photo by claire mulkey, 2011.

in an earlier post, i was stressing about the string of big performances on the immediate horizon, venting my mounting, inner freak-out, as it were.  a few months later and those shows are a distant, happy memory, as are several others.  instead of assaulting you with an overlong post trying to cram all of my activities in, i’ve decided to break it up into bite-size pieces.  this is the first one.  open wide…

the temple of poi fire dancing expo at the end of april was awesome.  there were lots of great performances by talented peeps.  the space is great: a big open-air concrete stage at union square, surrounded by large buildings and the buzz of the city.  it was a little on the cold side, but fortunately the rain stopped early enough in the day to make the show possible.  this was my second year performing as part of the event.  once again i felt honored to be there.

one super-cool experience prior to the performance was getting my arms and shoulders airbrushed.  an artist friend of bene’s spent a nice chunk of time giving us each complimentary layers and textures.  the results were cyberpunk cool.  unfortunately, a good portion of it rubbed off onto the inside of the jacket i had to wear to keep warm while awaiting my performance time.  regardless, i definitely am going to invest in airbrush work again.  it was a fun process, looked amazing, and helped me get into character on some level.  the icing on the cake was my friend sarah giving me some facepaint just before we went on.  i usually avoid having any makeup on my face. i sweat like a pig and it invariably gets smeared.  but, she did a great job of adding a bit of unobtrusive artistry to my face and it lasted without any problems.

the focus of the night for me, of course, was my duet with bene.  after several months of prep, i feel pretty good about the debut performance.  the energy was high, the crowd was with us, and we were pretty on (though a little nervous at the beginning).  given all the work that went into the piece, it’s not surprising that i’ve put the first video through the super-harsh critique sieve.  but, even with that battering, i feel happy with the performance and am really proud of our effort.

i’ve enjoyed the process of creating the piece with bene.  she is willing to work hard, brings an insightful, creative mind to the choreography, and has a great sense of humor.  over the last few years, i’ve been very fortunate to work with a number of really talented people.  what i have learned from them is immeasurable.  the more i co-create duets, the more i recognize that the most important decision is who you work with.

photo by fototaker tony, 2011.

reviewing the video, i think we had some great sequences, with some tight timing.  i like the complexity and pacing of the piece a lot.  there’s definitely stuff to work on, but that’s always the case.  as i’ve mentioned before, i add new tricks into routines so i can learn them.  as such, still working on some skill development and fine tuning.

there is a part of the routine where we do synchronized, horizontal, wrist spins.  it’s a cool trick, but i’m definitely still working on executing it consistently.   it’s one of my drop-risk moves.  the truth is i wasn’t confident going into the performance that i could pull off the move without a drop, having dropped it a number of times in practice.  in the move, while holding the hoop with my outstretched hand, i sweep my right arm clockwise on the vertical plane, opening my hand at the top (12 o’clock) to spin the hoop on my upright palm like a top, as both descend in an outward, clockwise arc.  it will be super cool when i can get it solid.

unfortunately, my wrist was pretty sore that night due to all of the fan practice i’d been doing for the separate firish piece i’ll talk about later.  i ended up having to adjust the move to protect my wrist and prevent the drop.  i basically did a cheat of the move, faking the spin of the hoop by twisting my wrist instead.  i’m glad it doesn’t look too bad in the video, but it’s on the top of my list of bits to work on.

photo by fototaker tony, 2011.

in other near tragedies, my hoop went out before the end of my routine, as feared.  fortunately it was at the tail end.  it’s almost a good thing it went out when it did, since i ended up doing a freak-ninja-bungle-of-a-move; a new move i had solid in practice but floundered at the crucial moment, for no known reason.  but, whatever.  it’s cool that a wick relit at the very end.

i’m still trying to find a firehoop that meets all of my requirements: light enough that it doesn’t kill me, strong enough that it can repeatedly take the torque i put on it, and wick’d-enough that it can last a good 4-minute set.  if i can’t find that hoop, i’m starting to realize that I may have to make that hoop.

anyway, the last thing i see watching the video is that i definitely need to ramp up my energy level to match bene’s glowing presence.  she owns it from the outset- i need to be there, too.   a friend once told me that as soon i realized and owned how awesome i was, my performances would be unbelievable.  or something to that effect.  it is something i struggle with.  i have this inward battle against arrogance that is sometimes at odds with projecting confidence in my performances.  it’s when i see examples of great showmanship that i’m inspired to try anew to let the full kahuna out.

regardless of improvements to be done to the routine and our delivery, i’m grateful that it went well and for the top-notch performance opportunity.  i look forward to continuing to refine and polish the duet.  after several intervening performances, i’m already feeling much more relaxed with it.  i feel like i’m starting to open up with it, if that makes any sense.  i look forward to bene and i both consistently finding that balance between being at ease in the familiarity of the fluid motion of the routine and executing each sequence with powerful intention, taking it from a primarily technical performance to an artistic performance of nuance, emotion, and polished skill.  i’m excited to see what it becomes.  glad the debut was a hit.  it was a nice way to start off.

in the next installment, i’ll talk about elf speed and the unexpected junk show.  stay tuned…

bene aria and kahunahula, hoop duet, fire dancing expo, 2011.

a big thanks to kenrom for the vid!

here is a video of my firehoop jam in a gig with solar flare at an art gallery recently.  i’m followed by my fellow solar flarista, don, weaving some magic with his poi.

though slightly different than i anticipated, it was a fun gig.  i’d been looking forward to rocking it hard with the music i brought, but the live drumming ended up being cool to work with. i like some of the impromptu sequences.  in the “on” meter, i’d say i fluctuated between a 5 and a 7 on my personal richter scale.  the funny thing is that just after don performed i returned with my hoop duet partner, karen, to more or less mangle the peice we did for conclave last year.  in my defence, we hadn’t practiced it since we performed it at burning man, but i have to admit it was totally my fault:-)

flow can be an harsh mistress, at times.

a big thank you to chris miloslavich for the video.

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here is a second video of a firehoop jam i did at karen’s birthday bus traveling party.  i was actually pretty sick that night- had seriously debated going for a moment, but there was really no doubt i’d make it.  my peeps celebrating my peeps.  where else would i be?  then ended up missing several subsequent important friend things because i got sick again.  silly of me, i know.

while about six of us were spinning fire, two cars came speeding around the corner to screech to a halt just yards away from us.  joyriding teens stopped by rogue fire gang.  in one fell swoop they could have taken out most of hooppain.  there is some sick logic to that;-)

a big thank you to whit gurley for the video.