Poilaroid website is done!

Yes, you heard me right. The swedish Poi-webpage Poilaroid has reached beta stage. That means it's ready to go online. The only thing I need now is a host. This is the "final beta" look, and it will look like that when going online.

A few changes for the future includes:

A place for news, and a forum. With some luck, these will be easy to integrate. But for now, let me be happy, because i've come this far.

Videos Galore

Poilaroid presents Friendly Fire I:

Accompanied with my practice session, attempting to kill myself, having fun doing so:

And last, but not least, my old classic ( New to this blog, but old ):

Isolations - Theory + New video comin' up.

Most spinners use their own body as rotation point. As an example when you turn a weave to a reverse weave, you turn your body. However that's not neccessary at all. You can actually change the Center of rotating from your body, to somewhere else. Such as the actual poi move. So your moving your body around the move. This can open up possebileties for a complete new array of how to view and experiment with moves. Right now I'm trying to continsiously walk 360 degrees around a weave. Very difficult I might add... Keeping the center of turning at the weave. From a birds point of view this is essentially isolating the move with your entire body as a variable.

Remember that this concept can apply to almost any move. Enjoy playing with it!

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I have a new video coming up, called "Friendly fire" the video is my first time filming my friends playing with fire. So the video isn't really "mine". Other then the fact that I filmed it. Again the focus on this camera is really annoying om many levels. Especially when it's -15 degrees celcius, and you can't make any fine adjustments with your gloves on. So again, i'm very sorry for the blurryness of a few scenes in the upcoming video.

Check back here soon, and the video will be here.

Cheers

WIP : Poilaroid webpage

I've worked my ass off tonight on a potential candidate for the Poilaroid webpage. And I really think it's starting to shape up pretty nicely. the basic graphics and the basic programming is done. The hard part comes now, really. Anyhow, before anything i'd really like to hear what people have to say about the design ( I'm usually really bad at designing webpages ) but feel free to criticise everything. It'd be horrible to have a ugly-looking webpage with tutorials, vidoes, and events for the Swedish spinners.


Well... Here goes:

My new fire-poi, and their first burn.

I ordered these babies from Salza wednesday the seventh of february, 07. And I got them on friday the ninth. Quick and efficient. I had promised to help my mom and dad so I brought the Isis poi with me, so that I could practice like mad. And practice I did.

I got home from their house the 11th, and after dinner I decided to go meet them and have a small opening burn. I distinctly remember their increased weight of the poi from the kerosene fuel. I also remember the roaring sound and the huge flames. They were everything I expected them to be. Alot of fire, and alot of fun.

Tomorrow there will be another practice session. I'm bringing one or two friends with me, or even more if possible. My main objective tomorrow is to show off a few new things, perhaps introduce the others to the concept of polyrythm a bit more in-depth. And keep working on my own flow.

Flow is in the toe?

Ok, ignore the title =)

Perhaps balance is in the toes and the ears. And the tail of a cat. But flow is not in the toes. Flow is something that concerns the entire body movemnent. Every single major part of the body, head, torso, legs, arms. Should people strife towards the goal of freedom in movement with these then perhaps it is best to learn fundamental ways to spin in every way possible before leadning any moves at all? I'm always looking for the best way to teach moves to people. And my experiance is that everything works smoother if they know all the fundamental ways to spin. In as many places of space around your body as possible. Another of my favorite ways to teach moves is to teach them the way to "Flow" into the move. So that the move becomes natural for the body to perform. However this approach limits the mind to thinking it is the only way, which created habits, and we all know habits are bad! Jedi Muscle Memory (JMM) is not.

Back to the main point. With only teaching the fundamental ways of spinning before teaching any immediete "move" we can see that the pupil will look at the move he learns with curiosity and experiment with it himself and discover things more easily. And be more open to new approaches, before locking himself into patterns. Patterns are good, nothing wrong with patterns, but beeing able to break out of patterns, to experss youself completely freely is the ultimate goal that will enable you to find your flow.

A few tips on the road to Flow:
Steady poses - don't look like your afraid of the poi if you do practice the move your doing more, and keep back your shoulders, you don't want to look like a cramped computer nerd. Also, make sure the pose is balanced. Standing on only the right leg, well hold out the right arm stright out. Keeping the poi circles in a stright plane. If you can maintain this pose steadily, it's probably good. Experiment with body angles and twisting your hips. Also, make sure you work on where you put your feet. Your feet's position is crucial to how steady your stance is.

Explore every space where you can spin circles with your poi. Practice to keep your planes stright. You don't want to get caught up in these areas when dancing around. Remember to try all fundamental ways of spinning in that space as well. This will help you unlock your body.

My best, and most obvious tip is practice. Nobody can get anywhere without it. You'll progress faster among friends, most likely. However learning things on your own is also important, so that you do not adapt to much of your friends style, making you less unique.

Have fun. I'm off to keep practicing on incorporating my overly - techy stuff into my flow. Making use of my growing JMM ;)

The lost flow of my myself.

I was never good with body coordination. Actually, I was always probably worst in class. But somehow, just somehow I manage to find myself and my own flow with my Poi. Why is that? Is it because compared to classes I don't have anyone bitching me about what can and can't be done? Is it perhaps because every move that I learn, there are completely new possebileties, previously unexplored that unfolds in favor of my movement spectrum? Or is it because of my friends whom also enjoy this artform so much?

