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Tuesday, 07 November 2006 |
Movement, Performance, and Instruction
I
started on the path to true expressive movement after attending my
first Burning Man in 1999 where I met a future collaborator, Kurt
Sonderregger, who, at the time, was promoting his new toy, the Zuni
Poi, the first of a slew of practical, colorful, and safe poi sets.
Together with several other friends we began practicing and performing
fire acts for events around The City under the troupe name 'Infinite
Kaos'. We began hosting a weekly gathering of 'flowsters' (folks who
play with instruments that bring them to a state of energetic
responsiveness) called 'Spin Jam'. We've been maintaining the weekly
event for nearly 6 years, helping to build, foster, and provide
community to the burdgening 'flow' movement. While informally giving
instruction for years, I began formal staff instruction in 2004 for the
Temple of Poi, branching off in 2005 to offer other movement
instruction and therapy.
One of the principle guiding forces for
me has been the self-instructional nature of 'flowing' (which I would
have called 'spinning' before- a word that always seemed strange). To
wield a flow instrument is to learn to listen to oneself. We can
recieve instruction and guidance from others, but only our body can
experience the sensations in the moment and learn to respond. This,
therefore, leads to deeper self-awareness on a physical and later a
metaphysical level. I learned to really trust what I was experiencing,
to learn to stop blocking the flow of energy around me. From that came
learning to truly guide and channel the energy, a place form which true
power comes.
This understanding of movement combined with my
exploratory nature brought me to examining more deeply the places in my
body that flowing took me. This eventually led to my practice of flow
stretching, with which I have overcome on several occasions injuries
sustained during less aware dance sessions (such as having people fall
on me in particularly vulnerable positions while doing contact improv).
Currently
I am working to build my movement business, while developing the
practices I have been creating. My most recent ongoing performance work
has been with Velocity Circus, doing performance and stage tech for
their shows.
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Myself 
