I grew up and live in NZ. It's great to see somone who didn't grow up with the culture respect and acknolledge it as it relates to new art forms the world around🙂
Thank you! By the way my Maori poi teacher sent me your videos, and I use your videos often! We do the traditional Maori poi that you describe but we use your techniques to help us learn and master the basics, and the rest of our class has benefitted too. :-) thank you for all you do!
I’m Māori and you explained it well. Thank you for acknowledging us and the origins of poi. It is a beautiful art form and has been used by Māori for a very long time and is still a strong tradition of our culture today. You are correct in saying Māori poi is generally a group performance in what we call a ‘Kapa Haka’ performance. Kapa Haka consists of several songs and chants, typically including at least one song with poi, a haka, an ancestral chant, action songs and choral songs. Kapa haka is a group performance that represents many things including who we (the performing group) are, where we come from, our people, our lands, our culture and allows us to pay respects and give honour to both our ancestors and descendants. It is a very near and dear Māori tradition, connecting us strongly to our Māori roots but is also a fun art form that we hold competitions for. I highly recommend watching a full Kapa Haka performance, many available here on YT (about 20-30min each). It is always amazing to see whether you are Māori or not :) Thank you
but is (contemporary) Poi really Maori? Or is just the name the same? Whats your view as Maori Poi Artist on this? Can you envision a path to develop Maori Poi into contemporary Poi? How would that part look like?
Love it! No corrections needed. Awesome! I think you really nailed the description of Maori Poi. It's definitely a group/ teamwork item which means that all the performers need to get their timing, direction and speed right. That takes lots of rehearsal but it also means food, chats and laughter. Its definitely about telling a story with the poi, having a theme or topic of importance with the movements, foot patterns and the song enhancing it. Nowadays the group choreography is pretty full on with lots of movement and multiple vertical levels etc. It takes alot of coordination and rehearsal to make sure noone crashes into each other as they're moving around the stage. Alot of the poi moves are particular to a certain group so even in Maori poi there are different styles of poi. Another difference is the weight of the poi. It is very, very light and soft. I can send you a pair if you wish. Theres also short and long poi styles. Also single and double poi and the hardest move of all is of course the double long poi butterfly toss going into a kneel down, until you are lying down...whilst maintaining the butterfly. I'm not sure what style I fit into. I like classical, Russian and poi dance fusion. I also like contact poi and tosses. I would like to be able to move freely and gracefully as well as have clean intricate, interesting poi shapes. I am looking at incorporating groundwork into it which is more of a martial arts based movement possibly fused with polynesian dance....just because. Ive always thought it would be cool to see a group of 10-20 performers incorporating flow arts and fire into their performance....can you imagine that....the discipline, focus and energy if a group....putting it into the universe🙏🌺
Having been consuming massive amounts of your content lately, I feel bad for previously thinking that you were all about tech. Your dance is top notch and the integration of tech is something I aspire to work towards. I have been a very dance oriented spinner and I think for a good while I was avoiding learning a lot of the tougher tech stuff just coasting on the path of least resistance. As of late I've had a renewed vigor to improve my poi flow and you have been probably the biggest inspiration. Thank you for everything you do. I'm going to be checking into your Patreon and seeing about signing up as patron very soon.
I think I fit into the last category. I've been learning veil poi during lockdown following your tutorials. I'm at a point where I'm trying to crack upwards stalls. Love your videos x
"unlocking the potential of the poi as an expressive instrument" I do want to appreciate that these categories are not separate! Dance poi fusion completely relies on and elaborates on the other categories! Theyre all gorgeous, important, and working together to inspire each other constantly!
Hey man, as a Maori man myself, I just want to say that the respect you showed the roots is appreciated and wonderful. On top of that, your pronunciation of "Maori" is pretty damn good! You roll your R's very well! Great vid.
My Poi school for sure is poi/dance fusion. I use my poi to do more emotional expression. i like to be able to move my body around and not feel so stuck in one place. I also use my poi as a puppyhammer vs individually and i found it lets me be more expressive and mobile.
As someone who has only recently began my poi journey again, after spinning religiously from 2009 - 2013 or so, I am AMAZED with how much has changed. I remember seeing Tech become a thing, and then had stopped right around when everyone was beginning to spin with Contact Poi but was still watching some of what the community was doing... But wow, I missed out on so much, and cannot wait to learn more.
I'd say glowstringing is it's own school, usually with an emphasis on string manipulation, tracing, and speed. :) If you've never checked out string manipulation, there's a LOT to unpack there.
That’s been suggested here by others as well and I’m definitely open to them being included here. Glowstringing absolutely has a very unique vocabulary that would warrant its distinction as a unique school. The part that I’m curious about is whether glowstringers want to be seen as poi spinners. Do they themselves see their position as being under this umbrella or do they tend to see themselves as distinct? Maybe we should run a poll in one of the glowstringing groups!
As a glowstringer first I love doing poi. We are in the same area. I use both in the art. Lot's of work crosses over to each other. Glow stringing gets very technical too.
Of course everything doesn't have to have a label, but it sure is helpful to dig into a style that calls to me if I know what to call it. I also love knowing about the history behind what I'm doing, so this was great. I want to particularly thank you for including the Maori as the roots. So many people completely ignore that and I think acknowledging their foundational contribution is important.
Thanks for acknowledging the roots of poi. In NZ we grow up spinning poi and get told that poi was originally used by Maori men to limber up their wrists for the purposes of spinning taiaha (similar to spears). It’s great to see how inventive global spinners are.
