PoiCDO Turns 3 - plus BONUS photos (most by Jan Villegas)

All pure fun... we are adding 4 more photos of the characters our friends Jan, Alex, JC and Jazz ;) presented in the recent PoiCDO Turns 3 celebration.

Enjoy >.<

and thanks for checking these out. ;)

BONUS PHOTOS:

PoiCDO Turns 3 - Blog, Photos and Video by Jan Villegas, Ms. Malou and Shaunnee

Hi! I'm Shaunnee.  I am currently the leader of the group PoiCDO and I would just like to share one very memorable event of PoiCDO.  It happened almost a month ago.

We turned three! PoiCDO is now 3-years old!  After the hardships, trials, regrouping, restructure and expansion of the original fire dance group of Cagayan de Oro, we have finally reached the age of a toddler and the maturity of a young adult. It was absolutely a reason to celebrate!

Originally the plan was to celebrate the 3rd year celebration on the date itself, which was April 20, 2012, but we had a few things going with our individual daily lives that we had opted to have a party a week later the planned date.

There were 2 things in our minds for the celebration:
(1) BETTER LATE THAN NEVER;
and (2) NEVER PASS UP AN OPPORTUNITY TO DRESS UP FOR A PARTY.
And everybody took that seriously!

Featured Photographs by Rizelle Belamide (Fire and LED poi)

“Life of Light and Fire”

Photographer: Rizelle Belamide

( https://www.facebook.com/rizellebelamide )

Taken: 2011

Purpose: Exhibit
Poi Spinners: Hexa, Roy, Shaunnee, Egan

Bright Side (a continuation story of Sherwin's "From HipHop to Poi")

by Sherwin Jaspher V. Parrado

In my last article, "From Hip Hop to Poi", I started sharing about my first introduction to Poi. How my love for dancing resurrected that archived memory of that Anne Curtis commercial. And how, in my fight to keep doing what I love most, I was able to meet a group of amazing people. This is the second part of that tale, which starts where the last one ended, Xavier Days.

Xavier Days is annually held on December and is usually a time of merriment, but on December 2010 it wasn’t for me. It wasn’t sad or depressing; it was more of stressful because of the tons of curricular activities we had to do. That time we meet at school around 7am and go home about 8pm, everyday, for about 4 days I think.  What's worst is we had to do it on Xavier Days, the time when everyone else is busy spending money on games and booths and what not. We on the other hand were spending our money on our project. Needless to say I was almost broke, I still had money but every cent was already allotted so free pocket money was not that much, about 500 pesos perhaps. And during Xavier Days, 500 is not really enough. 

One fine early morning I was going around the booths checking out the merchandise before going to the group meeting place. It was this time that I came upon the PoiCDO booth with Shaunnee, Egan, Hexa and Roy2x selling there, I should say ours now but it might be confusing, different displays of poi. (I have no idea where Gbong was at the time but I'll mention his name so that he won’t feel left out. Hi Gbong!)

Featured Photographs by Coy Fuentes (PoiCDO Class on How To Poi)

“PoiCDO Workshop 2012”

Photographer: Coy Fuentes

( https://www.facebook.com/coyfuentes )

Taken: April 2012

Purpose: PoiCDO Workshop
Poi Spinners: Bong, Hannah, Egan, Shaunnee, Daisy, Aimee
Students: Princess, My-J, Myles, Anne, Xena

PoiCDO Now Holds Classes on How To Poi

Opened.  April 15th 2012 was the date we, PoiCDO, welcomed a humble number of six new flow enthusiasts to learn poi spinning or in some cases "how to be a fire dancer".  It was a momentous day for the group.  We finally opened a poi class for those who have been seeking poi lessons and urging to learn how to poi.

Everyone with their respective strengths were glad to contribute in the realization of this event.
Aimee, Bong, Daisy, Egan, Gen, Hannah, Hexa, Moldz, Shaunnee, Sherboh


PoiCDO Workshop 2012 - 1st batch details
Dates: April 15- May 6,
Schedule: Sundays, 3pm
Venue: Fit & Well Dance Studio, Rosario Arcade LKKS, Cagayan de Oro.


PoiCDO Workshop 2012 - 2nd batch details
Dates: June 24-July 15,
Schedule: Sundays, 2:30pm
Venue: Fit & Well Dance Studio, Rosario Arcade LKKS, Cagayan de Oro.



We are still accepting enrollees for the classes.
Contact (+63) 9156053474
or 09268055517.

Bring A Doll (by Sherwin Parrado, PoiCDO Flow artist)

There's a time in everyone's life that we have to leave and start a new. Reasons vary, some do it for change, for family or to escape the law; im doing it because im gonna work, aheeem, find work some place else.

Aside from leaving the places and sites we have familiarized ourselves with, we also leave behind our family, dear friends, and the person or two who we owe money to ( yahoo!). 

