Dance lessons for spinners

Krumping looks bad ass!

It is weird though.

Interesting..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krumping

Suddenly, the ChemBros video Galvanize makes sense to me...

You crazy kids.

hmm. i wonder if clowining is a derivative of clownstep d'n'b? "clownstepping" might also very well be what i called "jungle jumpup" earlier, but only cuz i'm an ignorant american. we'll let the judges decide:

[oi. that link didn't work at all. i'll try back later. lol]
(^^this isn't me. i do dance like this tho half the time, especially when i have poi and forget to try gliding.)

i definitely didn't mean any kind of copeira or martial arts jumping or jump flipping. tho i'd love to be able to pull some of that stuff off.

"clownstep vs ryu. round two. fight!"

-- dut

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_%28dance%29

OMG! I'm gonna do this instead!

Soooo last year Meg

yeah like her laundry.

and your ego.

About spanking and hugging:

Written by: TinklePants

---

Is there a difference, Kael?

---

Dunno, last time I mixed the two things, I go spanked and not hugged.
<goes away scratching the head>

On the dance lessons for Poi issue I find Jazz dance is actually very helpful. I've been dancing for maybe 5 years and spinning for 2 so I started out being influenced by Jazz but i've found the technique very helpful. When I apply (mind you I don't always) the technique I've learned for turning or pirouettes it makes any poi turns much smoother.

Conversly though some of my dance technique has improved through Poi work. The only major problem I find with most dance forms is they don't spend much time focusing on the upper body, or at least the arms. Belly Dance would be the exception but I have a hard enough time dragging my self concious male self to my entirely female Jazz class.

One final place I've learned some movements from though hasn't been mentioned in this thread. I have some friends in a precision drum group and I've learned a surpising amount of movements from them. Even if drum sticks have little in common with poi.

One thing I have really been noticing, is different emphasis some poi dancers give to the use of rhythm. Some people try to manage using the poi with the beat, and barely move their feet, whereas others move their feet with the dominant beat, and almost play melody , or subtler beats with their poi. Hard to describe!

Guess I am thinking about musicality as an aspect of poi/fire dance, Drew pointed it out in his Uberpoi workshop and it has been in my mind since.

It made me think that perhaps learning music could also be a good complement to poi skills, not necessarily to actually play music, but to understand and use it well. I think it would still apply when spining poi without music, just that understanding of rhythm, break, melody etc etc...

How could you not dance when twirling? That was the first thought I had when poing what should I listen too couldn't wait for my poi to arrive. When I first saw Poiers it was exciting the beats that they had picked out to twirl to. BEP's was the first group that I learned to poi to and noticed that I even enjoyed the Clash. The beat gets me dancing which in turn helps me poi better, do moves that come naturally.
It was wierd/interesting to read that not everyone dances when poing.

agrees with Louch and andrealee

all that music training is integral to belly dance training. most belly dancers are drummers as well, since they are the same thing with different instruments. many belly teachers teach various beat signatures of drumming and zill work, for instance. *shameless self promotion* i've been drumming for rong rong time, i teach rythms in my poi classes

Aliosha, what beats and breaks are you listining to?

I started with glow sticks, so I would have something to do with my hands while dancing, then I got into fire staff, poi and somehow forgot how to dance. From there, the most important dance lesson has been to learn more about the music, counting the beats etc.

I’d suggest learning Latin dancing, as most contemporary music, from psy trance through to hip hop, has a strong Latin/West African rhythm running through it.

Even if you don't like Latin then this is a great article on Learning about Rhythm.

There are also a number of great dance tips in this dance thread including the now famous "Deep Soul Sheep Samba" a great base to work from.

Have fun, and in the words of Bill Austin “ When you take dancing lessons, you learn steps and you learn steps and you learn steps. It can go on for a long time. And then one day, you just learn to dance, and it is so different.”


cheers

Also: Watch footloose!

no, watch Dirty Dancing!

whatever, you posers.
Breakin 2: electric boogaloo.
cause it's all about the streets, man, dig?