You brought up a Dance fusion type of Poi. I saw a young lady at EDC 2018 Las Vegas incorporating Shuffle dancing with body contact Poi. It was amazing.
Drex, such a great video! It's so cool that you've been around long enough to have seen these styles develop! I've been learning with all your videos just the past 2 months, and through it all, I can't help seeing all the parallels between poi and jazz: You learn lots of elements, perhaps even from various schools, and then use whatever you fancy in your own improvisation. But with poi, I can actually flow TO improvisational music, like jazz... HELL YEAH I feel like this video is really what I needed to further my own spinning beyond the beginner/intermediate level. You've made me realize that, just like with jazz, after you learn enough of the fundamentals you should really focus on learning to flow. And it's understanding and appreciating the "schools" and "styles" that really allow us to make something beautiful, instead of just doing something technical. It's also what makes practice and improvement that much more enjoyable! I also really like your teaching style of exposing the more advanced concepts early on, acknowledging they will take some time, but that's it's better to start sooner than later. I've found your intros to Extensions / Pendulums / Hybrids / Antibrids so helpful there, and I can't believe how far I've gotten already. Keep rocking and pioneering in Dance Fusion! Also 11:17 holy shiet
Nice high level overview Drex. I started with classical, dabbled in some tech, and got into some throws, slingers etc later on until badly breaking my leg a couple years ago and quitting the hobby. Looking back, I used to always be motivated by the next thing being "cool" and not the old stuff anymore. It boils down to what I consider the definition of cool: "Something that is different, but not 'too' different.", that's one of the reasons I think as to why the evolution into new styles is always so slow. What is 'cool' now though IMO, and will probably remain so for quite a while is stuff like flips. I saw some contact staff mixed with cartwheels and the likes and it's just the coolest thing since sliced bread. Makes me wish I wasn't 37 and so focused on career now so I could get into that.
Dance Poi Fusion is definitely what resonates with me. I am very new to using poi, but it feels natural to me to use the poi in this way. Thank you very much for making this video as it has helped to give me an idea of how to explore the poi in a more suitable way for my style.
Thank you so much for your video! 🥰 I simply loved it and when it came into poi/dancefusion I just felt like home ❤. What I find as a dancer, I feel like poi is making my dance being even more than what it was. I can't even put it into words but I feel it expands it and gives it such a beautiful new flavour ❤. I'm still quite in the beginning of my poi & flow art journey but I simply love it! 💕
Drex thankyou for your video, I have recently discovered poi a few days ago. I have been dancing, shuffling if you will and I've always thought I'm never doing enough with my arms. I want to practice poi and start to implement it with my shuffling. So very exciting and I can't wait to get into practicing with the help of your videos.
Well, those who know me know exactly what box I would fit most snugly in xD I think there's an interesting distinction between hobbyist variants of all of these and performer/professional variants. I.E the Russian-Performer is typically incredibly mobile and dance-oriented. The manipulation-hobbyists do amazing looking things to our trained poi spinner eyes and more. But, the manipulation-performer (Like Cyrille and Kieth among others) put more of a beautiful/elegant twist on it all. They're also much more body motion oriented than the hobbyist type. Just enjoying the exercise and I agree with your disclaimer: nothing stated here is a fact and would crumble upon argument. It's just entertaining.
For sure...and as someone pointed out in response to another post several weeks ago you can have sloppy and elegant individual performers that fit into each category. You can have excellent and poor spinners that fit into each category. The hope here was to create boxes wherein no matter where someone fit in that spectrum that they could be said to be chasing the same goal as someone on the opposite end.
I don't think pro / hobbyist differences are as valid as you say. The differences are generally about the level of proficiency - like, if you have the juggling part down smack, you have time to add dance. If you're still working up to a pro level in juggling, you'll be concentrating on that... But sometimes, adding more motion is not part of the plan at all. I know a Russian style performer whose whole style is defined by this extremely masculine, firm control and measured movements - both of his body and the poi. He reminds me of a wizard or a vampire or something similar when he plays. Not dance oriented at all - almost tech-tree-like, but it doesn't feel lacking. There's this feeling that more movement or dancing would take something away from his performance, not add something.
I am still super new but thank you for breaking this down. It makes me think about my “style” and what practice I think works best for me. But overall I think I will need to try a little bit of each to see.
I loved this video, Drex. I think of poi styles as being heavily influenced by how you learned to spin most of your moves. For instance, my background was in martial arts and a wide range of dexterity toys and props. So I naturally developed a unique perspective on the connections between types prop movements exploring home of poi. I eventually learned most of my tricks from you here on TH-cam, so most of my tricks have fallen into classic style, with a dash of tech poi and a dash of poi dance fusion. But I incorporate some aggressive bounces, some tether-linking for more meteor style spinning/rope dart/puppy hammer, and tosses since I'm an amateur juggler. I think you left off glowsticking / rave culture flow styles.
Thank you for that overview on styles and schools. I am the old-school classical still trying to wrap my head around the tech tricks my new group is doing. But I really like the dance fusion-style and will learn a bit more about that...
Hello, I would love to find and follow the artists you mention from 11:30 onward, who are they? Both the ones mentioned and the videos you included if they are not the same?
I appreciate the greater distinction between styles. I was always just aware of the spectrum between "tech" and "flow". Of which I definitely fall into the latter.
