the fun in poi

Poi...
here's a word that still causes a set of different reactions from people...
- poi?
- coi?
- is that from thailand?
- yeah, I saw some people spin some fire stuff...

Conclusion, many never heard of it but it proved to be a great social tool and a word not to forget.

I've been teaching it and I usually find three types of padawan... hum... people:

1. the ones that give up really fast (normally because it's not their cup of tea)
2. the ones that like it a lot but do acknowledge it is not easy and keep on making an effort
3. the ones that do it naturally and learn to do things that took me two weeks, in 10 minutes (I remember Chris, a guest of mine... he would be able to do great things with one in a matter of weeks/months)

I fit into the second type. I focus on the technique because I am not "instinctive" or natural about the moves. The downside of this is that it takes me longer to learn and even longer to actually feel how I do what I do do as I rely a lot on muscle memory and it's very hard for me to correct mistakes that I carry for a while (thanks to the same muscle memory). The upside, I am a very good example for people that are not confident about their skills but would like to overcome the initial difficulties.

Meet Ina, a natural. We are each other's opposite, her moves are all emotions and heart while mine are technique and brain. This means we have heaps to teach each other.















Meet Chris (and Andrea). He's a CSer that I hosted and was so far the most gifted (fastest learning) padawan of all, 3rd kind of artist. I could swear he had done it before but he confirmed he never even as much touched a Poi before.

Andrea is like me, not as natural as we'd like to be.






It slowly becomes a regular event to meet on sunny Sundays in the English garden. People just show up with their own toys like juggling balls, devil sticks, slack line... and enjoy some practice at the sound of the close-by drumming group that jam all day long. It is in the base a regular CS meeting for people interested in practicing, catching some sun and chat with folks. It's also a way for me to avoid spending the day drinking beer in the beer gardens, not that I have anything against it of course:D

There's been an increase in the participation of people. We're quite easy to spot, just look for the dozen spinning balls, people walking on ropes, jugglers etc...

Poi without music is not as easy. A rhythm, a beat is needed to tempo the moves. I started by finding Portishead quite adequate, slow beat, sad voice, theatre and drama - all this just waiting to be choreographed. Now I turned to Fela Kuti's afrobeat (jazz/funk/afro) sound, it's not too slow neither too fast and allows lots of speed changes.

Tinita sent us a link about a monthly meeting in Munich for fire artists. Artists with fire, musicians and a crowd in a circle around the twirling, jumping flames. There I was with my trustworthy IXUS75 taking the best shots I could. I only regret that the camera has no manual focus (I wonder if the special firmware to update the factory one, CHDK firmware Allbest, has that feature). Even without it, I managed to make some quite good shots. Had I used a decent SLR, a flash at the second window would have frozen the artist in place.



Here's a slideshow (with a link to the gallery) with part of that night's show:

More to come next month.

Anecdote of the night. Andrea shows up with Virginie. Oddly, V knew me but I couldn't remember her (I always remember people, odd). Here's a slightly retouched transcript of the conversation:
N - Sorry, I can't remember you
V - We met in November at your place
N - Really? You joined a party as a friend of a friend?
V - No, you showed us your appartment and even showed us the poi.
N - riiight, you were looking for a flat when I wanted to sublet mine but thought mine was too expensive.
V - yes:)


There are LOTS of online resources to learn from:

• www.poipoi.info - great tuition videos
• www.homeofpoi.com - a good shop and you get 8.1% discount if you use this link
  
• www.flowtoys.com - cool site with nice glow gear
• www.youtube.com - meenik and yuta, the best poi techs out there!
  

This is not the first and surely not the last post about poi, no worries. Today, a little trip to the garden's sun allowed me to improve my Backwards Behind-The-Back 3beat weave and start something with the Forwards one. It was a particularly good day for practice and for a sunburn (I am convinced now, Munich's sun is NOT harmless).

Keep on spinning around the world because I will teach what I know everywhere I go!

n.-