A challenge from Jeffrey Bird on the Tech Poi Group on Facebook--he wanted to see Zan's diamond rendered in opposites split-time in toroids. It took a little bit of doing, but I actually think it's far cleaner than the split-time same direction version I demoed a couple weeks ago. Bonus: I also decided to demo the same-time opposites version of the pattern.

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A couple weeks ago Charlie was kind enough to send me one of the prototypes of his new glow poi at Lanternsmith. They don't work like normal glow poi where you have an LED element with a battery at the end of a tether. Instead you charge them up using some high-powered LEDs and they glow in the dark for several minutes before you recharge them again. Here is a demo of the poi in action as well as some thoughts on their use an efficacy.

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A couple years ago when I was traveling through Africa, my host wrote a computer program for me that worked both as a poi simulator as well as a mathematical tool for measuring the distance a poi head travels in each hypo and epitrochoid pattern I could dream up at the time. After comparing a lot of the numbers the program created, it turns out there are some really fascinating harmonic relationships that emerge when you combine moves that normally wouldn't go together as a result of a lack of alignment with either the poi heads or hands.

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Starting with a crosser that unwraps and rewraps via antispin and extension, this trick involves essentially freezing one of the hands on the non-native shoulder to force the other hand to do all the work. In keeping the timing and direction consistent, the result is a body tracer that actually cycles through different positions of an archer weave.

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A few months ago, I did a video on single-hand wraps (called shotguns) in split-time same direction and same time same direction. I didn't show off split opposites at the time because I didn't know how to make it work, but now I do. The trick is you don't actually complete one of the shotguns! These become more stalls than shotguns, but they still have the intended effect.

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Based upon a move in the last Timmehtek video--a nifty switch to quarter time that makes use of a horizontal body tracer. It reminds me a bit of Mel's horizontal SNES move from last week and made me realize that as tech spinners when we tend to plane-break away from the body we have another option open to us. We avoid breaking toward the body for obvious reasons, but integrating this type of transition with a body tracer can have a really cool effect.

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I got a request a few months ago for a tutorial on this trick--it's basically a 4-beat corkscrew with some elements of body tracing thrown in for good measure. Not too terribly difficult when you break it into component bits, but it involves the body in ways that are hella cool to watch.

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When I first saw people doing this, I totally thought this was one of those tricks I'd just let pass me by. Then Kate put out her video of epic awesomeness and I decided I had to add this one to my arsenal. This is an epically difficult move, be forewarned!

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Here's a move that came out of a skill exchange I had over the weekend with Charles Hinton in Atlanta. He showed me a nifty pendulum-based move that was designed to teach BTB air wraps. I didn't have a lot of luck with the pattern as he'd laid it out, but I decided to work out a different approach to air wraps behind the back and have had some limited successes.

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Something a little different: I've been trying to come up with some bite-sized chunks of how my work in modern dance has been informing my poi spinning these past few months and here's a small but easy to learn bit that involves teaching your body core to move around in a circle in a way that interacts with your arms in very interesting ways.

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