Who was the fresh black dude doing the pop an lock, dance fusion poi. His style next level an resonates with my style. If you can get me his name so i can follow him it would be awesome. Nice video btw. Was sure where you were going to take it but it was well done...
Ty! As soon as Drex mentioned dance fusion, I knew we were gonna see a clip of him. I don't know everybody producing online content, but I haven't seen anyone quite like him. I know Drex said that tech skills aren't necessarily the focus in fusion styles, but Ty's poi skills are stupid good, and the way he combines it with dance takes his stuff to some really sweet places. Cassaundra Smyth is another one who brings some great tech skills and sweet dance, but where she and others often move back and forth between dancey bits and high-tech poi work, Ty blends them to where he's doing some wicked techy 3-poi sequence while also seriously getting down with the dance at the same time, and it's extremely rad.
My style is classical but definitely am in love with tech and Russian style!Im really enjoy mixing up everything i know to hopefully create my own unique flow.I love tosses also.
Iv remember a few years after I moved from glow stringing to poi the prevailing philosophies that I saw were flow vs technical. Where flowers and other tech style movements were the focus where as technical was all about the wraps and was an extension of flow stringing in many ways.
I'm totally dance fusion! I waited this whole video and was like meh... what about people who dance like me? Then you said how it's your favorite too! Yay!!! Such an inspiration!!!
As a kiwi I had no idea people out of nz used pois till I started traveling since then I've trying to get as good as possible and bring these styles home
Hi, I’ve just found out about you! With the dance poi, tribal Bellydance and classical use poi, flag poi, silks, and i know there is a bit of fire in there too. Thanks for all your information.
Siempre que menciono que soy malabarista (muy pocos por acá conocen el poi), lo hago no sin algo de extrañeza, porque no me siento un malabarista en sí. Cuando miro las coreografías de los artistas marciales o ciertos bailarines me identifico más. Y hasta me siento desencajado con los manipuladores de pelotas, clavas, aros y demás. Se podría decir que mi estilo está entre la danza y lo ruso, siempre priorizando el desplazamiento, el vértigo y la estética antes que la complejidad de los trucos. Esto no quiere decir que no busque trucos difíciles, pero la idea no es esa a la hora de jugar. Muchas gracias por el vídeo.
12:36 ...I also think that is kind of cool!! I love the poi/dance fusion and I was expecting that last school to be it. It is my favourite and the reason I started POI spinning in the first place! I love the beautiful shapes and I also like tech poi and the body tracing movements. I just started though so I still have to learn many things (my poi spinning is 1 month old).
Maori can be used to make sound to keep rythum if you had a group together adding short poi and Reed, beed skirts you would have sound made with the movements. Adding the singing or chants with the hakas used today, is a beautiful look and sound
Thank you so much for this video Drex! I'd like to get into poi so I've been watching a bunch of your videos. Just hopped over to your website and saw that you offer classes in the DC area!! I am overjoyed!
This was nice. I kinda mix between poi/dance and classic but I also started 15 years ago and stopped spinning when I stopped raving. Then as a drag performer I started dancing with poi in my numbers
I think you are missing out on the 7th school of poi. In the 6th the combination of "dance tricks" and "poi tricks" happened. The 7th school however has found out, that in order to create natural dance movement you have to abandon the concept of tricks. In the same way as dancing is not about tricks but about certain micro movements which then get tangled into each other by intuition/improvisation. Therefore the movement of poi becomes a quick alternating movement where you will be unable to define a certain movement as a trick since it happened once and will most likely never happen again. Unfortunatly, I know of no other poi artist then myself being able to persue this school as it requires intensive knowledge about tech style in order to know what movements you can put together by hearth, as well as russian style so you are clean enough to be able to do exactly what you want to do. Most people who have achieved theses skills are already set with their particular school and it is therefore very unlikely for them to change.
Poi work outs. Turning the weaves back and forth with deep leg lunges. Then roll them up, do a bunch or cartwheels, then do big fountains with heavy poi...superset that core workout.
Maori is the style that got me Interested and still use today I love my poi made by mana Polynesia. And learned to make my own in the traditional style of the maori ( just not with NZ phlox lol)
Great question and honestly I think there are several different approaches to partner poi that would fit under various categories outlined here. Lots of people know some basic partner weaves and the like that would certainly fit under the Classic style while a lot of more contemporary work geared toward working on harder tricks I would certainly place under the Tech Poi style (think Cory and Alicia and some of the work of David and Sonali). In addition, David and Sonali have done a lot of work that I'd consider to fall into the Circus/Manipulation style with plenty of tosses and technical transfers. Katya Stakanova and her husband have certainly done a lot of work making super clean partner pieces in the Russian style. As for the dance/poi fusion style, there's an old Zan and Aurora piece that I think fits this category as well as a partner poi piece that I wrote with my old partner Morgan that has a strong ballet and contemporary modern influence to it. So basically all of them ;)
Thanks for this video, so informative! I'm new to poi, and I actually chose to start it as I want to integrate it to my belly dance :) Also the way we learn fan veils in belly dance is very similar!
under rated video. another vid could be about the level of difficulty of each style (6 easy - 1 hard) Moari: 6 (I really wouldn't know I'm judging on the video) Classical: 5 (Everyone starts here) Dance: 4 (Anyone can get loose even with simple tricks but skill level can vastly differ here) Russian: 3 (Probably where I'm at) Tech: 2 (I struggle with these tricks) Circus: 1 (Not a good juggler and can't sustain 3 poi) Whats your opinion? :) happy spinning!!
