Essay: Yo-Yo Performance, Passion, and Finding Your Own Way

I recently watched a performance-lecture by the yo-yo artist BLACK and was impressed by what I saw.  I was impressed not only by his artistry and proficiency with a device so often regarded as a simple toy, but moreover with his drive, his passion, and the story of his journey that relates an important message.

BLACK began studying the yo-yo at age 14.  He wasn’t very good at it.  But, over days and hours of practice, he became better.  Within a single week he realized that bringing people joy through the yo-yo was his passion.  At 18, he reached what was currently the top in his field; he won the World Yo-Yo Championship.  However, nothing in his life back home changed.  He was not a celebrity.  He was not seen by society as a hero or a star.  He received no sponsorships, no television appearances.  He was a boy with a yo-yo. 

BLACK returned to college to study a more practical profession, but was miserable.  While most people would have stayed defeated, BLACK took his misery for opportunity.  He realized that if being at the top of his field is not enough to make a career of bringing people joy with the yo-yo, he would have to create the awareness and respect for this unique art himself.  He practiced for years until his art won him the world championship again, but this time in an artistic category.  He expanded his work to include elaborate routines set to music and including dance, design and sport aspects to them.  One of these routines got him recognition when he used it to audition for Cirque du Soleil, and now he makes a living as a yo-yo performance artist.

What can we learn from BLACK’s journey?  We learn that no matter what field we are in, we can benefit from creating our own path.  We discover that a dead-end is not the end of the road, but a reminder to look for a different path entirely that better meets our end goals.  We find that having passion is sometimes not enough; we must not only pass on our passions, but create that passion in others even when they may not know where their passions lie.
 

Diana Rivera gives another perspective on this in her blog post about creative schema.  She says that most artists struggle when society’s restrictions to what art should be are placed upon their work.  We often make the excuse that we’ve tried over and over again with our work, and yet are career just isn’t taking off.  Perhaps we don’t need to try over and over, she finds.  Maybe we just need to try something new entirely that will give us inspiration for finding the real path to our creative goals.