Fire - I found it!

I've been spinning poi, off and on, for almost five years. In that time there have been many dry spells, and often no one I knew to give me pointers or show the way. I used the internet to learn, back in the pre-Youtube era when poi clips were 10 seconds of someone's hands doing the weave. There were no tutorials then.

Since then, I've learned a lot, performed all over BC, and taught many students, but the one thing I lacked was a true connection to fire. I preferred poi spinning for the sake of poi spinning, not fire. I performed fire for the sake of performing and earning a living, not for the fire itself.

Suddenly - within the last two weeks - all of this has changed. I can indirectly thank both my poi students and Nick Woolsey. My students simply wanted a chance to try fire. I brought them to Trout Lake and gave them that chance, an inspiring experience in and of itself. At the same time, Nick's re-arrival in Vancouver was perfect timing, just when I was reaching another plateau, and in anticipation of his classes I pushed myself to start getting more polished. I also started staying after the Trout Lake classes to jam. It was then that something clicked, the fear slipped away, and I suddenly connected with fire.

And there's more! Nick reasserted for me the beauty of shapes in poi spinning. One doesn't simply spin two poi around oneself, randomly One writes fiery geometry in the air. My new profile photo is the result of some hard work in achieving those shapes. I practice them a lot now. I use glow poi in the mirror at home. I think about them all the time. Sacred geometry. Wonderful! Why spin random criss-crossing arcs and loops when I can instead weave my spinning into something more ordered, something of a higher level? Fiery geometry! This new level of thought also helped me discover the magic of fire. Here was a chance to transform the ephemeral into something artistic.

Of course, it also helped that I realized it's even harder than I thought to burn oneself. I can now attempt spiral wraps without fear, or stall the poi behind my back, or above one shoulder, let them hover a moment, and then spin again without undue concern. I've brushed many a black streak onto myself, but haven't burned myself once in two weeks of newly invigorated spinning.

Many people have also said that what I do is beautiful. That helps too! :)

So, I'm going to continue training, and I'll keep spinning fire where there's a chance, and I'll ride this....spark, so to speak, as long as I can contain it. It's easy to let just such a spark burn too hot, though, and consume everything, so I'm also seeking balance. Music. Dance. Moments of non-fiery breath in the beautiful Vancouver summer air. Maybe with practice poi in hand, maybe without, but at the moment, somehow the geometries just won't leave me, and that's fine.

Home Sweet Home!

We've found it! Our new home!

Apparently we had to give up all images of our current home and neighborhood, strike out a bit further....east.... and that was enough. Today we viewed a place that felt suitably funky, artsy, and filled with potential, and while we were biking back west, the landlord called and asked us if we wanted to come back and sign. Gotta love our fellow intuitive types!

Our new pad is near 10th and Prince Albert. Right around the corner on Broadway there's a perfect cross section of many of the world's foods. There are parks and community gardens to the north, and more to the south. We were told that artists discover that they're more productive in this particular neighborhood, and that people in the suites in our new house (there are three) even sleep better. Better still, the rent is only $25 more per month than what we pay now, and the damage deposit is lower! Cats are okay. Dancing is even okay.

I feel so incredibly relieved.

About the only catch inside is the carpets, and the landlord said they'd be fine with putting in wood/laminate floors. The only catch outside is a much much much smaller yard/garden than we have now, but they're doing a lot of planting, and I think it will be just fine.

Relieved, relieved, relieved! We move in August.

That means July will be filled with packing and moving instead of searching and fretting and competing for a place, and we like it that way just fine.

home sweet.... where?

Alas. Egad. Sigh. This isn't going very well.

We've been searching for a new home still. Obsessively. Passionately. With complete and unwavering attention! And yet, we've had no luck.

Today I showed up at a nice looking place--good amount of space, clean and light, great cost--and the landlord was on a power trip. Wanted to know everything and anything about each person who came through, seemed to be reveling in the fact that so many people were interested in living there. He joked aloud to everyone that maybe he wasn't charging enough....? We all laughed uncomfortably at that. I filled out an application despite his poor sense of humour. I would love to live in such a nice home. Or maaaaybe I wouldn't, not with someone like him lording over it all on the top floor. Hmm. Next.

