Poi Fire Dancing Spinning Performance & Twirling (Hoop Staff Fans Also)

For those looking for some fun makeup tips, here’s another in GlitterGirl’s video makeup series. This one is a cute little paint on mask which can often be a good alternative to masks you tie on because it stays in place without ruining your peripheral vision (and therefore, mess with your spinning in any way). While these instructions are for a blue and white piece, any white with contrasting color will work with this technique.

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An old friend of mine from my early “raver” days contacted me about glow sticking and poi moves with glowsticks. He’s just starting out and wanted a few pointers. Here’s what I had to say to him and I thought would be useful for anyone starting out themselves. Especially if you’re a glow sticker, I want to first recommend you get something softer than glow sticks — they bruise. We use practice poi here at Temple of Poi made much like a bean bag, only we don’t use beans. Also, if you’re a “glow sticker” starting out, I have to recommend LED lights instead of glow sticks. These lights from our partner company FlowToys are awesome because they use rechargeable batteries best (they are optimized for that), they come in lots of colors, and they have many different types of blinking modes which offer lots of fun. They are also great for camping and other times you might needs lights. If you’re a glowsticker, you’ll likely enjoy the speed of the Crystal Poi though the Ogg Poi, pictured here, are also a great choice.

Anyway, here are some basic concepts of poi:

• velocity. there’s pretty much either stillness or movement. when moving it, you’ll need enough velocity to keep the poi swinging in a circle and momentum is key. You can also do pendulums and other partial circles — again, use of velocity helps make that happen.
• planes. to start out with, think of 6 planes, like you’re standing inside a die. there’s the floor, ceiling, front, back, left side and right side. Once you’ve mastered those six with confidence, it’s time to focus on the infinite other possible planes.
• timing. that is how the poi turn relative to each other — both hit the bottom at the same time, one then the other (called split time), one hits 1 time during the same interval the other hits 2 times (one type of poly-rhythmic, though there are many other types of poly-rhythmic as well) and so on.
• direction. there are, for each of the 6 planes, 4 different directions. each hand can go forward/overhand or reverse/underhand/backward on the side plane and clockwise or counterclockwise on the floor, ceiling, front and back planes. Put them together and you have 4 different combinations. In general, every move can be done in 4 directions (though not everyone does every move in every direction and in fact most people favor a direction).

Here’s a few thoughts when starting:

• The most basic movement is a circle.
• Try circles in each direction with each hand in each plane.
• The next most basic movement is a figure 8 — cross from a plane to it’s partner plane — that is, front to back, left to right, or floor to ceiling.
• In general, practice everything one handed first.
• Start your practice with your weaker hand.
• If you want to turn, you need to know the move in two directions that are opposite each other — as in, both hands clockwise and the opposite, both hands counterclockwise. of course, that turn theory is way beyond basic stuff.

If you’re looking for some guided drills beyond that, check out the Temple of Poi Computer Based Training, available at a dramatic discount when purchased with the Archer Weave DVD at this special link.

Temple of Poi is pleased to announce the new Advanced & Advanced Intermediate Poi Turn Class, Intermediate IIIT: Turns (for Poi) with this class preview video at the bottom of this post. This 4 week course will be presented in August for its first offering.

During the series, we will use swivels, half turns (90 degrees), turns (180 degrees) and turn arounds (360 degrees) as well as practicing movement with different turn patterns. The material for the class will be customized depending on the skill level of the students attending. This means each class series will be unique and students will benefit from attending the series more than once because as their skill expands, the complexity of the turn combinations will also expand. Depending on the skill level of the students, we will cover combinations using some of these moves:

Details and registration can be found on the course page. The first class offering will begin August 4, 2009 at 8 pm. If you can not attend all 4 weeks, contact us to arrange for drop in. Due to limited class size, advanced registration is required, even for students only attending one night.

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If you’ve been looking to do some bold colors with your makeup and don’t know where to start, this video might be an excellent way to get some tips and pointers for your makeup application. This episode is under 20 minutes with a technique that is easy to learn and apply.

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Since so many people have been asking about makeup application techniques, GlitterGirl has decided to post some videos here for the podcast. This first video is an excerpt from an upcoming full length podcast giving some detailed instructions on how to apply gems to the eyes.

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If you’re a beginner who is looking for some tips on how to play safely with fire or if you want a refresher on what to do and how to do it or even if you’re just looking for a comprehensive guide on fire safety, we’ve put together this newly revised Temple of Poi Fire Safety PDF which includes information on what to do as a fire safety, how to travel with poi, how to know if you’re ready to spin fire, what to have in your fire kit and much more.

While Temple of Poi founder GlitterGirl was having an amazing trip down in Dallas in May (where Phillip hosted me — thank you very much!), she had an opportunity to spin a little fire poi for a handful of people. This is a short little practice burn set to Seal’s “Waiting for You.”

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