spinning for days

by kahunahula on November 6th, 2009

i’ve been busy. super busy.

let’s visit the wayback machine shall we? (insert 70′s space music here….)

haven found

when i think of the word, “sanctuary”, i think of being safe, secure, and free to recover. the last few months have been crazy hectic. as i mentioned in my decompression post, i didn’t do a whole lot of decompressing there. i was looking forward to the following long weekend of escape and chill at strategik’s sanctuary.

the place was beautiful. an estate in wine country, complete with pool, palatial house and tennis courts. add strategik’s dj’s, sound systems and vibing great peeps and you’ve got one hell of a party.

i love socializing. i never fail to meet and connect with people unless i’m in that hide-in-a-cave mode or mid pre-performance jitters. i’ve gotten into the habit of asking people what their passion is instead of what they do for a living. the answers are always far more interesting. i like watching people’s faces light up when they realize that i am asking them to tell me all about what they love.

i did a little spinning by the pool during the day, broke out the psi hoop at dusk, then transitioned to fire. the fire spins the first night felt like a fun warm up. no music, alas. a guy came up to me afterwards and said that as far as he was concerned, watching us spin was the most amazing aspect of the weekend. that was nice. to be honest, i’m still learning how to deal with the wash of compliments. i try to be appreciative, humble and gracious. i have no doubt that everyone who praises my spinning has something they do that would likewise blow my mind.

the second night i was on. my fire peeps were there, bolstered by some new talented friends. we had a dedicated audience, good music, and some decent room on the tennis court. i had a couple of solid spins, deep in the zone, casting my spell. check out this amazing photo. so fantastic to have this newer level of comfort with fire. makes it possible for me to really enjoy it rather than fear it. (though i will always respect fire for the elemental force that is is) to top it all off, hours later, i put on a private psi performance for a group of thoroughly intoxicated friends. that’s just fun. then off to dance the rest of the night.

needless to say, i walked away from the weekend exhausted but happy.

photo by luiza leite, 2009.

doing it for the boobs

beats for boobs was a blast a few days later. (say that ten times fast) a strong contingent of solar flare alternated performances with temple of poi in support of this great fundraiser for breast cancer. we did two shows. in the first, we did solos. in the second, we were put together in two’s and three’s at random, to see what we could come up with. it was fun. lots and lots of toss room.

it was great also getting a chance to chat with the fire marshall. he said fire spinners are much easier to deal with than restaurant owners. thought that was funny. also, maestro got a clarification on a toss rule that just made my day. there have been a couple of recent gigs where i was told i couldn’t toss. wrong. a performer can actually toss to themselves. it’s the tossing tools to one another that is a no-no. sweet.

and, though it was a little weird having my lady’s father in the audience for the first time, i nonetheless rocked the black nipple tape in honor of the occassion. HooppaiN!

photo by ramona tumber, 2009.

burning in hell

the hell-o-ween gig the next night was one of my better firespinning evenings in awhile. i’d gotten the invite from fireflirt, one of my campmates at bman, to participate as part of her infernal circus with three other spinners i know and love in a pre-halloween party/benefit at a mansion in sf.

we were pretty much on our own to make it happen. that meant spinning, safetying, crowd control, space control, etc, between the four of us at a party of hundreds. not easy.

we rocked the house. such fantastic performers! nothing like spinning with peeps with exceptional skill and seasoned showmanship. i felt part of a solid team of good friends. at any time we had two people on safety, one dipping, one spinning. we did two shows. without music. yep, we were told we’d be able to hear the band upstairs, but it was pretty faint. i need to get in the habit of always bringing a backup sound system.

despite the super-tight space and no toss room (damn tree!), i was pretty on. there was something about the space we created that spoke to me. i felt safe. without the music, it came down to doing the magic solely to the whish of the flames. once i tapped into that, it was all gravy despite the obstacles.

photo by matthew freedman, 2009.

disco halloween

my halloween plans got a bit mixed up. i’d committed early to a party gig, which fell through days before all hallows eve. i found myself unable to buy tickets for the ghost ship party on treasure island that most of my friends were going to. one alternative was a disco campout in the woods that sounded intriguing enough to make me unpack all of my camping gear i’d just packed and drive unfamiliar windy trails in the (seemingly) dead of night, to a place i only knew about from a flyer i could barely read. ah, adventure.

nice place. at the edge of a forest with an outdoor dance floor. found a perfect camping spot at the edge of the tents: close enough to easily go back and forth from the activity, far away enough to have some peace.

didn’t do much hooping, but had a good time. the thing i missed the most was my peeps and the vibe that they bring.

the upside was i could put the damn hoop down for a night and just dance with my lady. we felt pretty anonymous there, which is a rarity at events these days. love dancing with wave.

when i did finally pick up my led, i chose an empty spot equidistant between the blazing back speakers and started to do my thing. a fairly large crowd gathered almost instantly. felt off from the start. it was one of those less than ideal situations wherein not only am i not in my zone, i’m also a little too out of breath at the outset. i rocked it for a bit and then put it away. just wasn’t feeling it. back to swaying with wave and a couple of friends.

it was a mellow, pleasant halloween.

the horizon

with the next gig a little over a week away, i’m going to use the time to get some site things done and start developing the intermediate tricks class i want to teach. i just got some new moo cards that i can’t wait to start handing out. i’m also being very diligent about continuing to work on my hoop skills everyday. i feel like i’ve just grazed the surface of my hooping potential.

still so much to learn.