Dance/ Martial Arts backgrounds

First post! Yay!

Anyways, a question to kick off the new board:

Do you draw from a style of dance or martial art when you fire twirl? Did either of the two disciplines lead you to fire twirl? Or vice versa?

Eeeeep cool. Every time i log on there is some thing different

I just looked up an old poll we did years ago.

Poll Title: Do You Have Martial Arts Experience?
No 50.8% (221 Votes)
Yes 49.1% (214 Votes)
Total Votes: 435

Seems to be a big connection there.

no martial arts for me.
Although i have a background in dance i did not start poi as a dance thing more as a manipulation thing kinda like juggling, but now i think my poi style is a lot more dance based.

For me personally it was just the fire twirling that caught my eye.
But I do have experience with both martial arts as diffirent styles of dance.

But I have noticed that for a larger part, the way I move is drawn from my experience with contemporary dance.

I come from a competitive dance and teaching background. I used to compete in disco comps all over the UK and then moved onto teaching disco classes and private lessons.
I then got a teaching qualification from the keep fit association which meant i did a year of study into anatony and phyisology and dance theory based on laban interspersed with teaching technique and practical assessments - so i understand what bodies do and how - so basically what happens underneath the spinning.

So yeah, my spinning is mostly all dance based with a lot of emphasis on what is happening behind the props.

Just for a laugh, here is me at a show a few years ago:

Dancers vs. techies?

Yes I draw from a martial arts and a dancers background - yet not having received any significant education in any of them

OH my god Gayle, you've made my day and its only 8:18 am
were you dancing to goldeneye?

and when is your dance workshop next week?

Yep. We were dancing to Kym Mazelle - Searching for the golden eye. The person behind me is my mum if anyone is interested! I won't be at Bristol during the day for the convention, only after work i'm afraid

Were you and your mother "conforming"?

yes Jon. I was conforming, but not touching base

Well, I think its nice to see some people being pro-active these days.

Blaaardy haayelll Gayle! You're bendy!

Some months ago I almost got to that point of stretchiness...but then i got sick and slacked off

martial arts...hmm...yes i suppose.

dance...! hell yeah (not really, although i do like to boogey)

incorporated into poi?...i cant be the judge of that...except when i boogey and poi at the same time...BOOGEYPOI!

I did tai chi for a while. Most of my footwork while spinning is still based on the balance and postures I learned doing that.

Not to mention the warmup stretches...

wwwwhoaahh Gayle. Post some more pics!

I did martial arts (kung fu) at the time I started to spin. And so I wanted to learn to use a staff for both of these reasons. But I never tried to do martial arts style spinning. Even though in one show ages ago we did have one pretty tight fighting scene with big fire staffs based on my kung fu experience. And I used my experience again when coreographing fire for a musical.

Never been a dancer and never took classes. But I will work with a dance coreographer for a small project soon.