Feb
10
Video Tech Blog #68: Opposites meltdowns, elliptical to C-CAP transitions
Submitted by Drex on Wed, 02/10/2010 - 4:36pm
First up, I'm revisiting a trick I posted several weeks ago: PoiRsquared's request to see an opposites crosser to polyrhythm hybrid transition. I hadn't realized the crosser he was describing was actually what I would consider to be a meltdown and had to shelve the move till I learned how to do an opposites meltdown. Well, I've got it now! Included is a step-by-step breakdown of how I got to it and finally, a demo of the transition PoiRsquared originally requested.
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Feb
3
Video Tech Blog #67: Meltdown fountains, isolated weave, plane-bent weave
Submitted by Drex on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 5:54pm
After demoing the around the head meltdown last week, I got a comment from one person asking about performing the meltdown as a fountain. While I think that conceptually the two are different enough that a straight-up combination of these moves is not possible, there is a way to perform a similar maneuver by using Alien Jon's concept of body zones. Demoed here are a couple ways to play with this concept. Next up, I'm getting to be relatively happy with my transitions from isolation to lockout, so I'm starting to work through an isolated weave.
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Jan
27
Video Tech Blog #66: isolations and iso throws, BTH CAP hybrids
Submitted by Drex on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 4:19pm
I'm back to drilling isolations in hopes of getting down the elusive isolated weave, but shooting for lower hanging fruit in the form of the iso to lockout combination guys like Nevisoul and Ronan have made famous. I'm specifically working on getting the isolated bit in the middle locked into the iso position like they have to make it really pop.
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Jan
20
Flow practice: MLK Day 2010
Submitted by Drex on Wed, 01/20/2010 - 3:40pm
DC finally came out of its deep freeze just in time for a warm MLK Day. I headed down to Dupont Circle for the day to enjoy the sun and do a little free spinning. Enjoy!
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Jan
13
Poi Epitrochoid transitions part 2: charting transitions and the patterns that emerge
Submitted by Drex on Wed, 01/13/2010 - 1:17pm
Here's the second installment of my explanation of how hard and soft transitions work with Alien Jon's concept of arcs and loops. Here I demo all the permutations of these transitions through the intratangent circles (concentric) versus extratangent circles (outside--btw, if any mathematicians know what these concepts are actually called, please let me know) for a bunch of different circle sizes.
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Jan
8
Poi epitrochoid transitions part 1: loops, arcs, hard & soft transitions
Submitted by Drex on Fri, 01/08/2010 - 9:48pm
The first installment of a short series of vids on transitions between unit circle patterns, antispin flowers, and extensions. What the common elements are and how to switch between them. Most of this vid is defining basic vocabulary and providing basic examples of the concepts that will be explored in later videos. A major debt for this is owed to Alien Jon, whose concepts of arcs and loops is one of, if not the critical underpinning of these concepts.
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Jan
7
Video Tech Blog #65: float throws, crosser transitions, CAP/BTH hybrid
Submitted by Drex on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 3:17pm
Though I've long admired them, I haven't until recently taken the plunge into really learning float throws. Here are a couple variants I spent much of the holidays working on. The first is a plane-shifting throw wherein you switch the poi into horizontal plane at the height of the float and catch them as they rotate. The other involves reversing the orientation of one's hands before catching the poi such that you catch them with one hand behind your back. Needless to say, both of these still need a lot of work.
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Jan
4
Free Poi Class!
Submitted by Drex on Mon, 01/04/2010 - 7:15pm
The studio I teach at has moved from Takoma Park to Silver Spring and we're celebrating the move by offering a week of free classes, including poi!
This is a great opportunity for rote beginners to get free instruction to start them on the road to the playful and challenging world of object manipulation. If you've been wanting to learn or have learned only a couple tricks and would like to learn more, this is the perfect chance!
Jan
2
Video Tech Blog #64: hoop tech, hybrid plane shifts
Submitted by Drex on Sat, 01/02/2010 - 4:47pm
First up, the first hoop trick to make it into my tech blog! My friend Katie/Surprise showed my a funky isolation trick that I dug that seemed to have this odd stopping point. Remembering some bits learned from a recent Hoop Path workshop, I realized a body can keep the hoop constantly in motion by jumping one's grip. The demo here is terrible--it's with my old hoop, which weighs a ton. Nonetheless, I swear this one is doable (incidentally, if any hoopers out there know what it's called, please drop a line in my comment box).
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Dec
31
A few updates
Submitted by Drex on Thu, 12/31/2009 - 4:41pm
Hey, all!
Those of you who've been crusing through here the last couple days have probably noticed the addition of a few items. After Sphericulism went down and then returned, I grabbed a copy of Rev's Manifesto so I could continue to read and be confused by it and a few recent queries from friends for copies of Cyrille's Geometry document from last year, I stuck up copies of both and added a couple other writing on poi theory that I thought kicked ass or that had influenced me a lot. Hopefully in the future I'll be adding additional documents into this section (Charlie's 9-square Theory perhaps?). If you've got a suggestion, hit the contact box and tell me what you'd like to see mirrored here.
Also, I added a rating feature to my videos and blog entries. There's really no great reason for that aside from the fact that I'm curious what people are digging on. Thanks to all the folks who've used this site since it launched a couple months ago. It's nice to have a home and to have people visit you there :)
Peace,
Drex
