Staff in different cultures

So there are some interesting links in the is contact a new thing thread but its all a bit diluted and derailed now, so i thought a new thread could be good. Id like to hear about other cultures/forms that use staff/do contact particularly their history and any videos would be a bonus.

Contact Staff - see video forum

Baton Twirling - no doubt you have all seen it Baton mmmm spandex

Feicha - trident cubefx

Rifle Twirling - rifle spinning link 1 rifle spinning link 2

Egyptian Cane dance - Cane link 1

Samoan Fire Knife - Fire knife world championship 2004

Tai Chi - Instructional DVD promo

Wushu - wushu central

Janitors

I remember seeing a video of possibly hungarians doing some kind of traditional dance with long sticks.

Very interesting this thread. For the baton twirling, you can add this one :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7tLzh69GwY

Nice one benjamen!

Nice new feicha clip you've got there. But the janitors broom twirling is also feicha, just with a broom.

Plus the cubeFX clip has no feicha in it... I can't find that tridentFX clip he had from ages ago anywhere... soooo annoying.

There's a history of contact staff in circus strongman acts too.
Valentin Dikul springs to mind, but sorry, no videos. I think you can see his staff in this pic though, it has a kettleball on either end!

So do you include "Mace" spinning (Old school marching band stuff) as a different form?
Or would that be lumped in with Baton, as marching band type spinning?
Also, do you make any distinction between the Eastern staff/spear based combat styles, and English/ European Martial arts like Quarter Staff, Bill Hook, Pike, Guisarm?
I know it's going to be hard to make much distinction between some forms, how distinct do you want to make the categories? Is this an attempt at a comprehensive list of staff manipulation everywhere, everywhen?

don't forget morris dancers!



and what about the stuff from musicals like 'me old bamboo'?

does that count?

I think we might need a link to meg's stolen/borrowed spinning vids

Weow - very interesting location, lazy angel and definately the best version of the Ghandi-quote.

To be honest I never seen any staff routine in the circus, up until the Cirque de Soleil tour in I guess) 2000, where this smiling guy from Hawaii was twirling two short staff ultra-fast (and doing some flame-passing on his skin).

I reckon staff itself has a very long history, as with stone it is one of the oldest weapons on the planet, and which is one reason why I adore staff and poi so much:

not simply martial arts with every days tools, but - more than the old tradition - keeping the movements alife, adding the element of (artistic) expression and leaving (a more comforting) impression on the audience (i.e. not feeling threatened in any way - other than loose burning objects shrilling towards them )

apparentlyCDS's "ka" has an acrobatic non fire staff throwing and twirling routine ,although its roots may be more contemporay rather than historical,unfortun atly i have never seen it or managed to find any video footage

Check out the Cirque du Soleil website for videoclips on Ka. Atleast there used to be a promo clip with parts of the staff routine. And I thought it was terrible. But sorta interesting.

strongman
http://www.tlmb.net/vids/OlegTeplitskiNightmare.mp4

More Feicha at 0:59 sec.:D

thats cool how you foound the link

thats pancho a friend of mine i haven´t seen since quite a while
thank you very m. for the link

where do you get a feicha?

it's a kind of chinese hernia, nobody can tell you how to get one, you can only experience it for yourself.

i would love to learn how to use the halberd.

The Maori, also have a traditional of stick fighting. They call it taiaha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiaha

Just for info...

There's a more Northern Irish version of the baton twirlers too...

Young lads who lead the 12th July parades often twirl baton-type sticks, some even doing a bit of limited contact.

It's a very different attitude though... usually quite menacing and threatening, and for the baton twirlers it seems to be very much tribal bravado as they lead their pipe bands (each band marks a particular loyalist territory).

Anyways... I'm trying to get some outreach stuff sorted out with the community groups at the mo... so maybe a bit of contact staffery will reduce the menacing aspect...

Who knows... have to be optimistic...

While we're here, there's also "Nupe" which is a black fraternity thing, where they dance with short canes. I think it's called nupe anyway. NYC loves it, he'll probably be in here in a minute talking about stepping and the greek alphabet.

anyway, A good example (I think):

Suibom posted some good links up on tribe... maybe I'll go get them later.

sweet