I think that grading them by difficulty is a little misleading because at the time each school was created, its vocabulary consisted of the most difficult stuff for the time. Some of those schools continued to diversify and innovate over time and some didn't...but for the time I think all were difficult. I don't feel comfortable assigning a difficulty level to Maori Poi because I have never tried to learn how to do it, so I'd be working without context. But if I were to make some comparisons? I think I'd grade Circus and Dance at equal difficulty levels. Sure, you can get loose with different tricks, but being good at dance? There's an old adage in the Modern Dance world that it takes ten years to truly make a dancer and I think that's accurate. It takes an astonishing amount of time and effort to do what, say, Ty Roachford can with his body and poi at the same time. I think the Russian and Classical styles are approximately equally difficult in terms of time spent learning tricks and proper display of them. They're also the two closest schools in terms of style so I don't think this is surprising. Tech via slop? Not that hard. Clean Tech? Incredibly hard.
Jeez after watching this I'm not sure where to place my style. I just started a couple months ago and so far I'm really into one handed bends and doing some weird twisting around my hand/wrist.
All great info! I found that i fit into (or play) in a few different styles; i guess it depends on what music I'm twirling to - i bet others are like this, too..🤔 (classic/ Russian/ fusion)
I kind of aspire to the Russian school, but I'm really not there yet... :) Thankfully I have two good friends who are absolute wizards with poi, so I have inspiration and guidance.
I'm thinking this is a little more complex than I originally thought it was. My daughter gave me a quick poi lesson a couple of days ago, and it was kind of fun. Normally she does swords (sometimes flaming), but picked up poi a year or two ago.
really enjoyed this. what were the names of the some of the people whose styles were mentioned? I couldn't catch them and and would love to watch. or if anybody wants to link their favourite artists below, that would be cool!
Nice vid. Very well scripted and articulated. I have actually been wondering about this recently, as all these new kids and their manips make me feel old lol. So I've been considering myself "old school". But by your definition I guess I'd fall into Russian style tech poi, I love super clean body tracers and stalls while exploring interesting pathways to execute them. I think you may have missed acrobatic poi? Though not many people are doing this, it definitely exists. My bestie Elliot Walton has been known to do meltdown B-Twists, 1 hand spiral wrap aerials for example. As acrobatics is a far cry from dance I believe it warrants it's category, despite being very rare.
I just got into fire dancing about 2 weeks ago an di would say that I fit into the final school of fire poi. I will dance to anything from dababy to the allman brothers to ganja white night.
who is the spinner at 9:48 and where can i find her full video. I found a channel by a woman who I believe is the same person but I couldn't find the source of this particular video clip..
The school that fits best to my style is Russian school, though I am not from that region. And sooo funny, as you pointed out, I am also completely resistant to contact poi.
I’m trying to mix styles to create my own my goal is to mix flo and tech so I guess classical on steroids is what I’m going for although I love the bounces and wraps of the Maori
anybody knows abt the artist he's mentioning? I just can't catch the names, particulary interested for the dance fusion artist. all i got writen down is laura leo, thomas nevison johanson, tay roachwoth and zu shutova XDDD can somebody enlighten me pls
Interesting question! I'd more or less place him in the classical school with the proviso that he represents some of the connective tissue in the evolution between the classic and Russian schools, just like Yuta and Thomas Johanssen.
I grew up and live in NZ. It's great to see somone who didn't grow up with the culture respect and acknolledge it as it relates to new art forms the world around🙂
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Thank you! By the way my Maori poi teacher sent me your videos, and I use your videos often! We do the traditional Maori poi that you describe but we use your techniques to help us learn and master the basics, and the rest of our class has benefitted too. :-) thank you for all you do!
That is incredible and really touching to hear! 😊
I’m Māori and you explained it well. Thank you for acknowledging us and the origins of poi. It is a beautiful art form and has been used by Māori for a very long time and is still a strong tradition of our culture today. You are correct in saying Māori poi is generally a group performance in what we call a ‘Kapa Haka’ performance. Kapa Haka consists of several songs and chants, typically including at least one song with poi, a haka, an ancestral chant, action songs and choral songs. Kapa haka is a group performance that represents many things including who we (the performing group) are, where we come from, our people, our lands, our culture and allows us to pay respects and give honour to both our ancestors and descendants. It is a very near and dear Māori tradition, connecting us strongly to our Māori roots but is also a fun art form that we hold competitions for. I highly recommend watching a full Kapa Haka performance, many available here on YT (about 20-30min each). It is always amazing to see whether you are Māori or not :) Thank you
but is (contemporary) Poi really Maori? Or is just the name the same? Whats your view as Maori Poi Artist on this? Can you envision a path to develop Maori Poi into contemporary Poi? How would that part look like?
Love it! No corrections needed.
Awesome! I think you really nailed the description of Maori Poi. It's definitely a group/ teamwork item which means that all the performers need to get their timing, direction and speed right. That takes lots of rehearsal but it also means food, chats and laughter. Its definitely about telling a story with the poi, having a theme or topic of importance with the movements, foot patterns and the song enhancing it. Nowadays the group choreography is pretty full on with lots of movement and multiple vertical levels etc. It takes alot of coordination and rehearsal to make sure noone crashes into each other as they're moving around the stage.
