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DJ DantanaBRONZE Member
veteran
1,495 posts
Location: Stillwater, Ok. USA


Posted:
Ok, here it is, the long awaited "dancing thread". This is an open forum for the discution of dancing with your poi. This includes all forms of bodily movement, feet, hips, head, whatever you can think of. Well.....let's here some ideas.

What can you do?

What do you want to do?

What do you like to see?

etc?

Lets get some ideas floating around!

we eat and we drink and we smoke and we try!


kdldamnSILVER Member
stranger
23 posts
Location: Texas, USA


Posted:
I like to listen to Dance Gavin Dance when I spin or other bands like Paramore, Job For A Cowboy or Emarosa.

I can usually find a rhythm while listening to those bands and it adds a lot to my poi.

Especially "Surprise! I'm From Cuba, Everyone Has One Brain" by Dance Gavin Dance and "Tragic Tragic Track Jacket" by HeavyHeavyLowLow really get me to do some interesting stuff while doing anti-spin flowers.

I guess modern is the style I tend to use while dancing.

So, what's up?


slan45SILVER Member
Member
12 posts
Location: USA


Posted:
I actually saw my first poi being swung at a dance part/rave type scene here in the pacific northwest, so thats always been a part of how I move with mine.

I'm decent at popping and locking, but I find the style difficult to mesh with poi and prefer fluid dancing over it. A little freestyle movement and expression always helps as well.

The other day a rock song remix came on the radio while I was swinging for some friends so I turned my body to the side, started swinging my left arm in large circles and the thrashing with my right arm in a small circle so it looked like I was jamming on a guitar. That along with the head banging got my buddies laughing hysterically (in a WOW kind of way).

But yea I just prefer movement in general over anything. I have a friend whos feet never moves when he does poi so it looks like hes always in control. When I spin even I don't know whats going to happen, I just let my body follow the poi...Heres a link to the vid page so you know what I'm talking about.

[Old link]

Makes it hard to develop 'routines' tho...

Atacan(aka muaddip)SILVER Member
stranger
18 posts
Location: Seattle / WA / USA


Posted:
I have been taking (beginner) modern dance classes since 2 years.

And now I can do a pirouette with giant vertical reel smile

I am thinking of getting ballet classes next. My experience has been no matter what genre of dance you are interested, ballet technique is always involved.

cheers,

_ __ _
atacan


deadkenndys1105SILVER Member
journeyman
65 posts
Location: USA


Posted:
One thing I am working on is being able to do my backflip while spinning. I can do it but I have a hard time getting a full flip because most of a backflip is done with your arms. I have a break dancing and free running background so im starting to do a lot of wild things with poi now that I have better poi control.

newgabeSILVER Member
what goes around comes around. unless you're into stalls.
4,030 posts
Location: Bali, Australia


Posted:
 Written by :Look_This_Changes



yup, that's exactly right. smile



a lot of popping is all about making interesting lines and shapes and movements with your body, which compliment the poi so well.



you mean like this Maori classic from the 80's?

(wait for it... it gets there with a Maori Michael Jackson) wink



Apparently it gives advice about how to survive in the city... whih seems to be DO POI!

.....Can't juggle balls but I sure as hell can juggle details....


Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
I figure I'll bump this old, very general, thread to ask my question instead of making a new one.

I'm looking to start taking dance lessons to add more interesting body movements to my spinning. While a lot of dance styles seem to lend themselves well to simple poi technique, what have people who have formally learned dance found goes well with more technical spinning (spinning with odd hybrids, UTL, atomics and plane bending, etc.)?

It seems like technical spinning kind of needs its own style, but that style must have relatives. I've seen highly technical poi spinners who dance (like Nevisoul and Yuta), but I don't know dance well enough to know what else their movements are similar to. I'm worried something like bellydance (which I'm going to give a try at the urging of my friends) will break under the strain of some of the things I like to do. As far as I'm concerned, the poi come first, and if an attractive dance style requires me to simply not exploit some of the poi's possibilities, I'd just as soon lose the style. (With due props to great dancers with simple technique; it's just not how I roll.)

Anyway, I'm tired and rambly. If anyone has ideas I'd love to hear.

