What makes your poi style different?

This is a really interesting topic. And Squid, you can drink coffee, tea, and mate at the same time, as long as you share them with me.

But to business...

I agree that people I know who practice together spin with a similar style, and though that isn't particularly a bad thing it seems to me that people who practice a lot/alone start to get some personal definition. Many spinners I've seen (particularly with newer spinners) basically run through each of the moves they know. And then there are people that really *dance.*

From the feedback I've gotten, I guess I move my whole body more than the average spinner-- closer to the dancing-with-fire rather than spinning-in-patterns. So my transitions are short and sneaky. I think I also respond and interact with music more than the spinners I run with.

eeerm. i think -to be maybe a little over simple...its just what feels right. if you do what feels right and progress with your spinning naturally then you learn your own style - and fit it to how you move naturally and what you feel happiest doing which strangely is usually what looks best too. i try not to get too stuck in the set patterns. i will learn them but then try pull them apart and work out where i can go next. i think spinning with others helps. you end up interacting and it creates a challenge but then again i have only been doing this for a year so i could still change my mind

My poi style is based on playing around on my own for years without seeing any videos, HoP or many other spinners apart from some tourists. Classic Aussie feral spin it around and have a good time stuff. Then suddenly my home was influxed by collective Uberness of people like FlameOz, Dom, Nick Woosley, Garthy etc. Oh. I see, right. I was so intimidated I damn near stopped spinning altogether.
Since starting up again I've been inspired by those folk, plus Fenfire, and the other lovely Europrecision types, with lots of stalls and angles. And antispins and flowers cos I like them and find them quite accessible as compared to behind the back stuff cos I am short and fat.

So now my style is an odd combination of go for it survival tactics and sharp stalls, with quite a lot of assymetry in different directions. And, apparently, an impressive range of facial expressions!

Hmmmmm... I like to think I've taken a little piece of everything and everyone that's inspired me (largely Jet Li, tai chi & other spinners) and influence it with what feels comfortable. Like with everyone, I'm sure it took time to evolve into a more expressive style, but I don't really remember, so it must have been a fairly fluid transition.

Given time everyone evolves regardless of tutelage. It's likely that very new spinners are only limited by the ammount of skills they have learnt and will soon flourish. Perhaps even bringing new schools of thought?

i am beginner/intermediate poi spinner i learned through glowstringing which give me a diferent style to a degree off the bat but basically yall are right you have to learn all the motions and what not and adopting anothers style helps at first but with more practice you learn to link the moves in diferent ways i dont use tucks to chang my poi directions usally a wrap around my leg or shouders for instance plus the music u chose to spin to changes your style. the same person will spin different from one song to another

i just thought of something else ! making mistakes, and really unusual ones helps make a style different. because when i make a mistake i change track and do something different, or end up moving in completely different ways to how id normally move maybe that goes without saying? but i thought id mention it anyway

iv been looking in to this alot. iv learnt alot over the passed year from friends, internet, books, anywhere i can. but atm i dont dance or move much. so iv been looking around for a style or mix of styles that suits me.

atm tho... i use long slow sock poi so my style is very technical but smooth. making behind the back, over the head, under the legs stuff look as smooth and natuaral as possible but while staying pretty still.

I also started with glow. I think it gives me a very distinct style along with numous other things. I think as your learning its unavoidable to almost copy someone for a while. For example while learning flowers and ways to manipulate them you have to practice them the way you see someone else do it. Then you become free to make it your own when you master it.

I think your past will also shape your style. For example I'll use the more obvious people. In my eyes Bender derives his style from martial arts, so he will allmost allways be more aerial, quick, and smooth (depending on what form he studies, or new things he learns). Nick had expressed his former dancing and tai chi past. Being in ballet makes Nick's style for obvious to me now. At the moment im working on being smooth and using my dance class, my style will look similar at times (especialy since im learning some of the things he's teaching). Yuta's style to me seems to be derived from modern dance. As I get into that it will look more like his.

In conclusion after you learn everything you can. I think your style becomes your own. Until then and even after, your style will allmost allways be simial to someone else's depending on your backgrounds. I wouldnt be upset...Its flattering to have someone thing what you do is that beautiful. If nobody copied eachother we would all still look like the people spinning in COL2.

I dont think revolutionaries like Sage get that upset about it. You get your 15 minutes and like i said its flattering to inspire...

lol my poi style is different cus i love staff.
if it weren't against nature i'd marry my fire staves.

I was just using your staff style as an example. Ive never even seen you use poi lol. Its kind of hard to get the complete thought across sometimes cuz im at work while im here. :-)

I just want to add that I have multiple distinct styles that I use. You learn them like martial arts disiplines. I think its a beautiful process it just kinda sucks that alot of use have to hide alot of our talent due to being performers.

didn't get that last paragraph...

But I side you that it's flattering if someone copies your style (to a certain extent). Funny how we merge and fuse different elements to finally develop our own styles, serving as an analogy to life in general. Sometimes we can even trace certain moves/ combinations back to the same teacher (not equalling "origin"). As for an example, the Jeromes (back in their early days) learned from the same teacher in KPG and logically they had similar elements, moves and combinations (the very popular butterfly-stop-to-weave or to start their performance with a kickup)...

The thread-title speaks of "poi-style" only, it applies to staff just as well...

Personally my style comes more from a martial arts and dance background, but I blame the toys for it. After all staff and poi origin both from weapons.

my poi style has changed heaps over the years - what u see in COL 2007 is not the same as what u see in that old video i released (2003)... i do understand that a person's style can change with the toy (especially if they are very big toys!) and i gotta add that clothing makes a difference too.
Since my disasterous leg injury, i have concentrated on more elegant, controlled footwork (too much power = more injuries). so i wear flowing pants when i am twirling in my 'comfortable' style.

Lately (last 2 years or so i mean) Musicality has become a more dominant influence on my body movement. What was once a martial artists's emphasis on movement as reaction and set patterns has now evolved to a dancer's interaction, engagement with environment and a focus on beat-timing.
It's a lot of words to explain something that physically explains itself in a few minutes - perhaps i should release a movement video, it's what i primarily work on anyway
b

I'm getting stuck in patterns with my style right now but it mostly consist of moving inside of a fountain and quite a bit of anti-spin. I'm working on making it more like dancing with the poi but it's just taking awhile.

i agree back ground of how u learn helps to define ur style ppl like me who started with glowsticks will have a def tendancy towards wraps and other such tom foolery. i love wraps but i had to unlearn alot of em for poi because i relied to heavily on them for plane and direction changes. so my style is kinda in limbo right now but it is unlike alot of ppl's style because even tho there in therory that knows exactly what do no more no less we will both go thru the same moves at some point but how we transition and link em will be completely different

Well, im teacher and that help me a lot because its a way to keep my style the most posible, it's logical that if you are starting you copy the other styles but with time and practice we can create own style...

surely our own styles are just a copy of many different styles that we have seen and think looks good, we become individuals through copying other people, not inspite of it

I am a "style pirate" as well as a "move pirate"... I steal all the stuff I like and sink the rest to the bottom of the great blue. Then I twist it to exactly what I want, which usually looks decidedly different from anything that I started with. I change my style regularly to match the occasion as well.