Alot of the poi moves are particular to a certain group so even in Maori poi there are different styles of poi. Another difference is the weight of the poi. It is very, very light and soft. I can send you a pair if you wish. Theres also short and long poi styles. Also single and double poi and the hardest move of all is of course the double long poi butterfly toss going into a kneel down, until you are lying down...whilst maintaining the butterfly.
I'm not sure what style I fit into. I like classical, Russian and poi dance fusion. I also like contact poi and tosses. I would like to be able to move freely and gracefully as well as have clean intricate, interesting poi shapes. I am looking at incorporating groundwork into it which is more of a martial arts based movement possibly fused with polynesian dance....just because.
Ive always thought it would be cool to see a group of 10-20 performers incorporating flow arts and fire into their performance....can you imagine that....the discipline, focus and energy if a group....putting it into the universe🙏🌺
so interesting! I didn't realise how new the new styles were -what a poi-gression!
Me too! I haven't realized there were many new styles as well! ( :D I got it. That was funny (: )
I love puns
As a dad this is top tier
🤣😂🤗
Having been consuming massive amounts of your content lately, I feel bad for previously thinking that you were all about tech. Your dance is top notch and the integration of tech is something I aspire to work towards. I have been a very dance oriented spinner and I think for a good while I was avoiding learning a lot of the tougher tech stuff just coasting on the path of least resistance. As of late I've had a renewed vigor to improve my poi flow and you have been probably the biggest inspiration. Thank you for everything you do. I'm going to be checking into your Patreon and seeing about signing up as patron very soon.
I think I fit into the last category. I've been learning veil poi during lockdown following your tutorials. I'm at a point where I'm trying to crack upwards stalls. Love your videos x
Thanks so much and keep up the hard work! Can't wait to see where that journey takes you :)
"unlocking the potential of the poi as an expressive instrument" I do want to appreciate that these categories are not separate! Dance poi fusion completely relies on and elaborates on the other categories! Theyre all gorgeous, important, and working together to inspire each other constantly!
I spin Maori style! It’s really nice to see it on your channel.
Hey man, as a Maori man myself, I just want to say that the respect you showed the roots is appreciated and wonderful. On top of that, your pronunciation of "Maori" is pretty damn good! You roll your R's very well! Great vid.
My Poi school for sure is poi/dance fusion. I use my poi to do more emotional expression. i like to be able to move my body around and not feel so stuck in one place. I also use my poi as a puppyhammer vs individually and i found it lets me be more expressive and mobile.
Me too!!
As someone who has only recently began my poi journey again, after spinning religiously from 2009 - 2013 or so, I am AMAZED with how much has changed. I remember seeing Tech become a thing, and then had stopped right around when everyone was beginning to spin with Contact Poi but was still watching some of what the community was doing... But wow, I missed out on so much, and cannot wait to learn more.
I'd say glowstringing is it's own school, usually with an emphasis on string manipulation, tracing, and speed. :)
If you've never checked out string manipulation, there's a LOT to unpack there.
That’s been suggested here by others as well and I’m definitely open to them being included here. Glowstringing absolutely has a very unique vocabulary that would warrant its distinction as a unique school. The part that I’m curious about is whether glowstringers want to be seen as poi spinners. Do they themselves see their position as being under this umbrella or do they tend to see themselves as distinct? Maybe we should run a poll in one of the glowstringing groups!
As a glowstringer first I love doing poi. We are in the same area. I use both in the art. Lot's of work crosses over to each other. Glow stringing gets very technical too.
Just so you know. I started glow sticking in the 90s. I am so old now. LoL . But poi has been letting me keep my youth and mobility
Of course everything doesn't have to have a label, but it sure is helpful to dig into a style that calls to me if I know what to call it. I also love knowing about the history behind what I'm doing, so this was great.
I want to particularly thank you for including the Maori as the roots. So many people completely ignore that and I think acknowledging their foundational contribution is important.
Thanks for acknowledging the roots of poi. In NZ we grow up spinning poi and get told that poi was originally used by Maori men to limber up their wrists for the purposes of spinning taiaha (similar to spears). It’s great to see how inventive global spinners are.
You brought up a Dance fusion type of Poi. I saw a young lady at EDC 2018 Las Vegas incorporating Shuffle dancing with body contact Poi. It was amazing.
Drex, such a great video!
It's so cool that you've been around long enough to have seen these styles develop!
I've been learning with all your videos just the past 2 months, and through it all, I can't help seeing all the parallels between poi and jazz: You learn lots of elements, perhaps even from various schools, and then use whatever you fancy in your own improvisation. But with poi, I can actually flow TO improvisational music, like jazz... HELL YEAH
I feel like this video is really what I needed to further my own spinning beyond the beginner/intermediate level. You've made me realize that, just like with jazz, after you learn enough of the fundamentals you should really focus on learning to flow. And it's understanding and appreciating the "schools" and "styles" that really allow us to make something beautiful, instead of just doing something technical. It's also what makes practice and improvement that much more enjoyable!
I also really like your teaching style of exposing the more advanced concepts early on, acknowledging they will take some time, but that's it's better to start sooner than later. I've found your intros to Extensions / Pendulums / Hybrids / Antibrids so helpful there, and I can't believe how far I've gotten already.
Keep rocking and pioneering in Dance Fusion!
Also 11:17 holy shiet
Yes! 11:17 scared me too... :-) that was insane!
Nice high level overview Drex.
