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"Man...you've been into some weird science..." - Lucas Boyd |
Welcome to my tech poi blog! Here you'll find more than a year's worth of experiments in motion with a juggling and dance tool called poi. If you like what you see, I take requests for videos and always love to hear feedback. Please leave comments!
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Aug
30
Video Tech Blog #111: CAP vs pendulum hand switching
Submitted by Drex on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 7:43pm
Uploading videos here in Africa has proven to be such a production that I think this might be the last one I get to upload before coming home, but keep an eye out just in case I change my mind ;) Here are two methods for switching which hand is performing CAP and which hand is performing pendulum in the CAP vs pendulum antibrid I've been working to death lately. The first method switches both moves to isolated pendulums and when the orientation of the hands is reversed, we return to the original move.
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Aug
30
Video Tech Blog #110: contact poi transitions between hybrids
Submitted by Drex on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 7:39pm
After having been spending a lot of time trying to get the basic contact poi moves down, I went back and viewed a couple of Poiboi's old tech blogs and realized that a lot of the contact moves he demoed in them made a lot more sense, so I went back to learn them and found there are a couple interesting transitions using these basic contact moves that actually look pretty neat! One is demoed here: you switch from static vs. extension to pendulum vs. CAP using the forearm roll where one catches the poi on the opposite arm before flicking it to roll along the original forearm.
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Aug
30
Video Tech Blog #109: pendulum vs CAP with a point iso on top
Submitted by Drex on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 7:36pm
I made a stop this past weekend at Nairobi National Park just outside the city to take in some wildlife and untouched African wilderness and it gave me the perfect opportunity to record a video! I know I've been doing a lot with pendulum vs CAP lately and I probably will keep on doing so because what I'm finding is so much fun! Here I've been working to put together a point isolation with a pendulum to create the illusion of the two poi moving together like a single line.
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Aug
30
Video Tech Blog #108: more plane-shifting with CAP vs pendulum
Submitted by Drex on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 7:33pm
So if I've uploaded the right video (the computer I'm currently on won't view mp4 videos, so I'm making a guess at which video on the camera is the right one), you should all be seeing a transition from a cross-shaped plane shift to CAP vs. pendulum utilizing essentially an inverted linear isolation and a isolated pendulum to line the poi up the proper way to go into pendulum vs. CAP and back. Really, though, it was just an excuse to shoot a tech blog my first few days here in Kenya. Enjoy! :)
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Aug
27
The great Kenya adventure, Part 5
Submitted by Drex on Fri, 08/27/2010 - 6:03am
It's Friday afternoon in Mombasa. I surface in the Indian Ocean just off Nyali Beach, North of the city. The weather could not be more perfect: lazy clouds hang at the edges of the horizon as an unobstructed sun shines down on a seemingly endless corridor of white sandy beach. Three British tourists attempt to learn to windsurf several yards further out to see without much luck. Next to me floats Martin, one of the first street children who started working with Will when he created the Motomoto Circus School.
Aug
25
The Great Kenya Adventure, Part 4
Submitted by Drex on Wed, 08/25/2010 - 9:28am
Saturday morning: last night was a magical mystery tour with Sarakasi and James. Today it's the hamlets kids we're going to teach. Will Ruddick has been on a bus from Mombasa all night and arrives before I wake up in the morning. There is a package waiting for us at the Post Office in town--the last pieces from the United States we need for the program. Already we've gotten a 100 foot roll of 2" wide kevlar, 40 high-quality fishing swivels, and 40 quick links. The hardware goes so fast as we build, so though all the numbers seem high, we're still budgeting appropriately.
Aug
21
The great Kenya Adventure, Part 3
Submitted by Drex on Sat, 08/21/2010 - 2:48pm
For just over two weeks we've drilled and run new concepts. We've played with choreo and fine-tuned what we already have. I can teach until I turn blue in the face, but ultimately what will prove the mettle for any performer is a big crowd and all the crazy uncertainty it brings. It can turn shy, introverted wallflowers into dynamic giants or leave outgoing extroverts weeping in embarrassment. Ultimately, you never know entirely who you are as a performer until you hit that stage.
Aug
7
The great Kenya adventure, Part 2
Submitted by Drex on Sat, 08/07/2010 - 5:45pm
Every teacher knows their job is not just as simple as telling their students what to do and leaving it at that (or at least, all good teachers do). On one level you have to keep those students who are zipping ahead of the class engaged while making sure that those who just aren't getting it don't get left too far behind.
Aug
3
The great Kenya adventure, Part 1
Submitted by Drex on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 6:32pm
Hello, all! I'm writing to you from the wilds of Kenya...well, okay...an apartment on Ngong Road in Nairobi, but I swear the wilds are merely an hour's drive away.
Jul
27
Poi Tech Blog #107: pendulum vs CAP horizontal cateye transitions
Submitted by Drex on Tue, 07/27/2010 - 7:13pm
Dovetailing both on Noel's interesting take on using isolated pendulums in the pendulum vs CAP hybrid and Ronan's pendulum vs cateye transition using the same pattern, there are patches on either side of this pattern wherein we can enter an iso vs horizontal cateye with minimal effort and the results look damned interesting. One can do this hybrid on each side, but the timing switches to come back to the original pattern are difficult to keep track of.
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