We've wrapped up our third annual Swiss Poi Retreat at the Balmeggberg! It was great fun -- spinning, sauna, and yummy organic food.

Check out our Swiss Poi Retreats album on Flickr for some beautiful photos, and see our vlog from a day of training and play below!

Setting up Poi Headquarters in a lush tropical country can be interesting...

A quick update on the project! Vlog #3 coming soon!

The second blog as we continue to map poi in Bali!

Check out this beautiful video from our recent poi retreat in Bali, produced by the lovely Karen :)

I write from a plane to Toronto, exhausted, inspired, and happy.

Alien Jon (contender for world's greatest poi artist), Dan and Teafaerie from flowtemple.org, and Baz just visited me in Costa Rica for 2 weeks. It was great. They were helper elves for the last Costa Rica poi retreat, and then we spent a week shooting photos and videos, playing poi everywhere, and sharing our visions of the future of poi and the flow arts.

I haven't felt this inspired for ages, or so much part of a team. We think the flow arts are currently too scattered between websites, communities, countries, etc. We want to offer tools that allow the community to better share ideas and inspiration, and to better organize events of all kinds. We have some great ideas of how to do this, but I don't want to say much more until we have something to show you.

2 weeks wasn't enough. We will gather again in Europe, at the EJC, to make more inspirational and instructional videos, to get more people involved, and to further plot the resources we want to develop. We'll also make a lot more fun videos of course, and we have some great ideas for leading workshops and events together. Few things would make me happier than having other people to do all this with :)

I encourage everyone to hook up with Alien Jon's workshops and Flowtemple.org if conceivably possible. I can't come to the USA for another 1.5 years, but trust me, these guys have as much to offer as I do, and if you go to their events and classes, that helps them come visit me so we can do cool things for you!

Jocelyn and I flew to Singapore for several days to get new Visas, to visit our friend Johari, and to make use of high-speed internet and telephones that work. Singapore is fun if you have a friend to show you around.

Synopsis: I have flown the lovely and talented Jocelyn to Bali to help me produce new poi DVDs and a whole lot of videos for the website. We'll be here until mid-August, brainstorming, writing, plotting, researching, filming, etc. Did you know that I wish to slowly become a cult-celebrity filmmaker? Well now you do. I tend to learn by doing, so here we go...

Synopsis: Bali is one of the world's best kept secrets. Don't tell anyone.

I love it here, except for the bad driving and bad internet, both of which are great for my emotional-control practices, so I love them too.

To make a long story short: Around 1500 years ago Hindu people from India decided that Bali, of all places, was a nice spot...

About two weeks ago, the Amazing MK (Marykristn) invited me to join her on a trip to Nai Soi, a refugee village near the border of Burma, inhabited by Long Neck Karen Hill Tribe members, who have left Burma in fear of their lives.

As some of you might know, I don't always have the best border experiences. Two years ago I was banned from the USA for teaching poi workshops without a proper work-visa (and for misrepresenting my reasons for entering). I didn't post the details at first, on advice from a lawyer, but now they're posted again, along with a video of me telling a funny story about the whole thing. I posted a link on homeofpoi.com and it started a very interesting thread, which led to lots of information and opinions related to artists crossing borders.

Guess what? I've been playing with YouTube, and this is my first blog with embedded videos, of fire spinners and fire balloons (see below). Oh, and I've been spinning fire, as you can see to the right :)

(New: For those coming, we've just added a THINGS NEEDED PAGE. Also, we may be heading south for a while, so make sure you get in touch before coming to where you think we are.)

So why am I here, you ask? Good question. The answer is a long story.

2.5 years ago I came back from Thailand to land in debt and homelessness, partly because the popularity of Dervishly Yers cost me over $1000 in unexpected hosting fees (a lot of money for a struggling artist). I managed to keep my life complicated, expensive, and stressful right up until I arrived back in Pai on October 9th. In that time I've put myself thousands of dollars in debt to the bank, and bailed myself out via heavy manual labour and teaching poi workshops, a total of three times. I've also been on five big poi tours, three of which I was simultaneously trying to deal with DVD production/distribution and website development... and all the while trying very hard to keep up poi practice.

Wait. Where am I? Wasn't I going back to Canada after Europe? Judging from the heat, the good food, the friendly people, the biting ants, and the bamboo hut I'm living in, I'd say this was Thailand. How did I end up here?

...click for more...

To sum up the last of my European tour:

After Sweden, I flew back to London, hung out with Drew for couple days, then to the much-talked-about Bristol Juggling Convention. All the rumors are true. It is a very laid back festival and attracts very talented jugglers and performers... although it's also a very social convention and most of the time it's more of a juggler's bristoling convention....

Oh, so much is happening...

Going back a month: I was in Ireland for the video shoot with the BBC. This was a pretty wild experience. The director and the crew were lovely people, very supportive and creative. It was great to see such a team in action. It took many days of rehearsal, preparing costumes, etc. On the final night they dressed us up as forest pixies, as they're using the footage to cut into their fall-lineup-promo commercials. It was the longest and most difficult makeup session I've experienced (two hours of having somebody poke you in the face!) but once I started taking pictures it was all worth it. If you want to see some short video clips, here are some sneak previews:
Nick with fire poi
Andy with green fire poi
Clare with fire fans

After the shoot Clare took Andy and I on a tour of Northern Ireland, and told us a lot about the history...