofi, the hostess with the mostess

I do enjoy the quietness, softness, peacefulness and prettiness of pure, white, winter snow. The best is being able to ski from the top of a gigantic mountain to the bottom only hearing your heartbeat, breath and the shwoosh of your skis against the hardened powder snow. The last time I really enjoyed that was in Colorado a few years ago with Kelly.

Walking around this city, now covered in a blanket of unending white snow from the water to the rooftops, stumbling upon a choir of carolers and open fire pits to warm your hands, and seeing candles in almost every window and on almost every doorstep is quite nice. It’s a cozy feeling. And on Friday night I went to a bar with a fire pit in the center, which makes everything feel better in the winter. Here are just a few photos of Stockholm in Christmastime. More photos here.

this city really truly reflects seasons

The Christmas market in Gamla Stan

A boat full of chocolate and marzipan. Yes, I am bringing some home! After I sampled them all to make sure they were good.

Inside the magical boat of chocolate and marzipan

Window display at NK (big shopping mall). The theme of the windows is children traveling the world. This was my favorite.

Having a dinosaur geek out day with Evelina at the Natural History Museum. Do I look cold? Because I AM.

...that's better Hot pink Christmas tree at the studio. Naturally.

Happy holidays from Petra, baby Lenox, Michelle, Frida, Evelina, Sara and Jenny!

1. Cheap mani/pedis!! Like $7 + $15 = $25 total with tip. AND the free shoulder massage you get with them while you dry! They are on almost every block in NY. And If you know me, you know I have a pet peeve about unmanicured nails, toes, especially. I have had one mani/pedi since being in Stockholm.

This is a Google image of Polish salon in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. Hi! I'm coming!!!!!

2. Fresh made-to-order and to-go salads!!!! Like nail salons, you can get a fresh salad on almost every block in New York too. You can add all the fresh leafy greens + veggies + proteins your little heart desires! It’s a great and easy way to eat healthy, even when you’re on the go. Me, and my big butt, miss these options. (I still like my butt. Just more to like!)

Yum! Salads! Everywhere!

3. Friendliness, Outgoingness, Diversity, Approachability, etc…*My* Swedish friends are amazing. But, by their own admittance, Swedes are fairly…conservative, introverted, shy…in many ways. No one wants to be the loud, obnoxious American, but  it’s the overall sense of camaraderie and openness in the crowd (albeit stifling crowds sometimes) that I think I miss.

I Google-imaged-searched "friendly New Yorkers" and this came up!

4. Weather. GOD! Who woulda thunk?! NYC winters SUCK!!!! And I complain every. single. year. But I have sickly started to compare the weather in Stockholm and the weather in New York almost daily now. And, not saying I won’t complain (because I will. the weather, the prices, etc) but crap just give me 10 degrees!

New York = 43 degrees!

Stockholm = 24 degrees. And snow. Again.

If you are lucky, you get this view when you fly into LaGuardia. Unfortunately I fly into Newark! Plus this vibrant city is full of my best friends, amazing talents, brother, boyfriend and so many super duper things…

Now, enough about NYC. I need to fully appreciate being here for my last few weeks. And I need to learn to appreciate it in a different way than when I arrived and it was so lovely outside! I teach my pole dance for kids class today, followed by my so-much-fun (!) chair dance class at Balance Gyms, then out for some much-needed drinks! Time to bundle up and head out…