Another showing must have attracted twenty people, and all of them filled out applications. ALL of them!

I've heard that the vacancy rate is something like 1%. That seems incredibly low. Daunting, really.

There was one in Kits in a really great spot with a really understanding, accommodating landlord who lived elsewhere, and it was WAY too expensive for the level of shabbiness offered. We breathed a huge sigh of relief when we walked outside again. So long, beach.

Tomorrow I will be better prepared for the next showing. I've printed a list of references and a summary of our sweetness and greatness. I even included a small black & white couple head shot so that forgetful, power-tripping landlords won't forget us quite so easily. And maybe one of them will think we look cute ... and take pity.

Luckily we have until August 1st. We're not too scared.... yet.

In Search of a New Home - July and August

My wife and I live in a beautiful house near Douglas Park. We have enough room in our living room for partner dancing together, which many people know is extremely important to us. We have a garden that both we and our cat love to share.

The house has been sold, and now we have to find another new home.

We've written up a list of the essentials....

...at least one bedroom and a den, or two bedrooms.

...hardwood floors in the largest room.

...greenery. Yard. Garden. Private plant-filled space. For us, for the birds, for Marmalade our Zen cat.

...windows. Light. Proximity to parks or beaches or other open spaces for practicing poi, stilts, dance, and simply being outside.

We're looking between Arbutus/Main and King Edward/False Creek. We're open to a slightly farther move in case the perfect home appears.

Do you know anyone with such a home for rent? Someone moving out? Something in your building, or next door? Please let us know!

We have to move out by August 1st, but we'll move as soon as we find something good. So far our search has been frustrating and disappointing, but we're hopeful.

success!

A not-so-simple thing for me:

I bought fabric.

I taped three sheets of paper together and then measured and cut out a pattern.

I cut the fabric along the pattern.

I wrestled with my sewing machine and emerged victorious. It was quite the battle.

I sewed the fabric.

And I now have two homemade shiny yellow fabric "sock" (or sock-less) poi--my first ever! Just in time for some sunshine spinning down at Folklife Festival in Seattle!

Next time I just have to buy the right kind of fabric. And make the hole bigger for the weight. And tie the thread off properly.

it continues

So, the gig is confirmed, and I'm the sword/staff person for a performance one week from tomorrow.

I built both a staff and sword this week and tried both. Each trial burn went better than I expected. With enough practice I could have enough performance-ready movement put together for at least a few minutes of stage time. It's still scary, though!

I haven't found any classes. I haven't traded movement tips with anyone. I've simply been exploring the movement possibilities of both props on my own, watching a lot of video clips, and asking Diane for all the feedback she can give. Surprisingly enough, these three ingredients make for some pretty strong learning.

I still want to work with someone better versed in sword and staff, however. I just don't think it will happen before next weekend.

If anyone out there is reading this, wish me luck! Maybe I'll bring my new fire props to a fire gathering sometime soon. I figure it's important to play as much as possible to balance all the work.

martial arts?

After a year of tech-ing, I have recently started to perform with Firebelly Productions, along with my wife Diane. I do poi, a bit of torches, and costumed roving character work. My wife does poi, fingers, torches, and hoop. She and I are also now training to stilt walk for a festival in Kelowna in mid-May. All of this means I get to perform in more and more ways, much more than I expected a year ago.

Now another gig has come up, this one in Prince George at the beginning of May, and once again I'm being called upon to do poi and torches and some tech. However, it's possible that in addition to the core group of three of us, someone else will be asked to come along to perform with sword, ideally, and possibly staff.

Instantly my mind was thrown into a whirlwind when I heard the news. I'm jealous, of course! I've started wondering, Couldn't *I* be that person? With some time and training, I'm sure I could be called upon to do either of those props. I just have to throw myself into learning them, much like I've done with stilts.

Except they aren't as easy as stilts, believe it or not, not if I want to look believable--strong, fast, and flowing. I've been watching countless videos of people performing with staff and sword. I've been trying to copy and practice what I've seen. I've started stretching and working out again in a way I haven't done for months. And.....I don't think any of this will be enough

I need training. This is the awareness I keep having to face. I need to find a school where I can begin learning a true form, not just over the course of several weeks before a show, but for some significant part of my lifetime. That prospect doesn't scare me, though. I can see this becoming a lifestyle shift. I can see myself becoming martial artist as well as dancer and performer. I just don't know where to start taking those first steps.

