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TaiGuymember
127 posts
Location: Yorktown, VA, USA


Posted:
Iono bout everyone else, but in my opinion i really stink at this. Recently, we had a county wide dance for all the high schools in our area, and my friends were all like "go ahead! show us your stuff"... I'm like "er... no..." [for fear of me hitting myself, screwing up, gouging some poor guys eye, and countless other un-imaginables]. Frankly, where i come from [Yorktown, VA], N0-0Ne has even heard about poi/glowstix [swinging]. We have a couple decent breakdancers, and 1 or 2 wannabe liquid dancers, but no poi swingers. Eventually, i'm lost amidst lights, sounds, extreme bass, and w/e else comes with the party atmosophere [not drugs!], so i give in. By the way, since no one's even seen glowstix, you can imagine that the music played at dances is old skool [hip-hop, R&B, and little mainstream... i heard mebbe 1 half-could-be-called techno song the entire night], so it was extremely hard to swing to NEthing with a beat. NEwayz... i gave in, and jumped into the circle, and everyone's looking at me like "WTF is that guy doing holding glowstix on string!?". I start swinging, doing a few easy moves [butterfly variations, corkscrews, butterfly--> weave transfers, weaves [back, forth, windmill], and i don't know what everyone's doing cuz i'm concentrating so hard on not screwing up... I ended grazing my ear with the string, causing it to fly out of course and end up hitting me in my right eye frownoh well, the crowd somehow loved it [i dunno if it was the glowstix, or me hitting myself]. NEhow, i retire to the edge of the ring to rest my eye [some loss of depth perception i might add...] and let 2 girls go at each other for the mob to watch... My friends all told me i was awesome, but personally i thought it was quite embarrasing... me hitting myself, looking quite stupid, and basically freestyling it all to Destiny's Child [for those who know who they are]. Moral of the story i guess is that ignorant crowds are the best crowds ^__^. It's only cuz i know what's out there, and how much further i have to go, before i'm content [mebbe it's just a case of having high standards?... nah... smile]. NEhow, that's just the rant i felt like writing about tonight... I wonder what type of reactions i'll get from this??? lol------------------"Happiness is not a destination, but a method for life"- Burton Hills

The reason communism doesn't work is because people like to own stuff


AnonymousPLATINUM Member


Posted:
Thats cool dude!I reckon its a sign of your own maturity in swinging, when you know how much you dont know, but other ppl seem to think your swinging is wicked.HOwever I have to disagree about what you said that an unedeucated audience is the best audience. Perhaps they will have the best reaction, but will it give you the same satisfaction? I prefer having ppl I know are decent swingers coming up to me after a set, and complimenting me on my twirling, than any number of hoons in their commodores yelling "F**KIN SICK MATE!!!!!!!!!!" as they cruise off after my set at the beach...Although...nothing quite matches the sound of a crowd (even a little one) clapping at the end of your set...It has a certain feeling...Josh

adamricepoo-bah
1,015 posts
Location: Austin TX USA


Posted:
I'm with Josh. I'm still pretty new to this, but getting praise from "civilians" gives me a funny feeling when I wasn't really "on." Tonight I went to a group fire session, and had a couple of pretty good light-ups. Getting praise from *this* crowd really means something--these are people who I watch and think "how come it looks so much cooler when they do it than I feel like it looks when I'm doing it?"As to music--tonight I twirled to jazz (Take 5) and slow classical (not sure what it was), and both went really well. I was surprised, but now I'm thinking there's all kinds of music that might be ripe for twirling. It was definitely a different experience, because in the past I've twirled very fast, and tonight I made it a point to go really slow.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy


SimosBRONZE Member
enthusiast
384 posts
Location: London, UK


Posted:
TaiGuy i think being exposed to an audience is a great experience on its own right; too bad about the eye though frown - most of the times i screw up is from over excitement, at first i was also screwing up because of anxiety about not screwing up smile...anyways i am glad you enjoyed it...if they liked it so much why don't you prepare something more organised for the next dance??? people will be asking for it again probably and you will be caught off guard once more smile; on the other hand if you know you are doing it from before hand you promote yourself to a more serious performer and get to swing to the music of your own choice and possibly make it look even better by sorting out small things that make a difference (eg lighting, possibly some smoke etc)...let alone being more psycologically prepared for it! it was just a thought,happy swinging,Simos

dangerboyoriginal member
205 posts
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada


Posted:
From personal experience, I can say that you always look cooler than you think you do. If you think you sucked, you looked good. If you think you looked good, you looked awesome. If you think you looked awesome, people were transported to another dimension. If you ever doubt it, find a way to film yourself. Besides being a great chance to see what mistakes you may or may not be aware of, you'll finally know what other people see when they watch you. ------------------Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath, fire my spirit

Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath, fire my spirit


FrenzieBRONZE Member
member
515 posts
Location: Sydney, NSW, Australia


Posted:
We just had the same experience on the weekend. Individually we all felt (well i dunno about all, but at least 4 out of 6) thought we looked crap, couldnt get the space we needed from the crowd and completely fucked up our whole routine, but we still got praises from people in the crowd who said it looked awesome.I think the main thing is that the crowd doesnt know what you wanted or were meant to be doing, so winging it can be just as good, and messing up every now and then is all part of it, im sure that even on occasssion things like cirque du solair screwup and we wouldnt have a clue, and think that backward spin to mat was a brilliant touch of humour!!

- Industrial design knows of no article more useful than the milk crate -


adamricepoo-bah
1,015 posts
Location: Austin TX USA


Posted:
Now, this may sound slightly perverse, but I think that having one obvious but not serious mistake in a routine could actually be a *good* thing when performing in front of civilians. If you're just flying along doing everything perfectly, people will be impressed, yes, but if you have one mistake, that'll remind them "oh, shit, this is dangerous!" which adds to the excitement.

Laugh while you can, monkey-boy


tkerbymember
30 posts
Location: Edinburgh, UK


Posted:
Poi always look great if you can move with them. Tangles and accidents are unavoidable but if you can recover then it adds to the act's difficulty. When I think about how bad I was when I started I was still impressing people. They've grown with my moves and it's hard to impress them now which keeps me trying new stuff. And then when I go to clubs and people are totally new to it it's fantastic. I even get free entry now and bought drinks by the crowd!


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