Yeah, right, homie.

dont you guys realise its all about the tech???

:P

Just a thought on the capoira. What about just using the foot work without the handstands and stuff?

I’ve only seen people playing around at festivals and things, but they seem to sweep circles with their feet, shifting weight between feet as the move. Just doing that type of footwork would look good and give a dancer plenty of scope for freestyling around the circle or even a stage.


I found this Dance workshop when I was looking up drumming lessons.

“At the Argenta (B.C.) Fall Faire on the fall equinox weekend, drummers and dancers enjoyed a workshop designed to match basic dance moves with particular rhythmic effects. A circle of 15 dancers warmed up to a beat provided by the five drummers, a basic Olatunji dance warmup:

Then breathing to a count of two, in and out, slowing to a four count, for relaxation and internal timing.

The first dance sequence used the same rhythmic form as the warmup above, but alternating with all bass notes for a while, while dancers moved close to the ground, and all high rim notes, while dancers flung their arms into the air and whirled stretching high.

Next the dancers explored side-to-side and forward-and-back movements, to a rhythm with a swing feel:”

id like to learn. think it would help alot

As a martial artist myself I can say... do Capoeira... It's the best style for developing dance moves and IMHO it's tribal-like movements can be slowed/modified for staff and poi alike...

I spin and dance, I been dancing for years, Actually head dancer at a club to tell you the truth. I use a combination of lots of different types of dancing. I find that when doing poi some of the best moves thrown in are just basic foot movements such as some moonwalking, or just basic sliding of the feet. Spining in a pirouette while bending the body round, ohhhh its so hard to explain on here, i will try get a video uploaded of me doing some dancing at some stage. But i have to say that since i been spinning i have gottne more of a flow to my moves, Sometimes when i dance i like to act as if i got some poi. this gives good hand movements which are very effective and being used to the movements it lets me concentrate more on dancing with my legs. Ohhh ask nate (M-O-M) hes seen me dance.

ye im a dancer, but i cant dance and do poi together. end up going all over the place. i need to get more bendy me thinks lol

I try to start a lot of movement from the feet up. You can wiggle a surprising amount by just raising and lowering your heels.

I also like to work out new movements by dancing without poi. As I know what I'm feeling for now, it's a lot easier to come up with new stuff that actually works.

'to do' list:
yoga
capoeira
tai chi

(I was not dead, just resting)
I am not that sure capoeira helps. Not for the footwork, at least.
I did some years of it, I still would not have any idea of
a) how to combine the jinga with poi
b) why doing it.
I mean, the footwork is a pseudo-dance mostly useful to be always on the move, being able to feint, dodge and attack; for spinning?
Dunno.

As far as martial arts go, I think that kung fu (or tai ji) has a more elegant footwork that can be integrated in spinning; but I could be totally mistaken, my experience comes from 2 lessons of both.

(goes back putting together a dead iBook)

lol

i always start to get out of beat

For me, it depends on the beat.
It seems that the poi has an "intrinsic beat", and if I can follow that, good; if not, it's going to be very exhausting to follow the external beat.
(It took me ages to learn, but now I love to go slow, so anything at more than 120bpm is FAAAR to fast; unless I can follow every, say, second or third beat, if there is some big bass somewhere: like, bom-bom-BOOOOOM, and I'll just follow the BOOOM)

(Clear?)

I love spinning to different tempos.. specially songs that change in tempo throughout. My current spin playlist contains:
NiN
Chemical Brothers
Fiona Apple
Ani DiFranco
Tool
System of a Down

Fun stuffs.. I need to record some drum sessions and throw those onto the list.. also need to find me a good set of trancy electronica..

I practice a kind of kung fu (Quan Ki Do) and I thnik that it give me a special feel with my poi...
Expecially when I'm spinning with heavy fire poi I think that I'm doing something like a martial art progression (kata or quien).
For me is a cool stuff but this is my opinion....someone noctice that this kind of spinning is a bit rigid on the other side someone notice that this is precise spinning. You can have your opinion on it...

Acciaio