DrexFactor Poi Blog

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #290: Timing and direction in pentagrams

Kind of random, I know, but I've spent the past few months working out all the different same direction phasings for antispin pentagrams. The end goal here is to get them down in toroids, but I figured starting here might be the low hanging fruit :) The funny thing is that all these phasings are really reflections of each other. If you think of each point skipped has having a number value to it, then 1 and 4 are identical save for the hand that is leading through the pattern. Likewise, 2 and 3 are the same except that the positions of the hands are reversed in each increment.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #289: Split-opposites inversions

I was showed these at Wildfire this past year as I was wrestling with trying to learn inversions in opposites (my problem was I was trying to do them in opposites same time), but now they're presentable! Here they are as a 4-beat split-time thread the needle and as an element of Zan's diamond in split-opposites.

No votes yet

Basic Poi Dancing Tutorial: Under the legs

Under the legs tricks tend to pass in and out of vogue, but the underlying concept has a lot in common with the reel turns we've played with before. Here are a couple basic exercises to get the basic elements down.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #288: Staggered stalls

This was totally one of those "duh" moments where I spotted other folks doing a particular trick and for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to get my hands to do it. But going the long way round actually turned out to be the better option because it helped me conceptualize how one could approach--here's how you can stagger stalls in a split-time place to produce a variety of nifty moves, including some that strongly resemble stall chasers and horizontal stacks.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #287: Timing and direction in 1.5s

Some of my earliest tech blogs were on 1.5s and figuring out all the different types of them. A recent class from Ronan reminded me of some of this work and specifically a few ideas in them that I'd gotten wrong ;) Here is Ronan's approach to thinking about 1.5s and how timing direction work with them.

No votes yet

Basic Poi Dancing Tutorial: Behind the Back part 3

In the final installment of this behind the back series, we'll tackle the meltdown! Meltdowns are a move in which one rapidly wraps the poi around their back, unwraps them, and then rewraps them going the other direction to create a rapid and exciting move. Here's how to build them up piece by piece.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #286: Leo's vertical stack

At the Tahoe Flow Festival, Leo showed me this nifty vertical stack that I quickly realized could be used to stack up and down each side of the body. It requires some deft timing, but has a really unique effect.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #285: Toroids--the East Coast Method

A few months back, Alex Powell from the Vulcan published an interesting treatise on his approach to toroids. There's been a second school of thought that's come out of meetings at Wildfire and other East Coast fire events and this is my best attempt to consolidate a lot of the thinking on this type of spinning and make it ready for the masses.

No votes yet

Basic Poi Dancing Tutorial: Behind the Back part 2

Last week we worked out some basic exercises to acclimate the body to behind the back spinning--this week we'll work on the behind the back weave. Fundamentally this weave is identical to the standard three-beat weave but requires a little bit of practice to adapt to a behind the back position. Here are a couple exercises to get you there.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #284: Arashi's atomics

At Burning Man this year, Arashi took me through his approach to spinning in atomics. It took a couple hours, but ultimately I came to understand it was a system with significant differences to other 3D systems I was familiar with--most notably with Maiki Nope's 3D timing and direction system. Here's a brief encapsulation of the idea.

No votes yet