Workshops :: Contact Staff

Contact Staff

Cody Beastman

Sunday, 3pm @ The Hillside

From the basics of traditional spinning and contemporary pattern spinning into the bread and butter of contact work, if you've been looking to get into the world of contact staff, here's your chance!

If you've ever been interested in the art of Contact Staff, but have found it daunting or a little intimidating, this is the class for you. In this class, we'll begin to develop familiarity with a fire-staff, becoming comfortable with basic spinning motions such as the one-beat and the two-beat weave, as well as the figure-8. Then we'll move onto more contemporary pattern spinning based on circle theory, utilizing isolations, extensions, reels, and anti-spins. Next, we'll cover the basics of contact manipulation, including wrist-wraps, neck-wraps, elbow wraps, arm spirals. Finally, we'll put these little moves together in interesting ways to form tricks often known as the Steve and the Conveyor Belt. You will undoubtedly leave this class having developed a solid foundation with which to pursue your staff practice!

 

Biography

 

Relatively new to the world of performance, Cody Beastman is a talented young fire performer hailing from a town of southern soul and punk rock, Richmond, Virginia. It wasn’t long after discovering the playfully engaging meditation of object manipulation that Cody’s pyromania was born and his life took on a new path entirely. With a new-found love for body language, he began to train himself heavily in the art of contact staff, which soon led into an interest in dragon staff play. More recently, Cody has been seen spending time with poi, contact swords, and juggling. Having grown so much from the focus of his practice, Cody is now compelled to share the gift of flow with anyone willing to learn, and despite only two years spinning experience, he has spent the last year traveling up and down the coasts of the United States and through northern Thailand learning, performing, and teaching.