Whatever it is, I'm very grateful that I have found such a wonderful thing. For me, it is something really dear and it is also something I had completely lost hope in ever gaining the control of my body, and much, much more. I could not learn how to dance in school, because I was never able to succsessfully lead the ladies, unlike Poi, i have such a respect for living things that "leading" in a dance would make the male side seem "Dominant". Well, I don't know, but that's what I thought. I was only good at running and jumping. However my jumping suffered some, because of lack of coordination, betting that I would jump high was like betting on a chance of 50/50. All sports during school activity suffered from my lack of coordination abileties as well. Working with others was not my thing to be honest, I could never really figure out what the other players were thinking, my complete un-interest in sports on television or live didn't help either. But Poi was different in so many ways. I'm not forced to work "with" someone, but nowadays I happily do, perhaps it's a thing that has to do with confidence. I'm constantly encouraged to find my own style, something everybody will do after a while when they have picked up their Poi. My style is currently a bit lacking I guess, i practcied alot more moves then transitions and flow. In spinning terms that makes me a "Technical Spinner" however lately i'm more in search for my flow... The lost flow of myself.

I don't want to feel like "just another poi-spinner" I want to feel unique, I want people to see something fresh and interesting. But seeing how advanced the community has become today, is that really possible? Is it possible to do something like that only from yourself? Is it even genetically possible for me to become that good? So far things are faring very well and the way I feel now, I will never stop. But before anything I need to find my flow. I need to work on it untill I can feel confident enough to move with my entire technical-array of moves with proper transitions. For me this is a grand goal, however the aim is breaking out of the box, using the entire sphere around us, strighting out the planes, work on body posture, keep the poi in proper splittime at any point the body can reach. There's alot to do with this alone, on my next practice round in the hall 70 km away from where I live, I will pick one move ( Family ) and stick with that the entire time. Working only on variations, speeding up/down, turning, and finding the most solid poses. I'm sure there are some really cool stuff which can be done with pretty simple moves, if you know who to move with them.

Introduction

Hello people.

My name is Peter Elvin and I've been spinning Poi for roghly three years ( a friend of mine got me into it ) . Or more accurately, two and a half. I actually took half a years break after learning the basics ( Which took 'bout a month ).

Last year, the summer of 2006 I participated in the event called NPC, Nordic Poi Convention. It was the first of it's kind and I was able to convince my parents that I really wanted to do this. On my way down from northern Sweden by buss I was also accompanied by two new found friends ( Sebra and Footfalls ), who lived 70km away from me. It was a wonderful journey, the first of it's kind for me. And the trigger which would make my passion burst into flames.

I had never met other fire-artists before. At most I had talked with some over the internet or watched some videos, but never ever witnessed it live ( Except watching myself ). To be honest up untill this point I had always practiced by myself, with only the internet as my refference. I was able to go through some very inspirational workshops at NPC. I also made some really good friends.

One of the biggest attraction at NPC was the appearance of Nick Woolsey, one of the big names within the Poi world. There shouldn't be a soul who within the Poi world who doesn't know him... honestly. I was also able to see Thomas "Fireheart" One among the more well known names here in sweden. There were also a heap of other very inspirational and talented people there, among them, but not limited to: Ficklampa, Agge, Ceasar, Svedin, Serpen. And all you others who were just.. AMAZING! Sorry that i'm such a jerk with names. Many thanks for a great convention!

I learned many things. However the workshops might have been very difficult I don't think the aim was "Learn this now" or the general feel of all the workshops were "This is something you will need to work on to get right, but this is how to start, and how you need to tackle it to proceed". Which is a much better approach then aiming on teaching something then and there and not how the people beeing taught how to teach themselves ( Hope that made sense ).

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After the convention I have never put down my practice poi or firepoi for more then perhaps a few days. And right now it continues to grow on me. It feels as more and more of my days are filled with thinking, acting out my ideas, trying theories with my Poi. In a pursuit for technical greatness and my own personal flow.

Today I discovered great many things:
1, Horisontal Buzzaw Founatins does look very similar like their normal counterparts with fire. This might just be because I still havn't got the planes stright with my fire-poi... Very possible.
2,Hybrid weave ( only one side )
3,That I keep my legs to close to my body, all my moves and my entire flow will be better if I keep a more steady pose with my legs.
4,That standing with my entire body slightly angled to the left ( facing away from the viewers ) will allow my left arm ( in flower movement ) to do that littl extra for the flowers to look cleaner.
5,Began working with polyrythmic moves
6,Tried some 1,5 move variations. Like 1,5 beats weave. However no success.

I think that's it for today. So I should keep in mind to work with my legs, a stronger pose for all the moves is needed. I also need to work on my Horisontal planes. The next horisontal move to learn completely is the horisontal spiralwrap around the hands. My friend inspired me to make a spiralwrap around the neck as well, completely possible i might add. Also completely dangerous!

Today I put myself on fire for the first time. It was a piece of jeans that caught fire when I was doing a part of the weave "Under The Leg". I have it on video and will upload it later. There was a piece of cloth hanging loose from the jeans which caught fire. I didn't harm myself in any way. To be honest, I actually laughed. I've never burned myself with my Poi, but now at least I have caught fire once, and now I know, I don't panic. I take it pretty cool.

Things are really coming together now. Every monday I go to our own practice-hall, meet up with the other spinners in the vicininty. talk to them and spin together. It won't be long 'til we get the ball rolling for real. Things are looking up in northern sweden, and this ball won't stop rolling until the katamari is satisfied. Before that we hope to have made a significant impact on the entire Poi community in some way. It might start from something small, but all life does.