Learning outcomes
- Be able to adopt a disciplined approach to learning manipulation skills
- Be able to demonstrate manipulation skills
- Be able to select and organise manipulation skills into a performance
Fire staff
Creative inspiration: ‘Darkness Divine’
Odissi, Kathak and Bharatnatyam adavus (foot patterns) and mudras (hand gestures). Poses and posture of devadasi temple dancers (revered as a living symbol of the goddess’s shakti, or life-giving power, when the devadasi danced, she became the embodiment of the divine, intending to transform the space being danced in – in Indian classical dance every posture, every expression is considered an invocation to the Divine to incarnate, to be felt as a presence in the here and now of the dancer’s body.)
Nils Yalter’s artwork ‘The Headless Woman’ – contrast of covered face and eyes with exposed belly, appropriation of male symbols of fire and staff with an invocation of feminine power.
Movement inspirations
Tribal style and Indian fusion bellydance, notably the work of Rachel Brice, April Rose, Irina Akulenko and Moria Chappell
Costume
Tribal fusion bellydance but with a dark, post-apocalyptic mood – hood and ‘blindfold’? Mood board here
Music: New Orleans Bump by Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers
Contact staff skills required
- Forward and backward figure 8s, left and right
- Rotor in front (vertical) and above head (horizontal) – rotor transition behind back and overhead
- ‘Nunchuck’ pass underarm to underarm
- Neck roll
- Halo roll
- Roll up/down arms
- Head balance
- ‘Steve’
- Palm spin
Ribbon fans
Creative inspiration: ‘Spring Flow’
Light, flowing, springtime, colour, flowering, celebration of new life – light/soft/legato contrast to dark/hard/staccato energy of staff piece
Movement inspirations
Loie Fuller, Ruth St Denis, fan dances of Kyoto maiko/geiko, ritual celebration
Costume
Colourful, floral, flowing. Celebration of nature. Exaggerated makeup of Chinese opera. Mood board here.
Music: Tairyo-Bushi by Koichi Sugii
Fan manipulation skills required
- Forward and backward circles; synchronised/split time; turning
- Weave forward and backwards; turning; ‘big’ weave; lockout
- Butterfly; extended/’big’; lockout
- Spiral/helix figure 8 on horizontal plane; turning/moving
- Stall/wrap stop
New Tricks 