I started with classical, dabbled in some tech, and got into some throws, slingers etc later on until badly breaking my leg a couple years ago and quitting the hobby.
Looking back, I used to always be motivated by the next thing being "cool" and not the old stuff anymore.
It boils down to what I consider the definition of cool: "Something that is different, but not 'too' different.", that's one of the reasons I think as to why the evolution into new styles is always so slow.
What is 'cool' now though IMO, and will probably remain so for quite a while is stuff like flips. I saw some contact staff mixed with cartwheels and the likes and it's just the coolest thing since sliced bread. Makes me wish I wasn't 37 and so focused on career now so I could get into that.
Broooooo, your amazing and I appreciate you! Russian steeze has gotta be my fav! I love that strive for perfection!
I fit into poi/dance fusion.....I've been a belly dancer for years and recently picked up poi, and I Love it! Thanks for the great videos🤩
Dance Poi Fusion is definitely what resonates with me. I am very new to using poi, but it feels natural to me to use the poi in this way. Thank you very much for making this video as it has helped to give me an idea of how to explore the poi in a more suitable way for my style.
Right off the bat with the acknowledgement of roots. Love you!
Thank you so much for your video! 🥰 I simply loved it and when it came into poi/dancefusion I just felt like home ❤. What I find as a dancer, I feel like poi is making my dance being even more than what it was. I can't even put it into words but I feel it expands it and gives it such a beautiful new flavour ❤. I'm still quite in the beginning of my poi & flow art journey but I simply love it! 💕
I would say i resonate the most with the tech and Russian poi spinning
Drex thankyou for your video, I have recently discovered poi a few days ago. I have been dancing, shuffling if you will and I've always thought I'm never doing enough with my arms. I want to practice poi and start to implement it with my shuffling. So very exciting and I can't wait to get into practicing with the help of your videos.
Just discovered this art. Thanks for the great primer!
Well, those who know me know exactly what box I would fit most snugly in xD
I think there's an interesting distinction between hobbyist variants of all of these and performer/professional variants.
I.E the Russian-Performer is typically incredibly mobile and dance-oriented.
The manipulation-hobbyists do amazing looking things to our trained poi spinner eyes and more.
But, the manipulation-performer (Like Cyrille and Kieth among others) put more of a beautiful/elegant twist on it all. They're also much more body motion oriented than the hobbyist type.
Just enjoying the exercise and I agree with your disclaimer: nothing stated here is a fact and would crumble upon argument. It's just entertaining.
For sure...and as someone pointed out in response to another post several weeks ago you can have sloppy and elegant individual performers that fit into each category. You can have excellent and poor spinners that fit into each category. The hope here was to create boxes wherein no matter where someone fit in that spectrum that they could be said to be chasing the same goal as someone on the opposite end.
I don't think pro / hobbyist differences are as valid as you say. The differences are generally about the level of proficiency - like, if you have the juggling part down smack, you have time to add dance. If you're still working up to a pro level in juggling, you'll be concentrating on that... But sometimes, adding more motion is not part of the plan at all.
I know a Russian style performer whose whole style is defined by this extremely masculine, firm control and measured movements - both of his body and the poi. He reminds me of a wizard or a vampire or something similar when he plays. Not dance oriented at all - almost tech-tree-like, but it doesn't feel lacking. There's this feeling that more movement or dancing would take something away from his performance, not add something.
Loved this!!! Cant believe you made it through Russian without mentioning Timmehtek. Blows my mind every day...
Amazing content. Started with poi couple month ago, so happy to do it! Thank You so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. ♡
I am still super new but thank you for breaking this down. It makes me think about my “style” and what practice I think works best for me. But overall I think I will need to try a little bit of each to see.
I loved this video, Drex.
I think of poi styles as being heavily influenced by how you learned to spin most of your moves.
For instance, my background was in martial arts and a wide range of dexterity toys and props. So I naturally developed a unique perspective on the connections between types prop movements exploring home of poi. I eventually learned most of my tricks from you here on TH-cam, so most of my tricks have fallen into classic style, with a dash of tech poi and a dash of poi dance fusion. But I incorporate some aggressive bounces, some tether-linking for more meteor style spinning/rope dart/puppy hammer, and tosses since I'm an amateur juggler.
I think you left off glowsticking / rave culture flow styles.
Thank you for that overview on styles and schools. I am the old-school classical still trying to wrap my head around the tech tricks my new group is doing. But I really like the dance fusion-style and will learn a bit more about that...
Hello, I would love to find and follow the artists you mention from 11:30 onward, who are they? Both the ones mentioned and the videos you included if they are not the same?
I appreciate the greater distinction between styles. I was always just aware of the spectrum between "tech" and "flow". Of which I definitely fall into the latter.
Who was the fresh black dude doing the pop an lock, dance fusion poi. His style next level an resonates with my style. If you can get me his name so i can follow him it would be awesome. Nice video btw. Was sure where you were going to take it but it was well done...
That's Ty! He goes by TyFoods on TH-cam and Instagram.
Ty! As soon as Drex mentioned dance fusion, I knew we were gonna see a clip of him. I don't know everybody producing online content, but I haven't seen anyone quite like him. I know Drex said that tech skills aren't necessarily the focus in fusion styles, but Ty's poi skills are stupid good, and the way he combines it with dance takes his stuff to some really sweet places. Cassaundra Smyth is another one who brings some great tech skills and sweet dance, but where she and others often move back and forth between dancey bits and high-tech poi work, Ty blends them to where he's doing some wicked techy 3-poi sequence while also seriously getting down with the dance at the same time, and it's extremely rad.
