Forums > Social Discussion > The Future of Poi ?!?

To learn - read. To know - write. To master - teach . . .

-v-

Wiederstand ist Zwecklos!

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourself, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous and talented? Who are you NOT to be?

I have no idea how i feel on this matter, there are currently 15,552 members on HoP and in my experience about a fifth of fire spinners in the world are on HoP maybe less but just saying a fifth means there are at least 77,760 spinners in the world, thats a fair few but over twice as many died in the Tsunami, imagine if in the space of a few hours the whole spinning community got wiped out, makes you think, sorry i know this is

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind

Give a man a fish and he'll eat 4 a day hit a man with a brick and you can have all his fish and his wife

"Will's to pretty for prison" - Simian

and now for a more upbeat thought

i think the growing popularity in the fire arts is a good thing, think about how many people you have become frineds with jsut becasue of the fire..........if you are going somewere and a fire artist lives in or around that area, chances are you have a place to stay, now granted with it becoming more popular there will be problems, like the afore mentioned twits that will not take safty into consideration, but its our responsibility as fire performers to make sure that happens in only rare casses

(that was still a good point pyro)

You can't avoid pain by fencing yourself from it.
Some times you need the help of others more than anything else
But you have to let them close enough to help......
People want to be needed, I found that out too

-v-

Wiederstand ist Zwecklos!

Yeh but there are some of the fore mentioned 'twits' that we just pat on the head and say ok, we'll let you off this time, Fryed Fish is such an exception

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind

Give a man a fish and he'll eat 4 a day hit a man with a brick and you can have all his fish and his wife

"Will's to pretty for prison" - Simian

im an exception......YEA

you all are just jellous that i can trace my hand and not go out side the line so there

You can't avoid pain by fencing yourself from it.
Some times you need the help of others more than anything else
But you have to let them close enough to help......
People want to be needed, I found that out too

Written by: ben-ja-men

i hope that poi extends into schools as i think it would be great for kids for getting better hand eye coordination



well I reckon it should be offered but not obligatory...

hugs
d

JUGGLEwithyourmind!

the pixie... if only i could have juggled/spun at school. i've taught some of my little cousins stuff an they love it...

It is our fantasies that make us real. Without our fantasies we're just a blank monkey' - Terry Pratchett

-Mike )'(
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella

"A buckuht 'n a hooze!" -Valura

-James

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?"

I don't have a problem with it going mainstream, as all the poi'ers/juggles/staff etc etc i've met are all really nice, willing to teach you and generally we get along fine and dandy.

What I don't want to happen is a craze, like a few years ago, the yoyo came back and every kid had one and it was ... cool .... obviously not at the chav age as it'll always be crap to them. But if a craze does take up, it will be just the same as every other craze, which is basically a company does what ever it can to get kids to buy their stuff, prices will go up, quality will go down and as with any craze, it will pretty much revert to what we have today, with a few more kids who will be excellent in time to come, which will be cool. so to sum up, its the commercialism that worries me.

If the craze ment that 1000's of kids watch a kids programme which showed how to make your own poi, and then 1000's started that way, that'd be excellent... oh man, my kids are gonna hate me...

I used to be indecisive, but I'm not so sure now.....

I used to think about this. Like Vanize says, it's an old topic, but one that's worth bringing up again occasionally, just to see how poiple think the land lies.

To be perfectly honest, it's not gonna be too bad. A lot of people are taking up poi, but an almost equally large number give up again fairly soon afterwards.

And so what if there are more spinners/twirlers/whatever out there? Surely that just means more people being innovative, coming up with new ideas and generally spreading the love.

Am I the only person who thinks a world of poi-spinners would be a happier place?

[Fade In: The Oval Office. George W Bush is trying to learn the backwards 5 beat

Enter Colin Powell & Condoleeza Rice

CP>> Hello Mr President

CR>> Hello Mr President

GWB>> Howdy pards, how's it going today?

