Performance jitters

Im doing my first performance this weekend and have no idea what to do! We have 2 ppl doing poi and 1 doing staff for 20-30mins. Does anyone have any suggestions ie. do it 1at a time,or 2 or all together? and how long do ppl usually dip, in a performance before relighting?

hey zester,

20-30 mins is a very long time for 3 people to fill with fire dancing. you're going to be exhausted after that!

how professional is the gig? audience size and demography? are you roving or on a stage? are you expected to fill every second of the 20-30mins?

Initially I came up with this set plan for you:

Since you have 2 ppl on poi and one on staff I think you should start small and build up. maybe have one poier, then the staffie then the other poier. take a break. then have 2 poiers come out together to do some synchro moves/working with each other. take a break. then have all 3 of you come out together for a finale of sorts.

the suitability of the above will depend on your answers to my questions, so maybe you could provide a few more details and we can come up with some more ideas for you.

------------------
"she dances in a ring of fire and throws off the challenge with a shrug"

I agree totally with Flash asking for a little more information, especially if there isn't a seperate area that is cordoned off, this should be your first concern. Young children/drunk people/stupid adults will wlak right up to you and get in danger of being whacked unless you define the area and/or have safeties to help with that.

However, half an hour isn't necesarily that long, I regularly do gigs from 1-3 hours. Admittedly, I'm pretty tired after 3 hours. The way I prefer to do long gigs is to to take it slow, take my time in refuelling, stop often to let people applaud, even its something simple and talk to the crowd a lot while doing gentle movements.

A great way to stay rested and involve the crowd more is to tell them about what you are going to do next, explain whether it's easy or hard, and pretend to be scared when attempting the hard stuff.

Remember most people watching won't even notice the "technical" stuff, if you don't tell them what you are doing, just do the easy stuff.

A great finale would be for the two poi'ers to do a small set at the end, while the staffer dipss for a while and sets up for a burnoff, (the fireball thingee).

Walk between the two poi'ers, as they stop spinning and do a huge burnoff, leaving everyones equipment still going put the toys on the ground and take a (ONE ONLY) bow.

Well that's my two cents worth, its all just advice, take the good stuff leave the bad stuff but keep it safe, as nothing wrecks a performance (and fire gigs in the future too)more than yourselves or the audience getting hurt...

Good luck (you won't need it)

------------------
Charles

http://juggling.co.nz

Firstly thankyou both for all the great insights you have given me into performing.

To answer you flash, I was buzzing with all those questions and more when we were asked to do the gig and was given limited info(supposedly more info is on the way).

However, it is a paid gig, I believe it is some sort of dance(ball, party,etc.) and I have been told that the venue is somewhere on pier one(again info is so far a bit sketchy, but i was told we are performing on some sort of patio)

Once again, even though I thought it wasnt't possible, you both have managed to make me even more excited about my first paid gig.

Thankyou and Ill get back to you when I receive more information

Zester

Well I have some more details and the most alarming detail is that we will be performing inside.

I have absolutely no experience with this and would appreciate some input, regarding fuel(which type is best for indoors), spinning off(where, when)
and anything else that might be pertinent to performing indoors