Perdicis Notes

Contact staff

publish A type of Flow prop. Opened 2024-06-26.

Related to Improved NeoFlowArt documentation.

Tricks in the order I learned them

Also http://flowarts.me/tutorials/contact-staff/ looks useful

Dates are when I actually got them working

Working on

  • Continuous Steve
  • Angel roll
  • Fishtail
  • Tosses / throws in the air
  • Jesus (do this after fishtails so I can have a transition trick)
  • matrix
    • 2024-09-06: Learned a quarter backside matrix. Can’t stick the landing yet.

Trick chains

  • Rotor → half a conveyor belt → more rotor
  • 3 forward rotors to get into position → underarm Etsy → roll over shoulder → lift into Steve
  • 2024-07-27: Idk if this has a name already. But the end of a conveyor belt with low momentum into ducking my head under the staff lets it switch shoulders.
    • this is really close to the pivot
  • 2024-07-29: behind passes then reorienting your whole body to match the staff is easy and underrated
    • Also kept learning the pivot and it’s super fun
  • 2024-09-11: (probably) fishtail into Angel roll
  • 2024-09-19:
    • Angel roll into neck wrap and then reverse Steve
    • conveyor → pivot → fishtail??
    • Second half of conveyor → many things. Thrust? Idk how to make it look cool and not like a near drop but there is probably a way
    • Tip for the pivot: chicken wings on both sides
    • Tip for fishtails: be patient, wait before pulling up
    • Tip for angel roll: stick head forward (?)
  • 2024-09-26
    • tip for Angel roll: let it fully tower over you and gently come hither it

Full choreo routines (WIP)

First try

  1. Front plane reverse figure 8
  2. turn body
  3. rotor
  4. advanced figure 8 in left hand
  5. left handed conveyor → pivot into left hand
  6. fully extend & pause
  7. neck wrap into prayer Steve 8) tip: really exaggerate this movement, it helps

Buying your first

Sources:

Sizing info:

  • Length should be between your chin and lip
    • Basically, you want it as tall as possible for your body. More momentum that way.
    • Body measurements says that’s 62” - 64”
      • 157.5 - 162.5 cm
      • 5.16 - 5.3 ft
  • Length cannot be longer than twice the distance between the floor and your arm relaxed in a 90 degree angle pose. This is because you need to twirl half of the staff beneath you without bumping the floor.
    • That’s 44” x 2 = 88” for me

https://www.wizardofflow.com/products/practice-mastery-contact-staff is the one I bought. I got a standard 60” staff rather than a fancy one.

  • Weight
    • Fiberglass staffs are heavier with more momentum
    • Aluminum staffs are lighter and easier to control

Tricks

This infographic from reddit is super useful. I progressed down the list as I found tricks that seemed fun.

A trick for the figure eight is to hold with two hands, near the center of the staff, and pretend you’re scooping ice cream from one bucket on your dominant hand’s side to a bucket on your non-dominant hand’s side. Then let go with a hand and let the rest take hold.

Big sticks I want to buy

But can’t justify a purchase (yet).

Maybes

  • Moodhoops staves

Appendix

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-SiWvCS25a/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Graph View

Backlinks