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s


leospoiSILVER Member
Poi explorer
108 posts
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada


Posted:
Celtic music works well for UTL since you're moving your legs A LOT anyways. As for the other advanced spinning I just put all of the emphasis on the poi trick looking good and then move my body around this constraint (or opportunity to emphasize the trick). For me dance and movement with advanced poi is just walking and running, quick turning and pirouettes, jumps, and changing my center of gravity.

JamethGOLD Member
enthusiast
378 posts
Location: NSW, Australia


Posted:
I don't find belly dance and poi all that mixable, except for a few undulations with butterfly or corkscrew based moves: I've been belly dancing for 8.5 years and poi spinning off and on (shoulder probs) for about 7 of the last 18 months.

When I was first getting in to poi I looked for vids combining the 2 on youtube, it was hard to find any with both good belly dance and good spinning: mostly it's fairly experienced dancers doing very basic spinning, Sage does great spinning with pretty basic belly dance.

I think it's because most bellydance moves come from your core, and don't show that well whilst you're spinning. YMMV

Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
Would you recommend some other style as more consistent with poi motions, or do you think it has to be more of a homebrew style?

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JamethGOLD Member
enthusiast
378 posts
Location: NSW, Australia


Posted:
Belly dance is the only dance form (other than the free form style known hereabouts as flailing mania) I've done since I left school, so I can't recommend another form in particular: I only know that IMO poi doesn't combine particularly well with belly dance.

Mostly when I'm attempting poi dancing myself it's home brew, but then I do it mainly for my own pleasure. wink

Any form of dance / movement training would be better than none but I'd lean towards something more dynamic and with more arm movement

Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
(On the other hand, maybe I don't need much in the way of dance lessons; last night was the third spin jam in a row I got told I was fun to watch. What up with that?)

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s


liquidtrancei dream in circles...
336 posts
Location: Scotland


Posted:
i do a lot of stuff in nightclubs with my flowtoys so I've taken up the 'tutting' dance style cos it's quite effective for freehand work, as for general dance i dunno, never been much good with my feet smirk

even chuck norris can't pin you down if your on fire


Purstranger
2 posts

Posted:
Hey liquid trance guy or girl!

Hey i put a post up, im doing a melbourne gig NYE and lookin for flowtoy specialists, 2 x preferably.

can u contact me please if interested or direct me through to anyone/people would be interested.

Pur:)
0419870767
neo_cortex@iprimus.com.au

liquidtrancei dream in circles...
336 posts
Location: Scotland


Posted:
I live in scotland UK I'm afraid smirk
otherwise I would love to!!
plenty of people on HOP live in that area though so check out the 'meet others' section, you should find someone smile

even chuck norris can't pin you down if your on fire


Mel MephamSILVER Member
journeyman
50 posts
Location: Wellington, New Zealand


Posted:
the lady who gave me my poi told me that its not about the way you move your poi as such but the way you move with the poi, i liked that, the poi should (in my opinion) should be an extension of yourself when dancing, you need to feel the tension of the poi's and use it to your advantage when moving with them.

Snish


leospoiSILVER Member
Poi explorer
108 posts
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada


Posted:
Very true indeed, since your arms are pulling on the poi all the time the poi are also pulling on you. You need to treat your whole body as another prop to manipulate and in unison with the poi create interesting patterns.

Smurf24029GOLD Member
Poi Master Smurf
343 posts
Location: Tacoma, Washington, USA


Posted:
To master poi it must become as a master is to a sword. It must become an extension of your body. Something as similar To you as you hand.

Fly High
Spin Hard
Don't Stop


Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
Hm. I just realized one can move one's shoulders and hips in different timings and directions (except together-opposite doesn't really work), and the same with other joint pairs. I wonder if there's an appealing way to work this into body motions to play against one's hybrids or simpler spinning motions.

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s


EpitomeOfNoviceGOLD Member
Putting the "FUN" in fundamental since 1981
787 posts
Location: Dover, Delaware USA


Posted:
Have you looked into Bollywood style? I could see that combining with tech quite well. I'm still pretty simplistic in my movement, but am finding that modern, lyrical, and older hip-hop moves are very compatible with poi (locks and new jack swing, mainly as far as hip-hop goes).

~Rock on!~

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough"-Waking Life

(All you RLers this is epitome_of_lame *waves hello*)


Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
I've looked hardly into anything because I don't dance and don't know names or have examples at hand tongue2 I'll try and look for some of these on YouTube.

