Jack Gerard

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  Jack Gerard posted an update:   1 year, 10 months ago · View

  What a wonderful new site, Phillip! We had a nice set of dances in NYC recently, with Sassy Bitch Confessions (Phillip & Peggy) & TOTM III in January, and then Odyssey (with Susan and Candida) the night after Black Party. The East Coast family (and visitors to NYC) are alive and well! Mitch Bodholdt & I are already booked to attend Folsom in September, and it will be my 3rd year in a row. Thanks for everyone’s wonderful assist & input at Flagger workshop over July 4th everyone! My beach blanket sized blue-green AVATAR flags have been greeted positively. Joe LaMattina at Odyssey facebooked me: Ive been AVATAR’d! Happy Spring, everyone. HUGZZZ Jack

  
  
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  jackgerard and bryancolesmith are now friends   2 years, 7 months ago · View

  
  
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  Jackraver posted on the forum topic
  New Flagger…HELP!!!   2 years, 7 months ago · View

  Hello, Randy & welcome to the tribe!  Locating how to flag & spin information on Flagger Central- on its front page is rather easy now:

  http://www.flaggercentral.com/

   

  The tabs/indexing towards the top are pretty easy to work with. There are now 5 or 6 articles under the tab for RESOURCES, then hold your mouse down to get to its second subject down: Flag Dancing. There are other very good resources, but this is an excellent start.

   

  You may also consider joining the many spinners & poi people that are attending Flagger Weekend 6. It starts Thursday and/or Friday of July 4th weekend in Dallas.  Phillip Bryan and many others in the team head up the best workshop around!!  Expect 75-90 people there for the 3-4 days.  I went to TFW 5 and it is life-changing! Hope you can come on such short notice. Otherwise, look towards New York City for the best large flagger-friendly parties in the Mid-Atlantic/East Coast area.  Good luck in your journey.

  Jack Gerard WDC

   

  PS    Email me if you will be in the DC area sometime. It is a bit scarce for club flagging, but there are some options. More are available in Rehoboth, but that is far for some of us.

  Download the AOL Classifieds Toolbar for local deals at your fingertips.
  
  
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  Jackraver posted on the forum topic
  Looking for hope in Denver …   2 years, 8 months ago · View

  Hi Mitch,

  Ive been there with you many times and you are a most lovely flagger, and have never been one to impose yourself in anyone’s space. You wrote a wonderful and very diplomatic letter, and I think the Tracks management will respond positively. Let’s just hope this is not “new policy” but a bad night on the part of a clueless night manager. Many of us flag & fan before the “main crowd” gets there in our clubs, as it is sad that more clubs dont feature/allow more flagger-friendly space. Since Nation closed, Washington DC has been a very poor city for flagging in clubs.  We have to resort to going to other cities to flag!

  It is quite a blow to one’s heart & ego, when asked to cease our flagging.  It is still one of  the things that mystifies me about flagging, especially in popular GLBT venues. Good luck & I hope this is quickly resolved in your favor!

  Your buddy & brother in art and dance,

  Jack Gerard

  Wanna slim down for summer? Go to America Takes it Off to learn how.
  
  
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  jackraver posted on the forum topic
  Instructor certification — discount details!   3 years, 4 months ago · View

  To Issa and Peggy, and all of the other excellent posters that have
  spoken up on this "silk thread", thank you!

  I wanted to say that this has dramatically opened up quite a dialogue
  that perhaps could have happened even sooner than this:
  the inevitable merging of two very similar artistic cultures, but
  each with its own unique social characteristics. Poi Spinning is a
  bit "different" to most of us that flag & fan in a more traditional
  GLBT setting. I started noticing poi spinners at Grateful Dead shows
  several years back. And then, before I ever flagged, I was amazed by
  the poi & glostix spinners at raves & alternative music gatherings.
  The glowstix on strings could be frightening to some, because of the
  distance required to stand back. It is similar, but in a different
  way it required more room, than that required by flaggers. Then many
  clubs started to ban "glostix on strings" and I was one of those
  pissed off by that rule, even though this protected the club owners.
  Then I learned to flag & fan from a few of my dear mothers and
  daddies, brothers and sisters, which I will truly treasure and be
  eternally thankful for.

  However, since many clubs no longer allow glostix on strings, it is
  harder to mentor and teach poi in a club-like setting. One has to
  seek out more alternative dance festivals & gatherings like many held
  in the Portland and San Francisco areas. And at Burning Man. Many are
  held outdoors. And one very big event is held every New Year’s in San
  Francisco. That is called Sea of Dreams. And on the East Coast, we
  have Gaian Mind once a year at Four Quarters Farm.

  I’m trying to make a couple of points here. I am fascinated by this
  growing art form, and want to see more of it. Not many of us can get
  to one of these festivals for various reasons. The hippie/alternative
  lifestyle may be off-putting to many of us, but the ART is definitely
  there, and well worth SHARING with more of us! And if it is taught
  in a structured setting, that is great. And to effectively teach
  some to future instructors, that is even better!

  Last year in May of 2007, I attended the Texas Flaggers Workshop in
  Dallas, and was amazed at how many of our group have done some poi,
  and how several regularly practice poi. At our after-hours pool
  party 12 or 13 of our group performed fire poi – and two people did
  it for the very first time! It was truly fascinating and mesmerizing.
  So if Issa can teach more folks to carry the torch to other areas of
  the country and the world, and make it more "mainstream", that would
  be wonderful. Don’t we all love to go to Cirque Du Soleil and see it
  performed? I could not make it this year to the Texas Flagger
  Workshop, but I know that Issa was there. This merging of the
  poi/flagger/fanning community is inevitable, healthy and so
  exciting! Perhaps most of us will never be able to perform with fire
  at clubs, but just to see regular poi being performed artistically in
  dance festivals and clubs is welcomed.

  We can all learn (and teach) even more from each other.

  With love & respect,
  Jack Gerard WDC