Pole Dancing with Jarvis Cocker

8 Dec 2009LucyNo Comments →

I was invited by pop legend Jarvis Cocker to take part in his conceptual gallery project, joining together music, art and motion. He “wanted to look at another way of presenting music rather than just putting on a show. Can it work in an art gallery? Will people come along?”

Apparently they will. He’d already tried out the idea in Paris, where he now lives, running a similar event at Galerie Chappe in May. By the end of the week, they were playing to a street full of people.

Village Underground event

His London event took place at the wonderful Village Underground art gallery. The space has an awesome vibe to it, with multiply repurposed brick walls that lend it the feel of a warehouse or deserted train station. As well as music, he organised three days of burlesque, yoga, hula hoops, performance poetry and live graffiti. And pole dancing.

“There is too much spectating, it’s important to get people creating themselves – that is a lot more interesting,” Jarvis told the Guardian. “I wanted to get away from the idea that culture is something you consume, you can make it yourself.”

Participate! Pole dance!

My job was to get people creating themselves through pole dancing. After a nice introduction from Jarvis, I invited those brave enough to jump up and join in. Nine brave ladies and one even braver gentleman came up.

I took them through my warm up, and then separated them into two groups. I gave them a thorough introduction to pole dancing, covering some basic spins like the Fireman and Fairy and then moving on to a few slightly more adventurous tricks like the Basic Invert and Chopper. They did really well considering the venue and that they had an audience!

After the class, it was my turn to take centre stage for my pole dancing performance. Jarvis and his band had been accompanying me throughout my class, and Jarvis came down to ask me what type of music I wanted for my performance. “Slow but sexy,” I replied, and boy did they pull out all the stops!

I freestyled my way through my routine and was really pleased with the response the audience gave me, clapping and cheering throughout.

Jarvis didn’t get on the pole in the end, but I think he looked interested. (Maybe next time!)

It was a fabulous afternoon. I really enjoyed meeting Jarvis and his team, and having his awesome band accompanying my pole dancing was just amazing. I can’t wait for the next event!