First off, I absolutely loved your performance piece, it was stunning! Secondly, at my studio I'm starting to have a hard time because I've caught up to the owner (my teacher) in tricks and am now stronger than she is. She also has a difficult time understanding and explaining harder tricks she tries to teach me. How should I improve? I watch videos but it's hard to work on trickier stuff when you don't have someone to help guide you at all. Also, how should I strengthen outside of pole? Thanks!
Well there are a few options available to you:
Get a crash pad at home and start working on transitions from the more advanced moves you do know. For example, go from a shoulder mount > Extended Butterfly > Cup-grip Ayesha > Iron-X. A lot of the fancier stuff you'll see in competitions are from being comfortable in the moves you do have and experimenting with them!
Practice in class on your bad side — It's pretty tough to practice the harder stuff by yourself on your weaker side. It'll make your teacher feel like she's still teaching your something while you're having someone help you out when you get your left/right confused. I've had a few pole dance champs in my classes before and they always make an effort to try things on their bad side/participate because they know how intimidated all the other girls in the class will feel when they can do the shown move too easily.
Start straight-legging all your lifts. If you can aerial invert while holding a completely straight straddle you need to start doing your shoulder mounts and flag inverts with straight legs too! It'll be a LOT harder but totally worth it since you'll gain a ton of strength. If you watch regional competitions (not international or national) hardly any girls do the harder mounts with straight legs. They'll usually tuck or go up with one leg stagged to conserve energy. Go for the extra mile and start straight-legging everything now!
Work on your spins to inverts: Oona spins, the Phoenix, True grip A spin to shoulder mount, a cupped grip body spiral to an ayesha.
Another thing: Work on grip variations! Try everything with different grips and get used to them: Cupped/Chinese, American/True, Twisted, Elbow, Forearm, etc!
When working with your teacher, treat it more like a personal training session. Ask her what she'd like for you to work on in the mean time and if she has any goals for you as a student. Maybe you're super flexible or strong—does she see that as an indicator of someone who will one day rock a Spatchcock? Is a Fonji in your future? Ask her!
When she's explaining the harder stuff, make it very clear that it's still coming off as confusing. Ask her what points on her body is the skin contacting the pole and ask her to go SUPER slow. Ask her what's gripping, what you should be flexing or engaging, and where the weight is being held.
I've definitely been in the same position as you. I outpaced a good amount of teachers in my first year! What I did realize is that each teacher brings something special to the table. I had so much more to learn about their style than I did about the tricks they were teaching.
For example, there's this one teacher who teaches the Exotic dance classes at our studio in addition to pole. Every move she makes is sensual, even if she's not trying! I'm not a sexy dancer by any means; if anything, my dancing is very gymnastics oriented and at times too sterile.
I was able to learn about her implicit movements by studying the way she dances rather than "what" she is dancing. Doing this will help you develop a dancing "vocabulary" of sorts that will really aid in formulating a style that fits the way your body wants to move.
In regards to strengthening outside of pole: start cross-training in another sport. I cross train in parkour! It's helped a lot because of my style of dancing requires a lot of weird grips and movement while being comfortable with dropping. Cross fit and ballet (or any form of dance) is extremely beneficial.
I'm editing a pole workout video for my youtube channel that I'll have up soon! Work on your grip strength too since it takes so long to acquire. Try squeezing a balloon filled with sand in your off time or getting a Dynaflex. You'll be amazed with how easy one handed spins or spinning pole will be after a week with grip training :)
I hope this helps! Thanks for your lovely question. Keep dancing!