Forums > Social Chat > What makes a good twirler?

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 29th Jan 2001
Mmmmm. Good question. This is what I look for in a performer. I want to see good skills. I'm impressed enough with butch spinning, but that's not the most important thing. I want to see flow. I want to see a spinner get easily between tricks and works transitions as much as tricks. I want to see enough versatility that the spinner can do what the want in the moment and not get stuck. I want to see refinement. I want to see a spinner so smooth from practice that they work like they just fell out of bed doing that. I want to see passion. I want to see the pure love for what they're doing. I want to see them connect that with their audience. I want to see groove. I want to see them get down with their badass selves. I want to see invention. I want to see people pull tricks I never thought of and put it together in a way I could never imagine. Yeah, that's what I love about fire spinning. Thanks for asking. Diana

AnonymousPLATINUM Member

Posted: 30th Jan 2001
yep. i have to agree with diana! i have seen several technically excellent spinners, but they lack the passion, flow, whatever you'd like to call it, and their performances have always seemed very dry. i'm reminded of this documentary i watched several weeks ago on this french? ballerina- she was technically excellent, but what made her stand out in the ballet world (and to me from the clips of her dancing), was that she was extraordinarily passionate and threw herself into every performance that she did. the levels of technicality vary greatly in our troupe, and i always say, it's not so much how many moves you know, but how you look when you're spinning. the poi need to be an extension of your body, rather than things that you are trying to control. (at least in my humble opinion :-) )-flavio

Posted: 30th Jan 2001
I too agree! Yeah its great to see complex (sometimes painful looking) moves, but for me it is all about dancing but more so. Flowing moves, effortless, beautiful dancing with poi, the poi become an extension of your body, a further expression of whats inside yearning to get out. The other thing is that some moves which are really hard to get and are really complex, don't actually look that good in performance, your audience would not appreciate the difficulty anyway. If a performer can smoothly mix in what they know and move with passion and feeling, then thats cool with me. Even if someone only knows a few moves but does them with feeling and flow, then they can often be a better performer than someone who 'knows it all'.The difference between a good performer and a poi-technician can be vast. When I was 8 I did disco dancing lessons (don't laugh!) this was formulaic and structured and did not teach me how to dance. I learnt how to dance by closing my eyes and feeling the music for myself, plugging into the inner dance inside me.Feel it!------------------*burn-baby-burn-disko-inferno*

*burn-baby-burn-disko-inferno*

Posted: 30th Jan 2001
i couldn't agree more...and i am an excellent example of this - i can do a fair number of moves but when it comes to performing i am useless...i practise more that aspect now and don't bother so much with new moves (apart from the reverse btb weave...grrrrr someone help me plzzzzzzzzzz) but i practise more about putting it together...what surprises me on the 'new moves' forum is that we all post new moves and rarely post different transitions between moves or the ways you can enter a move - for me it's equally important as some of my moves are kind of 'isolated' from the rest so i never use them anyway when i perform... (you'll notice that sometimes more experienced performers describe the whole routine - what comes before and after the move - while the rest of us just worry too much about technical bits, maybe because we are not so fluent with the moves yet) - oh well it boils down to experience i guess... happy swinging,Simos [This message has been edited by Simos (edited 31 January 2001).]

Posted: 30th Jan 2001
I've been watching dancers of all kinds for a very long time, and what I find to be the most telling about the amount of time a person has spent practicing, is not their flashy bad-ass moves, but how smooth they are able to *transition* from one difficult move to the next. (To use swimming as ananalogy, are they hitting the wall, stopping, and turning around, OR are they doing flip-turns???) This measuring stick seems to work well for any kind of dance whether it be stripping or ballet. And I want to see them *feel* that funky music!So basically what I'm saying is the same as what everyone else just said. With different words. Thanks Diana for stating it so sucinctly.

Posted: 30th Jan 2001
I agree with everyone here on the flow and passion aspects completely. To me it is not the level of difficulty of the moves as much as it is the feeling I get off of the spectacle as I watch it. If it's a good feel that the performer is into, be it serene or upbeat, then I am wont to watch longer.To the passion and "flow" I would also like to add charisma. It is beautiful to watch someone do something they love, yes, but when they do something they love with the presence to share it with you, to show it to you in a way that makes you embrace what they do, to suck you into their world and their passions and to share that excitement...that,to me, makes a performance. As a Ren Faire performer (sorry to go back to that again) there is a very *strong* audience connection. If we don't connect, if we miss a beat or go into it thinking about our passion and enjoyment and forget that they are out there, they watch for a moment, get bored and walk away. Yet, when we open ourselves up to the audience, make eye contact between sets, small conversation before and after...make what we do intriguing and who we are endearing, it brings you, as the performer, and the audience closer together in this shared experience...and that is the point, it is a shared experience. That,IMHO, makes a performer of any sort amazing. Do I get penalized for excessive use of commas? ------------------Pele Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...[This message has been edited by Pele (edited 31 January 2001).]

Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir
"Oooh look! A pub!" -exclaimed after recovering from a stupid fall
"And for the decadence of art, nothing beats a roaring fire." -TMK