| 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. |