My style is classical but definitely am in love with tech and Russian style!Im really enjoy mixing up everything i know to hopefully create my own unique flow.I love tosses also.
Iv remember a few years after I moved from glow stringing to poi the prevailing philosophies that I saw were flow vs technical. Where flowers and other tech style movements were the focus where as technical was all about the wraps and was an extension of flow stringing in many ways.
This is such a great video Drex! Thanks for sharing!
I'm totally dance fusion! I waited this whole video and was like meh... what about people who dance like me? Then you said how it's your favorite too! Yay!!! Such an inspiration!!!
This was really informative. Thank you
So interesting, and confirming too! I can now name the styles that influence me - classical and tech trees - I like 'big' flow
Tongan psychonaut here, great to see someone recognising the Poly roots of poi ❤
Soooo fascinating. Thank you for making this!
As a kiwi I had no idea people out of nz used pois till I started traveling since then I've trying to get as good as possible and bring these styles home
Hi, I’ve just found out about you! With the dance poi, tribal Bellydance and classical use poi, flag poi, silks, and i know there is a bit of fire in there too. Thanks for all your information.
Siempre que menciono que soy malabarista (muy pocos por acá conocen el poi), lo hago no sin algo de extrañeza, porque no me siento un malabarista en sí. Cuando miro las coreografías de los artistas marciales o ciertos bailarines me identifico más. Y hasta me siento desencajado con los manipuladores de pelotas, clavas, aros y demás. Se podría decir que mi estilo está entre la danza y lo ruso, siempre priorizando el desplazamiento, el vértigo y la estética antes que la complejidad de los trucos. Esto no quiere decir que no busque trucos difíciles, pero la idea no es esa a la hora de jugar. Muchas gracias por el vídeo.
12:36 ...I also think that is kind of cool!! I love the poi/dance fusion and I was expecting that last school to be it. It is my favourite and the reason I started POI spinning in the first place! I love the beautiful shapes and I also like tech poi and the body tracing movements. I just started though so I still have to learn many things (my poi spinning is 1 month old).
Maori can be used to make sound to keep rythum if you had a group together adding short poi and Reed, beed skirts you would have sound made with the movements. Adding the singing or chants with the hakas used today, is a beautiful look and sound
But also hoops, staff, wand, poi, sticks, juggling, whips, orbitals, flags, silks, fans, kabuki, fire there’s just so much to cover.
Interesting classification. Thanks!
Glad you liked it!
AWESOME video, Drex! Thank you!
super kool video. thanks for making this!
Thank you so much for this video Drex! I'd like to get into poi so I've been watching a bunch of your videos. Just hopped over to your website and saw that you offer classes in the DC area!! I am overjoyed!
This was nice. I kinda mix between poi/dance and classic but I also started 15 years ago and stopped spinning when I stopped raving. Then as a drag performer I started dancing with poi in my numbers
Nice to see that snipet of Burning Dan.
Yeah...when I was putting together my list of b-roll to go hunt I definitely thought of Dan almost right away for that section. We miss you, Dan!
I think you are missing out on the 7th school of poi. In the 6th the combination of "dance tricks" and "poi tricks" happened. The 7th school however has found out, that in order to create natural dance movement you have to abandon the concept of tricks. In the same way as dancing is not about tricks but about certain micro movements which then get tangled into each other by intuition/improvisation. Therefore the movement of poi becomes a quick alternating movement where you will be unable to define a certain movement as a trick since it happened once and will most likely never happen again.
Unfortunatly, I know of no other poi artist then myself being able to persue this school as it requires intensive knowledge about tech style in order to know what movements you can put together by hearth, as well as russian style so you are clean enough to be able to do exactly what you want to do.
Most people who have achieved theses skills are already set with their particular school and it is therefore very unlikely for them to change.
Poi work outs. Turning the weaves back and forth with deep leg lunges. Then roll them up, do a bunch or cartwheels, then do big fountains with heavy poi...superset that core workout.
Maori is the style that got me Interested and still use today I love my poi made by mana Polynesia. And learned to make my own in the traditional style of the maori ( just not with NZ phlox lol)
Great approach as always! Where would you locate partner poi in your school of thoughts?
Great question and honestly I think there are several different approaches to partner poi that would fit under various categories outlined here. Lots of people know some basic partner weaves and the like that would certainly fit under the Classic style while a lot of more contemporary work geared toward working on harder tricks I would certainly place under the Tech Poi style (think Cory and Alicia and some of the work of David and Sonali). In addition, David and Sonali have done a lot of work that I'd consider to fall into the Circus/Manipulation style with plenty of tosses and technical transfers. Katya Stakanova and her husband have certainly done a lot of work making super clean partner pieces in the Russian style. As for the dance/poi fusion style, there's an old Zan and Aurora piece that I think fits this category as well as a partner poi piece that I wrote with my old partner Morgan that has a strong ballet and contemporary modern influence to it. So basically all of them ;)
I would definitely fit in the dance fusion school of poi. I like using my Greek dance heritage when I spin
Thanks for this video, so informative! I'm new to poi, and I actually chose to start it as I want to integrate it to my belly dance :) Also the way we learn fan veils in belly dance is very similar!
under rated video. another vid could be about the level of difficulty of each style
(6 easy - 1 hard)
Moari: 6 (I really wouldn't know I'm judging on the video)
Classical: 5 (Everyone starts here)
Dance: 4 (Anyone can get loose even with simple tricks but skill level can vastly differ here)
Russian: 3 (Probably where I'm at)
Tech: 2 (I struggle with these tricks)
Circus: 1 (Not a good juggler and can't sustain 3 poi)
Whats your opinion? :) happy spinning!!
