• orbital, entering from left side — 35% success
• orbital, entering from right side – never, yet
• airwrap, clockwise — 45% success
• airwrap, counter clockwise – 30%
• BF, kick tap reversal into airwrap — 50/50 on which way is better but both are still at 20% success
• BTB same direction CAP turn around — left turn much stronger than right turn at this point
• Ronin hybrid 9/3 (L) CAP with (R) pendulum
• “cactus”
• jedi stalls with one hand btb
• waist wrap jedi — left is still so lame – i mean improving
• jedi both behind the back

The doctors said piano definitely needed to go. So poof, there it was — my first form of communication and self-expression and my primary language out the door.

I then found poi, 2 years later, which became my second form of self expression.

I’ve done more to change the art form (and world) through poi in 10 years than I did with piano in 25.

Recently my RSI has been so bad that I wonder if I will need to give up Poi as well and not only do I feel the pain in my body from the RSI, I feel the deep pain in my soul caused by the fear and real possibility of that outcome.

I’m even more connected to it now because I just saw Billy Joel (and elton john) in concert. BJ was the largest influence in my life as I grew up as an idol, role model, artist, composer, musician and of course, pianist. I’m painfully aware of my deep, deep, deep well of sadness for the loss of that aspect of myself (pianist) right now even as I confront the possibility of having to lose another aspect of myself (poi artist).

So here I am… raw, scared, vulnerable and in pain…

I’ve been on vacation this week — quite an interesting experience in and of itself. That, alas, for another post. This post is dedicated to the fun poi-la-hoop practice I had on the 25th (shortly after my 40th birthday) to “Tom Sawyer” remixed by Z-Trip. Fun, fun, fun! You can download it through the Temple of Poi podcast or see it below through YouTube if you prefer. In addition, I had a really fun set with my flag poi which you can also see through the Temple of Poi podcast or through the YouTube link below. The Temple of Poi Blog has a listing of the moves being practice, in case you want more details.

The good news is I’m moving the upstairs studio — the one with less usable space, lower ceilings, a leaky ceiling and higher rent — to a new location at 10th and Mission into my friend Decker’s place where he uses the space for the Authentic programs. It is bigger and nicer, so teaching wise, this is a huge step up. In fact, this studio will be larger than the main studio I’ve used for 7 years and I’m still keeping at the 953 Mission location. And, it is currently housing my piano, so I get to be reunited with it.

I’m also renting an office there so and I’ll have a home base and some flexibility with chilling there in the evenings during the week.

I don’t really have my housing sorted fully so if you have something to offer, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I’m going to get a hotel room for the weekend of the expo (April 23-27) simply so I can maintain my sanity, then fire drums is the next weekend (April 30 to May 3) so I’m out of town, then I am trying to arrange a trip to Dallas for workshops the following weekend (May 8-11).  I go to Chicago to be with a friend who is doing chemo on the 12th of May and stay there for a workshop over that weekend until the 18th. So a lot of fun travel. 

I will then have a housesit (I hope, still securing this) for end of May through mid August, so it’s only a month of really crazy I guess. At that point it is my hope that James/Hunter and I move in together into a space. We’ll see what unfolds though.

With respect to the Temple, classes will begin in the new space the week of May 13 and this is really exciting because now I have an awesome space to throw Flow Jams in, so you can expect more of them to come.

July 3, 2006

July 4, 2009

July 6, 2006

July 7, 2006

July 8, 2006

July 10, 2006

July 11, 2006

July 12, 2006

July 17, 2006

July 18, 2006

July 19, 2006

July 24, 2006

July 26, 2006

July 27, 2006

July 28, 2006

July 31, 2006

- inverted thread the needle (mike)
- inside weave (noel)
- 1.5 weave
- pendulum weave
- tangle
- hyperloop
- airwrap
- inverted weave
- infinite weave
- split time flower 2×1 big/little petal
- hybrid antispin butterfly
- uhs bfly with lockout on side in split time.

I have for years considered doing Arete. First, because of a completion party I was at (also my first professionally paid fire dancing gig) at which I met Travis. At the party, Marcella came up to me and said something that I would categorize now as poignantly honest. It was some insight about my social awkwardness and it was delivered with such innocence and love, it really made me curious about the Arete experience. You see, Marcella was answering my question about Arete, “What is it?”

Bryan did it, then Travis. Then a series of people I really respect and love. Then I felt pressured to do it. Then I felt judged at some point — I’m sure it was my hallucination. Then I felt on the outside. Then I wasn’t hanging out with so many folks in the Arete community. Then I returned to see many from that community who thought I had done it.

I’ve had an interesting relationship with attending and not attending for at least 5 years now. What strikes me about it is the idea of “being open” and what that means.

My greatest sense of openness shows up for me when I play with flow toys. Over the years, I’ve been integrating that flow into the rest of my life, working towards greater openness… Sensing that was better for me somehow but not really knowing why.

The past 36 hours has been fairly packed and intense for me. It included having the great pleasure of celebrating the inspirational life of a dear friend as well as the amazing gift of educating a 14 year young woman who flew in with her uncle to take a poi intensive with me.

