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we teach each other a lot of moves with the tools, but a lot our distinctive styles come from other disciplines..
what are your influences, and how do they affect your dance?
Capoeira, martial arts, bellydancing, thai Chi, aerial, acro - I've heard lots of stuff privately. tell us about it..
which skills go best with which tools? do people recognise where your moves came from? (that wiseass Captain Chaos over at I-K still calls me Baryshnikov whenever i see him, cuz he recognized a tierge-a-te (jump) borrowed from ballet.. I've been called worse though!)
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Re: firedance influences
Fri, November 7, 2003 - 1:50 PMGood topic, man.
My main influences are the Filipino martial arts (henceforth FMA), primarily Serrada Eskrima, Pikiti Tirsia Kali, and Villabrille Kali, with bits and pieces of others. Those names are probably meaningless to all but a few of you here, but these are all arts that involve a lot of training with two short sticks, and these techniques, often called "sinawali" translate well into playing with torches. I've also trained in various other martial arts styles, and have absorbed elements from those. Aside from playing with torches, the other cool thing I've done with the FMA derived stuff is flame swords - there are great FMA drills that involve two people clashing sticks or short swords. My friend and I have done it with torches (until one broke) and with cheap machetes that had slits cut into the back and wicks wrapped into them. The dramatic element of clashing swords at close range (the drills really look like you're about to kill one another if you're not familiar with them, much better than many movie swordfights) with the added element of fire is pretty awesome.
Greg -
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Re: firedance influences
Mon, November 10, 2003 - 2:34 PMI was a baton / flag twirler in high school, hence my love of the staff, plus I've done a lot of modern jazz and ballet which I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate with the staff. I'm still new to this, just started spinning staff shortly before burning man and have no real mentors near me to teach me, so I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants and hoping they don't catch on fire hahahaha -
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Re: firedance influences
Thu, November 13, 2003 - 1:02 PMI would say I am most influenced by Burlesque for my dancing.
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Re: firedance influences
Wed, November 19, 2003 - 2:46 AMLast year, right after I started spinning fire, I went to Thailand, where I met some young fire spinners in Bangkok. My style is largely influenced by what I saw there. They drew from pantomime and break dancing for some of their moves. Personally, fire spinning is really the first time I've been inspired and fallen in love with a particular type of movement, though I've played around a bit with devil sticks in the past, and I took classes in kabuki theater and modern dance in college.
Mostly, I find inspiration in other fire dancers and try to incorporate what I like of their styles into mine. -
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Re: firedance influences
Wed, November 26, 2003 - 2:44 PMI love to dance to industrial music...I think my style is influenced by that. Music makes a HUGE difference for me...I am very adaptable. I move hard to a hard beat, tribal to a tribal beat, Middle Eastern & Far Eastern bring out something different as well. Performing & creating shows has made me want to become more familiar with other disciplines like martial arts, sward fighting, hoolahooping so as to do them justice when I set them on fire.
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Re: firedance influences
Fri, December 5, 2003 - 9:51 PMDrunken boxing.
High speed projectile avoidance (elementary school dodge ball experience).
Gymnastics. -
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Re: firedance influences
Thu, February 5, 2004 - 8:07 PM"""High speed flaming projectile avoidance"""'
Ya that is pretty much my style as well just trying to keep my head from catching on fire.dooooooooooh.
I dont think I really have a root based style.I am not one of theese techicnal junkie spinners. I have a bout 8 moves with poi that look good and dont catch my hair on fire.
I move with the flame it kind of speaks to me when I lite up
and inspires my feeling on what to do with it .
I fall into the classification of "Rednecks cant dance" so I just make the flame bigger so I have more room to hide.
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Re: firedance influences
Sat, December 6, 2003 - 9:01 PMWhen I was but a wee lad, every time I'd pick up a broom, shovel, etc., I'd just instinctively start spinning it around. And of course, anything I could conceivably light on fire, I did.
Fast forward a few years... saw people spinning fire at Burning Man and thought, "Hey, I can do that!"
From then on, it was just a matter of getting a staff and messing around with it. I've never in my life taken a dance or martial arts class, so I guess my influense is something that comes purely from my soul. -
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Re: firedance influences
Wed, February 4, 2004 - 12:16 PM> When I was but a wee lad, every time I'd pick up a broom, shovel, etc., I'd just instinctively start spinning it around.
fire is really just a conduit for expressing our inner dork.
so saith our spiritual master: jedimaster.net/
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Re: firedance influences
Mon, December 8, 2003 - 4:36 PMballet and jazz, mostly. a little modern. I want to learn belly dancing so I can do fancier and more impressive isolations.
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Re: firedance influences
Wed, December 10, 2003 - 9:39 AMInitially my strongest influence was karate. When I first started learning poi, I was shown a couple basic things which I picked up quickly. I started playing with movements I learned with double sticks (sinawali as was mentioned above) and learned the weave before I even knew what it was! Now Tai Chi is my strongest influence. Trying to incorporate the concept of "wu wei" in my movement, essentially moving without effort, is now my focus.