I think that grading them by difficulty is a little misleading because at the time each school was created, its vocabulary consisted of the most difficult stuff for the time. Some of those schools continued to diversify and innovate over time and some didn't...but for the time I think all were difficult. I don't feel comfortable assigning a difficulty level to Maori Poi because I have never tried to learn how to do it, so I'd be working without context.
But if I were to make some comparisons? I think I'd grade Circus and Dance at equal difficulty levels. Sure, you can get loose with different tricks, but being good at dance? There's an old adage in the Modern Dance world that it takes ten years to truly make a dancer and I think that's accurate. It takes an astonishing amount of time and effort to do what, say, Ty Roachford can with his body and poi at the same time.
I think the Russian and Classical styles are approximately equally difficult in terms of time spent learning tricks and proper display of them. They're also the two closest schools in terms of style so I don't think this is surprising.
Tech via slop? Not that hard. Clean Tech? Incredibly hard.
You're a very humble dude. Cheers from Argentina. :)
Jeez after watching this I'm not sure where to place my style. I just started a couple months ago and so far I'm really into one handed bends and doing some weird twisting around my hand/wrist.
All great info! I found that i fit into (or play) in a few different styles; i guess it depends on what music I'm twirling to - i bet others are like this, too..🤔 (classic/ Russian/ fusion)
I kind of aspire to the Russian school, but I'm really not there yet... :) Thankfully I have two good friends who are absolute wizards with poi, so I have inspiration and guidance.
Poi whip...I just picked it up last yr.. classical style with a twist? What's ur opinion drex?
That was remarkably helpful.
Is glowsticking not included because you consider it not poi, or because you think it overlaps with another style?
What about the "Glowsticking" classic 90's style, heavy on wraps kind of stuff. I say this as someone who spins in this style.
Thanks for all the content durin.g these times. You are the man
I'm just barely getting into poi and I definitely think I fall more into the school of dance when I am just flowing.
Watching the first style made me envision that style with a meteor rope prop thing. A more up beat rope dart to poi combo
I'm thinking this is a little more complex than I originally thought it was. My daughter gave me a quick poi lesson a couple of days ago, and it was kind of fun. Normally she does swords (sometimes flaming), but picked up poi a year or two ago.
really enjoyed this. what were the names of the some of the people whose styles were mentioned? I couldn't catch them and and would love to watch. or if anybody wants to link their favourite artists below, that would be cool!
Tech poi is my favorite and that i want to learn.
Great history lesson.
Now quick question have u tried veil poi
Nice vid. Very well scripted and articulated. I have actually been wondering about this recently, as all these new kids and their manips make me feel old lol. So I've been considering myself "old school". But by your definition I guess I'd fall into Russian style tech poi, I love super clean body tracers and stalls while exploring interesting pathways to execute them.
I think you may have missed acrobatic poi? Though not many people are doing this, it definitely exists. My bestie Elliot Walton has been known to do meltdown B-Twists, 1 hand spiral wrap aerials for example. As acrobatics is a far cry from dance I believe it warrants it's category, despite being very rare.
I just got into fire dancing about 2 weeks ago an di would say that I fit into the final school of fire poi. I will dance to anything from dababy to the allman brothers to ganja white night.
Fantastic breakdown, thanks!
love the shirt!! where is it from?
But what about glowsticking?
Amazingly to see how poi spinning has evolved since I dropped out of it in 2010 🤔
who is the spinner at 9:48 and where can i find her full video. I found a channel by a woman who I believe is the same person but I couldn't find the source of this particular video clip..
That’s Katya Stakanova. You can find her work in Instagram at instagram.com/one_day_spin
Fire poi came from our brothers in Hawai'i too
The school that fits best to my style is Russian school, though I am not from that region. And sooo funny, as you pointed out, I am also completely resistant to contact poi.
I’m trying to mix styles to create my own my goal is to mix flo and tech so I guess classical on steroids is what I’m going for although I love the bounces and wraps of the Maori
I am the classical poi learner because my goal is doing poi with fire but it is far, I have to practice a lot😊
Ty!
Love your videos!
This was so neat!
anybody knows abt the artist he's mentioning? I just can't catch the names, particulary interested for the dance fusion artist. all i got writen down is laura leo, thomas nevison johanson, tay roachwoth and zu shutova XDDD can somebody enlighten me pls
Excellent Breakdown!
Thank you!
Love this video!
I LOVE THIS VIDEOOO
Awsome video!
Where would Ronan McLoughlin be placed in these schools?
Interesting question! I'd more or less place him in the classical school with the proviso that he represents some of the connective tissue in the evolution between the classic and Russian schools, just like Yuta and Thomas Johanssen.
so classical poi is like jazz?
You guys know who is the spinster at 9:49 ?
My searches have yielded nothing
Late answer but Katya Stakanova (one_day_spin on Instagram). She has some nice body tracing tutorials :)
@@luisero9475 Very much appreciated Luise! Always looking for nice body tracers