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EpitomeOfNoviceGOLD Member
Putting the "FUN" in fundamental since 1981
787 posts
Location: Dover, Delaware USA


Posted:
I think parts of this could be made poi friendly, some of these dancers look like they have imaginary poi at parts

~Rock on!~

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough"-Waking Life

(All you RLers this is epitome_of_lame *waves hello*)


Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
Hm, yeah, a few of those stances look like they could be made to accomodate unit circles pretty easily...

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triptricianSILVER Member
UFO Spotting
350 posts
Location: Queensland, Australia


Posted:
been mucking around with getting the melbourne shuffle incorporated into my poi routines. not sure if anyone has done this before would be interested to see if any of you melbournites have had success in being able to do this

would rather have a bottle-in-front-of-me than a frontal lobotomy

"The dangers of life are infinate and among them is safety"(geothe)


Smurf24029GOLD Member
Poi Master Smurf
343 posts
Location: Tacoma, Washington, USA


Posted:
So I dont know if this has been mentioned in here yet or not, but my friend gave me an idea. Figure skating with fire dancing. Seems interesting to me.

Fly High
Spin Hard
Don't Stop


EpitomeOfNoviceGOLD Member
Putting the "FUN" in fundamental since 1981
787 posts
Location: Dover, Delaware USA


Posted:
Sounds great if you're an excellent skater, but I think I'll pass on that one! I've been toying with some Latin ballroom footwork lately and it seem promising...

~Rock on!~

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough"-Waking Life

(All you RLers this is epitome_of_lame *waves hello*)


Sister ElevenGOLD Member
owner of the group property
1,277 posts
Location: Seattle, WA, USA


Posted:
My girlfriend keeps telling me to combine my spinning with these dance moves:





She's lucky I like her... tongue2
EDITED_BY: Sister Eleven (1277493544)
EDIT_REASON: found better video

p|.q|r:|::s|.s|s:|:.s|q.|:p|s.|.p|s


EpitomeOfNoviceGOLD Member
Putting the "FUN" in fundamental since 1981
787 posts
Location: Dover, Delaware USA


Posted:
^^^

Oh lawdy! I saw this same video but dubbed differently with dubstep and captions only and was like...

"Wow.........." *blank stare, jaw dropped*

~Rock on!~

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough"-Waking Life

(All you RLers this is epitome_of_lame *waves hello*)


Smurf24029GOLD Member
Poi Master Smurf
343 posts
Location: Tacoma, Washington, USA


Posted:
I LOVE THAT VIDEO!!!!!!
Do the Turbonoba Child.
Gather the Mushrooms, Pick the Apples
ahahahahahahaha me and my friends actually did some of those at raves. Especially lost in the woods with a bewildered stare

Also Epitome, The idea is definitely something that would require amazing ice skating skill, but when I imagined someone really good at both ice skating and poi, it opened up a few ideas that would only be possible on ice. Just a fun thought that I figured would be appropriate here.

Fly High
Spin Hard
Don't Stop


EpitomeOfNoviceGOLD Member
Putting the "FUN" in fundamental since 1981
787 posts
Location: Dover, Delaware USA


Posted:
Originally Posted By: Smurf24029Also Epitome, The idea is definitely something that would require amazing ice skating skill, but when I imagined someone really good at both ice skating and poi, it opened up a few ideas that would only be possible on ice. Just a fun thought that I figured would be appropriate here.

If this manages to come together I want to see a video! I love watching the funky figure skating routines and would love to see it with such an element added grin Staff and skating would be pretty awesome too!

~Rock on!~

"As the pattern gets more intricate and subtle, being swept along is no longer enough"-Waking Life

(All you RLers this is epitome_of_lame *waves hello*)


LazyAngelGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
2,895 posts
Location: Cambridge UK


Posted:
Icon posted some skating and poi videos a while ago -

there's also FirenIce doing ice skating with firepoi on one of the CoL videos.

going back to the bellydance thing, there's a few ATS turns that work pretty well with staff IMO

Because ActiveAngel sounds like a feminine deodorant

Like sex, I'm much more interesting in real life than online.

'Be the change you want to see in the world around you' - Ghandi


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