Seraphina Fire and Cirque du Soleil!

Haven't been blogging much... wanted to post a quick update and picture of our performance with Cirque. Vegas Fire Dancers has blossomed into a new troupe!
Seraphina Fire: Luminous Dance
We were contacted almost immediately after our site went live and performed for the Springs Preserve opening with Cirque du Soleil, here we are with the other wonderful fire performers we got to work with:


The site will be updated shortly, to add our newest dancers and a calender of events....well, that's my short-winded update.
Hope to have more to report soon!

New site.. new happenings...

...new beginnings!

We have a baby troupe forming, the site can be seen here:
Vegas Fire Dance

Official practice starts on Sunday, and we have a video shoot planned for Wed. March 28th. We're still in the early stages, but we have many great ideas... here's hoping!

still kicking

I've compiled some of my older footage into videos and I finally got a YouTube account, so yay.
Armoured Raven on YouTube.

I also recently purchased this new dvd, Scales of Poi and I highly recommend it!
That's about it for now, I just remembered this thing was here, heh.

*brrrr*

It's been cold, rainy, and windy... and I'm a wuss. So needless to say it's been a while since fire dance has happened around here. That is all.

btb news

Well the bad news is, I've been doing the btb weave wrong this whole time. Damn. I really though I had it nailed, I have no clue what it is I'm doing, and it looks pretty cool, but btb weave it ain't. Ah well. The good news though, is that I have happily finally figured out the waistrwrap and the btb waistrap. I've also finally nailed the 5 bt weave in reverse. So yay... now to just get that darn btb weave.
*SIGH*
It feels like I'll just NEVER get that one.

Poi Fusion -Video

Oookay, I had time to get some video made...
and made a nifty graphic to go with it ^_^

Link to Video (6MB)

I compiled the video from a few different takes including some bits on the mainstage, so it's a bit choppy but it's finally done! The two stages found in the link are the main stage and our own stage at our encampment (Endless Productions), they had a great sound system at the main stage, so I left the original sound, our sound system sounded terrible on the video, so I used the original sound file.. again, a bit choppy, but it blended better than I expected... anyways... Choreography, and the designs on the costume, jewelry and flag poi are all mine, all mine. :D

Yes, I was nervous and my isolations went to poopie, but it was a great experience and loads of fun!

Fire Fans

I performed with fire fans for the first time this past weekend at Faire. Oh. Yeah. Baby. I'm hooked. They are so beautiful and fun to work. And they blend WELL with bellydance. Mmmmm, yay.
All went well at faire, I performed my solo on the mainstage and didn't fall off headfirst, that's always good. Not much else new to report, the photos from faire are here, Las Vegas, Age of Chivalry 2005 ...we didn't have any cameras going for the fire show unfortunately, so it'll be a bit longer before I have much to show there. Ummm, so yeah... that's about it.

Faire's around the corner and btb is MINE!

Fire spinning sessions have been more frequent, I have some pictures and video I will try to upload soon.
Ren Faire is almost here... only about 6 weeks left of practice and I still have yet to get my solo choreographed. So that's what I'm doing tonight...but I had to take a break after konking myself in the chin with my freaking huuuge rope monkey fists. Ow. But the whack was worth it, I have btb down pat now... no more wondering!
I'm there, yo.

Update, because it's been a bit.

I've received my fire performer card renewal and we're planning a trip to NM in a week or so... I wonder if my card does me any good out of state? I'm a registered performer with the Nevada Fire Marshal, but does that do me squat outside of Nevada? Hmmmm. I would like to have footage at White Sands, and there's a few other spots I wouldn't mind shooting some video at as well. It will probably have to be sans the fire, but I will definitely have to see what I can get away with.

In other news, it looks as though I will be performing with fire this year at faire, the troupe will be on the main stage at points too, I'm pushing to do fire up there as well. I've been working on choreography for the bellydance/fire poi fusion thing, but as of now it's all freestyle. Still must work on the courage thing, once I light up my technique goes out the window. So lately I've been swinging the poi around while doing my basic practice sessions in dance, getting that muscle-memory fine-tuned and all that jazz.

Bellydancer on Fire

Here's some fire dancing in full costume.
http://www.ravenrings.com/gallery/fire/video/arbdfire5-26-05.wmv (22MB)

It's mainly just practicing and such, I have found lots of fun ways to incorporate the chains with bellydance but unfortunately I chicken out when I light up, heh. Hopefully once the moves are more programmed into my muscle memory I can pull it off on fire, but for now, I do this. :}
And I do so need to find a more interesting location to shoot, but other than that I'm kind of happy with it...

More Video

I got this new video proggie that is very unfriendly, but I'm figuring it out slowly...so here's my first attempt with it, I played with settings and stuff, tried out various features, so forgive what appears to be changes in picture quality, it's both a mixture of the different angles used on the camera and (mainly) me playing with contrast and such. I figure it's better if it's a bit grainy but you can actually see more than just a couple of light spots moving around in a dark screen. :P

http://www.ravenrings.com/gallery/fire/video/arfire05-24-05.wmv
...right click, save as... :}

GIG

I graduated to larger wicks last night, now we're swinging with power! :P I wasn't nearly as intimidated by the larger flames as I was worried I would be, and I even pulled off some of the newer moves I have been developing to integrate into bellydance routines. The reason for all this bravery is the gig I've been booked for on the 28th..as of Saturday I will officially be a 'professional' fire dancer. I've performed here and there for small groups of friends and such, but this will be my first paid gig, booked by an outside source. I'll be performing with 2 other girls from my troupe for a couple of dances, then I will have a fire dance solo with poi, and we will be doing the fire dance from faire which requires me to eat one torch. The funniest thing is, I'm more nervous about my costume and the bellydance routines than I am about my fire solo. Though the fire eating has me a bit unraveled as well.

