Your favourite spinners and why?

First off, I don't mean this to be a popularity contest, more of an analysis of people others find inspiring, and what makes them stand out for you.

I blame Meg for giving me the idea for this thread, with her great post on the "what makes poi beautiful" thread where she described Ronan, Jade and Thomas' styles in detail. It really helped me understand a few of the things that made me and lots of others like them.

I'll start with one of my many favourites, Thomas (Nevisoul).
There's something about his style that shows you just how dedicated he is, every move he does seems under total control and he seems to be thinking 2 steps ahead of himself. You'll sometimes see him break into some difficult tech move and blend it with ease into his spinning.
His body movement is the same as his spinning - very controlled and flowing. He's one of the people who've inspired me to improve my footwork.

I have some more in my head but I'll keep them for later.

I don't think I have a faverouite spinner, but there are certainly spinners out there who I take influences from in different areas.

Firstly, Nick, if it wasn't for his tutorials I would still be poorly spinning 3bt weaves. I love Nicks overall style, everything just seems to flow elegantly and fit everything together well.

Tom Nevisoul, after watching the video with Alien Jon, I love his style, the footwork and similar to Nick, making everything flow so smoothley and looks clean and effortless.

Same goes for Jon too I guess. His technical skills and flowing ability is something I really admire, and although I know with a lot of work is possible, it just seems like it's an impossible task to get to that level... But I will give it my best shot.

Finally Ronan. I saw a video earlier which was just outstanding (he had short hair in it and was on a stage with 2 yellow balls and wearing orange, don't know how old it is). I have never seen poi be moed like that before. The combination of contact and poi with such precision made my jaw drop. Although I don't see myself getting into this side of spinning, it's still a pleasure to watch, and a lot of inspiring stuff.

Derek videos have been invaluable to me, and I would love to see a video of him spinning "propperly", more than a tutorial video.

There was some awesome stuff in Cassandras spinning in Paris videos which really influenced me too.

I don't mean to stroke anyones egos here. There are so many good spinners here, and I am sure everyone has a lot too offer the community in their own little ways, but I can only go on who I have seen, so sorry to point out the obvious names

okay my favourite tech spinners are mcp, nevisoul, jon, noel, ronan, G and cyrielle at the moment because I think it is really sick how their geometrie-aspects of spinning fits into flow and in to the spin.

I really love watching their videos every time - because it opens my own mind a bit more and shows myself some new transission for spinning.

And of course I hate the Antispinner-Crew that much that I love them too because of their skills. Hopefully you'll never gets your hands cut up - so I can see more of your skills.

Along with the list of the usual suspects, I'd like to toss in Peter ( Mireneye ) because his performance at the JFF in 2008? was IMO, highly innovative

French people for some reason seem to have it going on I don't know whether there's something in the water over there or what.



I just watched that video before posting this. Me too When everyone else was ripping off Dervishly Yers, I was ripping off that one. I hadn't watched it in a couple of years and, yep, I've ripped off everything in it, even the style, save those damn carryovers and the evil, evil waist wrap.

I love watching yuta and nick spin. They combine a balance of tech and dance into their styles that just makes me happy.

All the spinners mentioned here are absolutely great, they are the gods of spinning! :-)
Personally i prefer G and Ronan for their combination of dance and new tech, absolutly wonderfull!

Honestly, while I'd say I like Yuta and Nevisoul most out of the performers I've seen online (really anyone who can dance and spin fluidly is probably possessed of unearthly powers), I'm really attracted to weird technical stuff too. There are some people here in Seattle doing things I still can't wrap my brain around, and things which I have still never seen in online videos at all, and I think they're my current favorite spinners.

Get them on video? More weird techy stuff is welcome.

I have a feeling I'll always be going back to Yuta for sheer, "What the #@$& did he just do?" or "Wow, seriously? I would have never thought of trying that..." value.

Lately, however, I've been getting a lot more inspiration from watching Ronan videos. Specifically because most poi spinners seem to center their styles around how they can keep the poi constantly in motion, whereas Ronan seems to seek out pauses and stillness in his poi work in a way that seems very counter intuitive, which is part of what makes his style so distinctive.

Ronan beacuse hes is superclean.
All of Flameoz beacuse they but on the best shows.
Sebastian Berger because he was the first person to do three staff backcrosses.
Me cos I love myself

They probably won't come back out again 'til summer, but I'll ask them then

What really got me into practicing and spinning advanced poi was watching at EJC08 crazy poi tricks and advanced body movement with poi including Yuta's performances. I've come a looong way since then and for that I'd have to blame Nick for his tutorials and flow vision and Alienjon for the advanced tech he does. I also admire G's and Ronan's spinning, though it could never fit my style.

Some people who have been inspirational to me:

Alien John - I watch him train, I think I have a handle on the scope of his technique, then i watch him spin fire, and I cant keep up, his speed changes, and the scale/distortion of his patterns because he is so tall fucks with my head.

Noel - The depth of his understanding of how poi works is incredible. I dont get to see him cut loose with poi nearly enough, but he tears it up on the double staffs.

Arashi - Sometimes he spins and im not really feeling it. But sometimes he spins, and his years and years of doing this come out. No one thinks like him, no one spins like him, and seeing what that means unfolding before you is amazing.

Brandon - Contact Staff BEAST! I remember a few years ago when he was just coming up, it was like "oh, there is another decent contact staffer around" and 6 months later at burning man it was hard to believe he made that much progress in that little time.

Meg - Id like to watch her spin if she took those headphones out and that beanie off.


Everyone who has been mentioned on this thread is great though. Cant wait for FireDrums.

There was a time, that if she took that hat off, the world would errupt into chaos and all existance would stop as we know it.

Then she got a hair cut.

psytrance is still thou, that's why the headphones remain.

only if that censored bit is suckier than

meg psytrance is great what you on bout

Thomas "Nevisoul" Johansson: He gives me so much inspiration with how to flow better and certain moves that seems only he could have thought of just blows me away. In his performaces, I love the way he can combine even the most simple of things and make it look amazing. And I love his bodywork as much if not more than his actual spinning, it just has some kind of look to it that I can't describe.

Nick "Meenik" Woolsey: Has been a redicuous influence on me since the beginning. I first saw his tutorials, and without them I would be nowhere. His beginner series was completely invaluble along with other videos that I had seen before and after the beginner series. I spent so much time just dedicating myslef to all the turnings and making flowers alowing me to spin all around my body. I eventually wondered if he did it with fire, as I didn't know that pretty much everyone that did poi does, and I was amazed. I remember, it was his Atlantis on Fire video, the very first firespinning video I saw. I owe most all my spinning skills and influence to him.

Conway Jennings: One of the first ones I saw, I was blown away by his work with stalls among other things, although I don't think I'll be getting into all of the throws as I'm not really into those. Although I may be once I get really good who knows, I thought the same with under the legs, and now Silly Walk is my favorite move.

Yuta: Hasn't really influenced me in the slightest, but he's fun to watch.

Derek: I absolutely love your tutorials and also owe a great debt to you for much that I know. Especially linear isolations, that opened up a whole new level of flow for me.

And Thomas deserves another mention in my mind because he is currently influencing me the most, and I just love ya Something about you reminds me of my unbiological German brother, Lukas. Not sure what it is, maybe that's why I love ya so much

dantano is the best. If you don't know, you betta ask somebody!