In the meantime I'm visiting the park every day, doing my best to discover what can be done with a sword, and practicing the few staff moves I know.

the best kind of lessons

My wife and I have been teaching a lot of private dance lessons lately, and we've started to develop a certain. . .preference. Of course, this isn't some kind of rule that can't be broken, and it won't always hold true, but at this point in time our experience speaks quite clearly with us.

We love teaching couples for their weddings!

Imagine it: they show up together with all the anxiety and dread and excitement you would expect from a couple planning on marriage and about to dive into dancing together. In some cases the woman has chosen to pursue dance, and in some cases the man has initiated things. What doesn't often change is their uncertainty--can they tackle this daunting new thing together?

They come to us already connected, their relationship already formed. They come to us with a certain level of comfort already in place. They have certain habits together, a unique style of interacting. Then they step onto the floor, and while they don't completely leave their old ways behind, still they're partially transformed. The one who dominated suddenly doubts, and the one who always gave in suddenly gets it and offers help. Then the connection goes deeper and domination no longer makes sense, and they discover that pure cooperation is not only helpful, it's essential. They must work together or else they'll stumble.

Of course, these lessons are true for anyone learning to dance with a partner. They're simply more pronounced when a couple--a serious couple, two people who plan to merge their lives--decide to learn.

One time the man told us he had nightmares before coming to the first lesson. When he left, he was beaming, and his fiancé told us she had learned a lot about communication. "It was a breakthrough day," they told us. Same for us. Any time we can touch other people's lives that deeply, we're fulfilled.

what? those?

It's that season again. The endless holiday music. The lights strung across window, branch, and eave (which I appreciate, actually, in this time of longer darkness). Gift giving. More of the omnipresent tunes. And cookies. Usually I make chocolate chip. No, seriously--that's the only kind I make. If I've made twenty batches in the last year, every single batch was a version of chocolate chip.

But suddenly I'm struck with this desperate craving not just to *eat* but to *make* those iced cut out sugar cookies that usually masquerade as trees and stick figures and Santa heads and snow people and more. Not simply make and nibble, but fully consume and savor. Something about that hardened icing with matte sheen that crinkles as you bite. Something about that crisp-edged cookie cutter shape with softness promised at the middle. It's all sugar and flour and fat and egg, but somehow it's lovely.

I don't own any cookie cutters. I've never once made this type of cookie before. Usually I'm quite fearless in the kitchen. But tonight? Tonight I venture into realms completely unknown. What shape? What color? Will I succeed? These questions and more fill me as I move to answer my need.

when the core suffers

I've been dancing a lot lately, though in a different form than I'm used to. The past three weeks involved almost daily rehearsal with my wife to prepare for a partner dance performance. Then I helped out with choreographic ideas for another piece. In both cases I dove into doing lifts without much previous preparation. I hadn't really worked out in quite some time.

Now I'm suffering. My lower back is in a lot of pain. I saw a physiotherapist today and he could tell right away that my pelvis was out of alignment. He did some realignment work and told me to avoid exericise for two days. I felt some release after the appointment, but the pain is still almost constant, not quite debilitating, and I've really had to slow down.

When the body's core suffers, so does everything else. At times like this I'm especially aware of the importance of basic fitness and strength. I can only imagine what it must be like for others who live with such pain, or worse, every day. It's terrible. It's beyond comprehension. Anyone with less mobility than I, but somehow as much or more optimism and mental strength.... amazes me.

Why don't I work out every day in order to avoid times like this? Why do I take my usual strength so thoroughly for granted? Pain eased is pain forgotten, that's why, and it's so easy to slip back into previous routines.

I'll do my best to rest for a few days. However, I can't avoid the fact that I teach dance tonight and poi on Friday and Saturday. Can't let my students down. The dances I would usually attend--Just Dance on Friday and swing on Saturday--may have to be postponed, though.