Wind! The wind!

Curses... every time we've planned a fire session the winds decide to have a parade through our neighborhood. It' s blowing like crazy out there! Yet another night of spinning inside and longing for fire. *sigh*

Iso, my love.

I found some excellent videos at HoP that show off iso's, I just didn't fathom the possibilities! I have found a new love, now I must court her and ask her to marry me.... oh Isolations, won't you be mine? :P

BTB Weave!

YAAAAAY! I *just* finally got the behind the back weave figured out! Weee!
It's a serious shoulder and forearm workout (ouchie!), along with other pains and bruises...I had been trying to get it with my practice poi, but it has metal hardware holding the poi balls on and i kept whacking my hand with it, which was causing some painful and ugly welts , making me severely gun shy, and consequently keeping me from really trying to do the trick right. So tonight I whipped out the poi made from socks that the kids use, altered them a bit for me, and within the hour I had the two beat weave down solid on both sides. I can do the three beat too, I can't get past one full rotation, but I own it now so it won't be long. *squee!*

Finally, some video :}

I've finally figured out how to capture and upload video without the file size being a bazillion megs, so here it is!
http://www.ravenrings.com/gallery/fire/video/arfire420-05.wmv
Right click, save as... ^_^

isolations

I have been trying to get isolations for months and months, and no one has been able to tell me how to do them. I have searched forums, the internet and asked friends but the best I could get was that you, "just find them". Even my friend Matthew, who is *excellent* at teaching moves couldn't seem to explain it to me. Well, I "just found them" tonight. I stink, and I have a long way to go, but I have found the concept, and dangit I think it actually *can* be explained.

What I "found" tonight:
If you take a reverse butterfly and pull the circles away from each other out and up, but stop controlling the strings, jut let the poi swing from it's own momentum, you will feel the beginning of what isolations feel like. Now try this concept with a buzzsaw. Start a buzzsaw, then stop "trying" to do the trick, just let go and let the poi's momentum take over. Then start to move your hands "around" the balls. I could be wrong on some of this, I just discovered the sensation a few minutes ago after trying (again) for several hours to find it. But it's what I have to go on so far, and I just wanted to document it.

Dang these are cool!

so. yeah.

Lest I forget why I'm happily skipping away from this job... I work as safety under a guy who drops his lit fire props on the stage during a show, then after fire is cut *still* manages to cause safety issues by shattering the plastic glo-poi leaving bits of plastic for the barefoot dancers to step on. And does all this without really showing much concern or remorse. We *knew* it was just a matter of time before he would hit the casket with the poi. I am SO grateful that it was after the fire was already cut, and it was just glo-poi. And I really think he's clueless as to why folks are upset with him. The dropping of fire and the shattering of plastic are really just the bigger issues, when we still had fire breathing he would get slippery wax all over the stage, he uses a match to light the torches, and apparently just throws the match down onto the stage when he's done with it. I could go on and on, but the point here is that he does this to himself. If he was more careful and more aware of what to do and what *not* to do, he wouldn't be having the problems that he's currently having.

Notice was given at the perfect time, had we waited it would have seemed as though it was only because of his screw-ups...now it comes across as more of, "I told you so." Heh.

The new girl

The girl I recommended as our replacement came in to "shadow" tonight. I explained the basics of the job as we went, and I started realizing just how much I really do in there. I had never noticed how much of my job consisted of "mind reading", but whatever they need, I'm always right there with it. Usually stepping way outside of the role of "safety" and more into the role of a general assistant. No wonder they don't want us to go!
I laid out all the baggage of the job to her, just so there are no surprises or false pretenses. If she takes the gig, she needs to be aware of all the crap that comes with it. We have a girl that sets up her dressing area right next to ours who's been coughing like crazy. Tonight she was coughing so hard that she kept gagging into the trash. She's a really great girl, and she's not fussing about it at all, even claims it's no big deal. But the fumes will get to everyone eventually, I have no doubts about that.
Oh, and one of the girls just found out she's pregnant, which is really awesome. She's going to make a most excellent mother. But this means they are losing yet another girl. I'll miss these guys, and I think it more every night I work . I won't miss the job, the fumes, that *damn can* or the stress, but I think when it's all over I will look back fondly. Heck, when enough time goes by I'll probably even wonder why I left. Ha!

...I can do better.

This guy needs to add some snazz to the fire spinning. If it was my gig, I'd spend less time trying to come up with crazy stunts and more time coming up with kick-ass choreography. In fact, I *do* spend more time coming up with choreography. And even with the time I spend fine-tuning my style, and finding new ways to link moves, I'm still constantly feeling like there's more out there. At least I'll have my act together by Faire, then the spotlight will be mine all mine. Huzzah.