The experiences was touching and concluded with me getting to witness Aria perform a little piece of choreography, most of which she couldn’t do 36 hours ago. Then her uncle Joey gave me a gift.

It was wrapped in brown paper with GlitterGirl written on it and there was a heart over the “I” — I was touched by that because I just decided how to sign “isa” on paper in the past few weeks: I am putting a heart as the “dot” on the “I”.

I walked out of the building with the beautiful gift and got swept up into a hilarious series of misunderstandings with a good friend resulting in the unexpected expenditure of about $50. I thought that was a bummer.

Yet I maintained a good spirit, stayed in my center pretty well (at least by self-to-self comparison) and, to my great joy, remained open. I found my way home finally and kicked back to open the gift.

It is a beautiful book called Wisdom: 365 Thoughts from Indian Masters by Danielle and Olivier Foolmi.

I didn’t notice at first, but there was a very beautiful thank you note and tip inside the book on the page with today’s date on it. The amount? $50. Perfection I thought.

And then it got better. I sat there reading some of the quotes, thinking how awesome Joey was and reflecting on the craziness of the last 36 hours of my life.

Then I intentionally made myself open — for the first time in my life I recall feeling completely at choice about my ability to open, particularly in the face of lots of things that in the past would have had me close.

Because of this, my understanding of openness has completely shifted… I realized it as I was reading a passage (“In nature, action and reaction are continuous. Everything is connected to everything else. No one part, nothing, is isolated. Everything is linked and interdependent. Everywhere everything is connected to everything else. Each question receives the correct answer” – Svami Prajnanpad) of Wisdom:

Being able to choose openness in every moment is freedom.

It is the freedom to choose to remain open when I might otherwise unconsciously close. I imagine it must be enlightenment.

I also can see so clearly so many ways in which I resist opening — like resisting Arete for so long. . . which I am grateful I will be doing in May.

I arrived at the site and within minutes fell in a construction ditch (about a 4-5 foot blind drop — didn’t see the hole because it was dark) while surveying the performance area on the other side of the construction zone. The client led us there, in case you’re wondering.

I sprained my finger (and put more pressure on the finger I had two days earlier dislocated in practice for a show I’m doing) and sustains some bruises and abrasions on my rather ample butt. Apart from that, I walked away from the accident laughing about it. It was, objectively, funny even if my subjective experience included injury, pain and discomfort. Surveying the situation, I consider myself lucky in that I could have fallen onto some rebar or broken my leg or twisted my ankle and had some really serious injuries.

Anyway, the client hadn’t provided an appropriate area for managing our fuel and set us up in the neighbors driveway — fairly close to the ditch I fell in with the performance area just on the other side of that. The neighbor was understandably upset and confronted us — he was not pleased we had fuel in his lot near wood and was naturally concerned that an accident might lead to a fire. So after setting up and getting everything ready for our first performance (this means soaking all our tools which we’d passed through the construction area to our safety person), we had to pack up our gear and move
it to the sidewalk in the front of the house.

By this point, we’d missed the performance window — we were supposed to go on for our first set before midnight but the delays made this impossible. Some time later we performed our first set using live music rather than the music I had spent 5 hours editing for our intended show. The tools wouldn’t light well at that point. Why? The fuel had evaporated because we’d been waiting so long.

Our second set was more of the same, with the client refusing to tell the DJ to play our music when the DJ wouldn’t do so. During the second set, I slipped on the carpet outside — a wet green leaf got under my shoe. I’m told I made it look like a break dancing move. Not bad for a sore girl with swollen fingers and a bruised bottom.

While we did not perform the show we’d intended, we did perform an amazing show and earned ~15% tip from the client.

In the 5 years I have been a professional fire dancer I have never had a client fail to meet so many of the agreements of our contract nor have I had an experience laden with so many difficulties.

Upon reflection, it seems like a blessed experience. Those who witnessed my first fall indicated they were concerned they would be transporting me to SF General — not just the client, but the other dancers and witnesses present. I then performed two fabulous sets in the face of all sorts of opposition and earned a tip from the client.

I imagine 10 years ago I might have looked at this experience as a sign that the new year would be fraught with challenges — a “bad sign” about the things to come.

Now, thankfully, my world is different. I was inspired becayse as we were leaving the venue, one witness went so far as to say I must be a special being to be able to walk away laughing from something like that when I could have ended up injured in the hospital, let alone performing the way I had.

I am grateful to say it seems more natural for me to view this event as a sign that the new year will be filled with the ability to flow through challenges and walk away with a smile on my face, laughter in my voice, and abundance in my pocket… even in the face of obstacles that quite literally will drag me down than the less positive perspective I might have had 10
years ago.

What I learned I offer you now as follows:

May 2007 bring you all you desire, including the resources to laugh when you are down, the strength to pick yourself up and keep going in the face of that which you hadn’t planned being foist upon you, the will to move through the pain that can sometimes stop you in your tracks and the capacity to remind yourself just how great a joy all that you have really is.