As the person leaving, i try my best to pack all those sentimental objects ive acquired. My first stuff toy pig, the pig shaped pencil case, the cellphone pig pouch, my pig erasers and my pig stickers. Sadly i had to leave behind the pig figurine and the PIGgy bank since it doesnt fit anymore, and believe me i tried!

With all these things in my bag i got to thinking, what do i leave behind to remind my friends in PoiCDO that i was once a part if their lives? Pictures? They have that. A shirt of mine? Pwede but im really a hoarder of shirts. A sock! That would probably make them question my sanity not to mention my hygiene. So i racked my brain and came up with the most obvious and the surest way to creep them out, i left them a slipper! Kidding, i left them a doll. A voodoo doll to be precise. 

No it doesnt come with my hair, or nail clippings or my blood taken on the night of the full moon. I have to make sure that they don't do anything funny to it that would potentially affect me.  Hehe.  

So about the doll. Since im moving to Manila and im not going to be around anymore i asked them to bring the doll whenever they have a gig. The doll becomes me in a sense that i'll be there even if im not there per se. I encourage them to talk to it like they would with the real me. Perhaps feed it and take it for a walk sometimes, which isnt impossible cause the doll is a key chain doll, so no excuses.  Hehe. 

Kidding aside im hoping that the doll fills the emptiness that my leaving might cause. (i do hope they do feel emptiness or at least a twinge of "I-miss-sherbz".). And it kinda makes me feel that im still spinning with the gang. Still a part of this crazy, amazing group of people who does a workshop, meeting and plays charades all at once. But this isnt really the end of the road for us. As sure as there is fire we will always be spinners and friends no matter the distance. We will still see each other during fire festivals, spindependences,  poi eating contest and what not. So really its not good bye, it's "see you around" (bring food).

So to close this jumble of an article:

I am Sherboh Jazper Parrado, PoiCDO flow artist, article writer/editor for PoiCDO.com, a registered nurse, and i give voodoo dolls for kicks! (i have a voodoo doll of each of you)

Featured Photographs by Rob Wapaño (Ribbon and Sock Poi)

“PoiCDO Back 2010”

Photographer: Rob Wapaño

(https://www.facebook.com/robwapano )

Taken: March 2010

Purpose: CDO Summer Exhibit
Poi Spinners: Shaunnee, Egan, Hexa, Galutz, Roy, Ian, Dinan, Yrucrem

Featured Photographs by Nelyang (Ribbon and Fire Poi)

“Silhouettes of PoiCDO”

Photographer: Anj Koh

(http://nelyang17.deviantart.com/)

Taken: March 2010

Purpose: SM City - CDO Summer Exhibit
Poi Spinners: Egan, Shaunnee, Roy

Featured Photographs by Wuv San (Fire and LED poi)

“PoiCDO 2010 Members”

Photographer: Wuv San

(http://pintpixel.com)

Taken: March 2010

Purpose: SM City - CDO Summer Poi Workshop

Poi Spinners: Galutz, Shaunnee Egan, Roy, Ian, Yrucrem, Galutz, Dinan, Hexa

From Hip Hop to Poi (by Sherwin Parrado)

written by Sherwin Parrado (PoiCDO batch 2011)

The first time Poi and I met was when this commercial about a brand of female paraphernalia (*whispers* napkins) came out. I cant remember what brand it was but if I’m not mistaken the artist was Anne Curtis and she was spinning ribbons attached to strings. I had absolutely no idea what she was doing but at the time I thought that it was amazing, the ribbon spinning not the commercial. I really didn’t know what that activity was called so I didn’t know what to search for and with a lot of things going on then I soon archived it somewhere in my brain. Until college, when we remember all those things when the teacher is really boring.

College is the time where we supposedly know who we are as a person or rather we start to finally develop a sense of identity. A shy person like me discovered that I had a thing for dancing, hip hop to be precise. I found a group of friends who taught me the ropes. Isolations, tatting, digits, pop- locks are common words to us hip hop dancers and they are some of the things I had to learn to better myself.  Dance competitions, school performances even outside school performances, I joined them all just for the thrill of being able to dance. Then my fourth year college days came , when the number of performances started to wane and the members started to scatter I asked myself, “Is this the end of my love affair with dancing?”, “Am I gonna return to that person who just watches as others perform?”. 

I didn’t really have an answer to the first question but to the second  my brain and heart had come up with one. No way was I gonna return to being a spectator. No way was I gonna just stand there and clap along with everybody else whilst burning with jealousy.  But what can I do? I cant do choreography, making up dance moves is a gift unto itself, a gift I sadly don’t have. I can do the tricks but I’m no expert and I’m not consistent with the execution.  With these obstacles I felt that the “return to by stander mode” was an inevitable outcome, until Xavier Days that is. Xavier Days where I met another group of people with something new and amazing, something that resurrected the memory of Anne Curtis and that commercial.