0130B: A Night of Fire and Lights

So last night we made our way to Planet Zips' 1st SpinDependence meet-up for the year at Arts in the City over at Fort Bonifacio. I didn't have a very clear idea of what to expect from the event apart from a poi performance or two. But dang, that totally didn't prepare me for what we were about to witness.

Upon arriving at the venue, the place was already pretty busy with activity with various poi enthusiasts and other artists practicing moves, warming up or just jamming on the side. And it was a very diverse set of folks including a few foreign guests and even kids spinning with the best of them. I have to admit that I got pretty excited, although I had no clear idea of where to begin in terms of my photo and video documentation efforts.

So yeah, it was all rather exciting and already I could feel it was going to be an amazing night.

Things kicked off with some very impressive contact juggling. And it wasn't just spheres being spun about like in the movie Labyrinth - he also deftly manipulated wands, rings and other items. But naturally the glass spheres was one of the routines that I found most interesting due to its largely geometric nature in terms of patterns formed. I wish I could handle items that well - I fear any efforts to learn would result in a lot of broken glass at my feet due to my lack of sufficient hand-eye coordination and fine motor control.

Then there were other routines including a beginners class with a pretty fun sock poi number, a fire levitation wand of sorts that was pretty hynoptic to watch and a guy who could plain a cello like an electric guitar. Totally awesome! And even outside of the "official" performances, just turning my camera to any corner of the venue would lead to me seeing some pretty cool tricks being done by other enthusiasts like this weird yo-yo style LED poi unit that was pretty nifty.

And yes, there was even tap dancing. You can poke fun at me now.

I did manage to put together a quick video of the assortment of performances. My apologies for the lack of light - the venue had rather subdued lighting.



And then there was this massive fire poi number with various instructors, visiting guests and other poi enthusiasts that really brought the house down. I mean seriously, I lost count of how many folks were performing in the central area at any one time, I just did my best to keep my video arm steady as I recorded as much as I could using my trusty Panasonic Lumix ZS7. I know it seems crazy to rely on a point-and-shoot still image camera for video, but you have to admit camera technology has come quite a long way since then. And the ZS7 has more than proved its worth in giving me some pretty great HD video.

I took two videos, each very close to 10 minutes long. Just remember that I was taking these videos without the aid of a tripod or monopod, so things do get a tad shaky in some bits. Plus I'm not exactly tall, so it becomes  bit tricky to take video above everyone else's heads as they watch the performance as well. Still, it's worth enjoying, right?







So yeah, overall it was an amazing experience and I'm glad that Prince invited me and Tobie to join him for the event. Plus we got to meet a few of his friends and mentors in the poi community, which also felt pretty nice. Of course it was even more fun for some of his friends to already recognize us as "the babies" based on our pet names over Facebook. Funny!

We had to cut our stay short since it was off to O Bar Ortigas for Prince's Saturday night gig. And O Bar is never a bad thing since we certainly had our fair share of fun despite some weird snafu involving the O Diva roster for the night. What was more interesting was how Rupert decided to not just ply us with shots of tequila, but he also treated us to quite a small feast of food in terms of fish crackers, mixed sausages and even some very delicious fried chicken! Crazy!

So yeah, we still had a pretty good time and were rather tired by the end of the night.

On a side note, yesterday felt like the three of us have crossed yet another key milestone in terms of this budding relationship. It's hard to describe, but it just seemed like we had a lot less inhibitions between us and maybe even a little less emotional baggage. Starting any kind of a relationship is never easy - it'll always involve a lot of hard work and dedication as we all hold to the commitment we made just over a month ago. But I do feel that we're making some very real progress as we let go of the past, lower our guards a bit more and learn to be a cohesive unit. And sometime in the past 24+ hours, I think we made a big step in that direction. And needless to say, it feels really good.


Obviously, I feel we have even bigger things for us beyond the horizon. And I can't wait to get there with Tobie and Prince by my side.
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Comments

  1. THIS IS SUCH A COOL BLOG! THANKS ALSO FOR THE VIDEOS! WE DIDN'T MIND OF ITS QUALITY...IT'S STILL AWESOME! THANKS SO MUCH!

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    1. Aww, thanks so much for the blog love! Very appreciated. =)

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