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Re: firedance influences
Fri, December 12, 2003 - 9:09 PMmodern dance, tai chi, contact improv, bellydance. -
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Re: firedance influences
Sun, December 14, 2003 - 3:32 PMI have also experienced my martial arts background filtrating to my fire dance. My martial arts style is White Crane Silat(www.sfsilat.org) that has alot of flowing movement(that has martial application) but i use this with my fingers and fans for sure. Our group spun for the man for the first time this year(www.fireartscollective.com) and a friend said i wasn't sure it was you but then you busted a martial art move and i knew it was you. I am exploring and practicing a staff fight scene and it is going well. Using martial art stances and some principles of body movement has opened up many things for me in fire dance.
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Re: firedance influences
Wed, February 4, 2004 - 8:03 AMMy martial art is Jung SuWon (www.jsw.com) - a very traditional and spiritual form of tae kwon do. I've been told my style is very "athletic" and I think that's what people see.
Since then I've gotten interested in belly dance and derived a little music (and a lot of costuming!) from that. Yoga also - I'm getting into adding balance poses to my fire dance routines. :)
But pure fire dance came first. Now I'm just plain ol' addicted to movement!
-firepixie -
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Unsu...
Re: firedance influences
Wed, February 4, 2004 - 2:17 PMballet, gg allin, jazz, camanda galactica, iggy pop, DanYella, magmavox, and those boys in Bangkok that can spin.
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Re: firedance influences
Thu, February 5, 2004 - 8:40 AMI use a lot of African Dance when I do poi and fans. I also try to incoporate a lot of yoga and bellydance into all fire stuff that I do to keep it more interesting.
My friend Joanna teaches a poi class in which she teaches an American Tribal Style Poi routine. Same as ATS (like Fat Chance Bellydance or Domba!) but with poi moves as cues to move on to the next part. It looks absolutely amazing!!! it's like "improvised choreograpy" for poi. -
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Re: firedance influences
Thu, February 5, 2004 - 7:18 PMSOrry for the conversation interruption.
Mahira, you are in Tempe then?
I will be down there from Feb 13th to the 23rd. I am going to be teaching a Burlesque workshop at the Domba studio and staying with Sam (glaistig/Fyrae, Drazisca (sp??)/Domba).
I was working showing Ellisha to do the Tribal with poi at Rakkasah in October. Interesting that it is at the studio now. Nice.
Anyway, perhaps our paths will cross whilst I am down there.
As for my influences...what does not? I am trained in several forms of dance from Hula, to many styles of Bellydance, Burlesque to African, to Flamenco and Salsa, even Hip-Hop, Can-Can, Modern and Go-Go can be seen in my shows. I am extremely influenced by traditional american sideshows. I teach life rhythms, pilates, clowning skills and have done tai chi and yoga, which also have had an influence.
My background in theater and acting has had a profound effect on what I do and how I present.
Obviously things like juggling, balancing, any forms of object manipulation that I can wrap my brain around.
Music styles, rhythms, emotions...
Hell, I can be influenced walking down the street and seeing how something moves in the wind so I supposed I am not a good person to ask on this! lol
Regards,
Pele
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Re: firedance influences
Thu, February 5, 2004 - 12:42 PMMy first influences were Polynesian dancers
add salacious thoughts and the simple fact of my being curvy
and you have my style.
I have a bunch of (my) ethnic dance practice from my childhood that I'm starting to really identify with in my adulthood.
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Re: firedance influences
Sat, February 7, 2004 - 4:24 AMmy favorite influences for learning new skills-exotic dance, people to learn from, LACK of people to learn from, Burning Man, deviant sex, and really good acid.
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Re: firedance influences
Sun, February 8, 2004 - 9:30 PMNo specific influence, though I have taken various forms of dance, martial arts & in between those I guess is capoeira. The drums & music effects me a lot. I really like any kind of hand drumming. A tribal feel is always easy to move to. Also the atmosphere plays heavily in the mix. By the beach with a bit of wind & the sounds of the ocean, being on the sand, having a roaring fire lighting friendly faces & glowing smiles around definitely adds to the feel & the energy.
At first I wanted to say that being relatively new to spinning (compared to some of the spinners I've met) that I haven't had time to develop a style. But thinking deeper about it, I'm sure that I will always have many different feelings & movements as I progress.
"Variety is the spice of life"
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Re: firedance influences
Mon, February 9, 2004 - 1:08 PMMy biggest influence in my fire dance is the FIRE. I simply move with the fire (going with the flow). Although I have had extensive experience with movement in my life. At age 3 I was tumbling, by age 5 I was competing in gymnastics, at age 8 I began competative ice skating, in Theatre of Fine Arts Jr. High I got heavily into my dance training with ballet, jazz, and modern, in Performing Arts High School I continued dancing with a focus in African/tribal, Middle Eastern, Pointe, Salsa, Exstatic, Dirty Dancing, and anything else that would move me. And performing in various shows with various Dance Companies throughout the whole time. Recently, my influences have come from my meditations- Yoga, pilates, and Tai Chi. What can I say, I am a movement junkie. Movement is flow, continual transformation, a physical manifestation of our lives. And I am honored to be moving with one of the most powerful of the Universal Elements- FIRE!
