Firepoi & Firechains: Move Guides

Move Guides

I've listed below the main families of moves. As opposed to combinations and change-overs, these seven tricks are discrete individual moves which can often be used with other moves to form more complicated patterns. All but the one-hand corkscrew and the fountain build upon the basic moves, listed on the Positions, Timings and Directions page. The names were picked up from other twirlers that I´ve met or were made up. I´d be interested to know of any other names. Just out of interest, my personal favourites are the chase, windmill and the one-hand corkscrew as they can be mixed to great effect.

Side To Side Moves	Based Upon:
- Two-Handed Cross-over (Animated)	Basic Move No.1
- Figure-of-Eight (Animated)	Basic Move No.2
- The Chase (aka The Weave) (Animated)	Basic Move No.2

Front To Back Moves	Based Upon:
- The Butterfly Family	Basic Move No.4
- BackToFront (aka Low Wave)	Basic Move No.4 Reversed Butterfly
- The Windmill (Animated)	Basic Move No.7
Other Types...	Based Upon:
- One Hand Corkscrew (Animated)	N/A
- The Fountain (Animated)	The Chase and The Windmill

And Finally...

So, where do you go from here? Well, these moves are only a guide to what's out there and the list is, judging from what I've heard, by no means complete. The things that you've got to look at now are becoming more familiar with how and where the chains move, and experimenting and improvising to create long, smooth performances without obvious pauses or breaks. Playing around with change-overs from move to move is pretty important for that flowing look, as well as using several cross-overs in a row to create tricky-looking patterns in between moves. Also really useful is the humble turn, as listed in the basic turns section above. Performing two or three turns in a row, either in time or split-time, creates cool patterns for the audience, gives you time to think of where you're going to next and allows you to get your chains into pretty much any starting position that you want.

Talking with and meeting other folk is also a good way of finding new stuff too, as nearly everyone has a little trick that you probably haven't seen. For example, a mate and myself got together recently and came up with the idea of working two sets of chains together - as shown in the photo below. Another friend used to love throwing the chains and catching them again (try twirling backwards and throwing vertically for a turn or two before catching), especially with a partner. Me? I'll leave that to the jugglers - I like my hands just the way they are. ;-)

The Double (back to back) Chase

A Double Chase.

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