DrexFactor Poi Blog

Basic Poi Dancing Tutorial: Tangles part 1 - air wraps

A tutorial on the most basic tangle--the air wrap is a tangle in wall plane that immediately untangles itself after two beats. Here are a number of tricks for breaking it down if, like me, the trick was very counter-intuitive to you. Next week we will cover applying some of these lessons to learning hyper loops.

Your rating: None Average: 4 (1 vote)

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #250: snaking 1.5s

This was one of the last pieces of tech I learned at FLAME and came out of a skill share that happened back at Kinetic Hive after we got back from the festival. It was born out of the idea of combining 1.5s with body tracers and we realized our basic pattern had a lot in common with a 1.5 CAP that Mireneye came up with years ago. Here also are two variants that Ky and myself came up with.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #249: Fishtail antibrids

Featuring Kate McCoy! Kate taught an awesome class on fishtails at FLAME Festival near Atlanta, GA and we had some really cool breakthroughs in the course of it. One of which was a combo that utilized triquetra vs pendulum wherein the pendulum is performed with a fishtail pendulum. This made me think of a pendulum vs CAP, which sets you up for an interesting passing move wherein you switch which hand is holding which part of the poi.

No votes yet

Basic Poi Dancing Tutorial: Cateyes

The first of a few weeks' worth of tutorials requested by you, my viewers! This first one is on cateyes, which I don't normally think of as a beginner trick, but the standards of such things have definitely changed since I started spinning. Here is the simplest way I know to break down a vertical cateye for all you folks out there who are working on this trick.

Your rating: None Average: 5 (1 vote)

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #248: Zan's diamond in polyrhythm hybrids

Last week as I was working out Zan's diamond with toroids, Kory San made a request for a video on Zan's diamond and its accompanying hybrids. I'm splitting this into two videos: this first one covers the basic algorithms of Zan's diamond as a third-order motion and the polyrhythm hybrids that are available as a result of thinking of each section of the shape as a discrete triquetra. Next week I'll cover some variants that are even-downbeat and thus timing and direction remain consistent throughout.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #248: Kate's antibrid weave

A commenter on my video about the crosser archer weave reminded me of a move Kate had demoed last year at Kinetic and in one of Noel's videos. I dug it back up to see what it had in common with the move I'd just played with. The answer: very little, but it was still a hell of a fun challenge :)

No votes yet

Basic Poi Dancing Tutorial: Down and Up Stalls

The second in my transition tools series. This week we're talking about stalls--when you stop the poi's momentum and have the ability to reverse the direction of the poi if you want. Included here is a breakdown of how stalls work. Yay charts! :D

No votes yet

Spring Festival Schedule

The festival season is about to begin! Here's my schedule as it currently stands--check and see if I'm coming to your neck of the woods :)

April 13-15: FLAME Festival - Atlanta, GA
April 27-29: IgNight Festival - Los Angeles, CA
May 11-13: Kinetic Fire Festival - College Corner, OH
May 18-20: Spring Wildfire - Ashford, CT

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #247: Split (and same) time opposites Zan's diamond toroids

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.

No votes yet

Drex's Tech Poi Blog #246: Lanternsmith Glow Poi Review

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.

No votes yet