CP & CR> Bad. We need your signature on an executive order to attack Iran.

GWB>> Sorry guys, I just dont have time. I need to nail this, then start working on airwraps.

[Fade Out]

See?

"I believe the cost of life is Death and we will all pay that in full. Everything else should be a gift. We paid the cover charge of life, we were born."

Bill Hicks, February 1988

With Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World' being piped through the White House PA.

Getting to the other side

Yep. Something like that.

"I believe the cost of life is Death and we will all pay that in full. Everything else should be a gift. We paid the cover charge of life, we were born."

Bill Hicks, February 1988

To be honest, i like poi how it is now, with still only a few people who do it (few as in compared to the population of the world) I think its great that we can do soemthing that so many people cant or have even heard of

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind

Give a man a fish and he'll eat 4 a day hit a man with a brick and you can have all his fish and his wife

"Will's to pretty for prison" - Simian

I personally don't want poi to become mainstream. Hopefully if it does it will just be a craze like Bretch said. If alot of people start spinning it will lose some of the novelty which does appeal to me. It irks me also when people do things just cause its the new in thing or to be cool. Sure some people would end up loving it and become life long poi people. On the other hand there would be alot of idiots learning to spin who don't respect what we do especially when it comes to spinning fire. You know there is a huge appeal to spinning fire and alot of people wouldn't wait till they had gained enough experience and would start spinning fire befoire they were ready. Now if some jerk who knows 5 moves tries making his own fire poi and whilst spinning one breaks and flies off and burns someones house down it would have reprocussions for all of us.

I don't think poi should be competetive either. I feel its more of an art and should be used to entertain and for your own personal growth. Spinning poi just to beat people in comptetion doesn't sound right to me.

Poi represents something not as tainted as most of the things in this world to me. It seems more down to earth. There is no showy commerecialism and people seem to want to share and help others learn. These qualities are refreshing in a world where stepping on your friends just to get ahead is as natural as sleeping at night. Where everything has to be bigger better faster and stronger and the weak are forgotten. With sports and other competetive things this isn't the case.

I like to think poi finds people, people don't find poi.

Peace, Love, Circles

I am not such a big fan of mainstream things just because of the crowd it attracts. I don't know how the situation is in the rest of the world, but where I live (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), at least 90% of the population flocks to what ever the newest fad is, and alot is lost if the fad happened to have a deeply routed cultural origin. It happened with Yo-yo's as they went huge again not to long ago. We had a recent outbreak of Devil Sticks a few years ago...Now it's rap and gangsters.
I guess I'd rather have quality over quantity in the people who do poi. The ones who do seem to do it (for the most part, because as was said, there will always be yahoos) try to learn the background behind it, and appreciate it's routes and do their part in blazing it's future.
I guess that's why some people do have their opinions about not teaching just anyone poi, and trying to keep it a selective art. Personally, I'll gladly introduce anyone who asks. If it really strikes them they'll go home and be on HoP in a matter of days

Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> STAY SAFE! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" />

I'll teach anyone who asks. And a few who don't.

"I believe the cost of life is Death and we will all pay that in full. Everything else should be a gift. We paid the cover charge of life, we were born."

Bill Hicks, February 1988

eRic.

I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman!

Lights dancing off my skin as chains wrap round it.
Pain is in a little box and I'm so glad I found it.

fire leads to creation

I don't think there's too much worry about poi becoming 'mainstream' as it does take alot of time & practice to get some decent skills up (Unless your a really good teacher/student/keen ;-) ) Almost everyone I do a fire show infront of says..."WOW! that was great! I want to learn! " Then about an hour later still thinks it's great, so I offer to show them a few things sometime, which rarely happens cause they loose interest after the night is over. Those that do follow up & give it a go, many don't realise how hard it is to learn & then don't practice at all & have quit a month later. But now & then you get one person who stays... yay!

And those people are always nice, fun people cause you wouldn't spend your time to teach anyone else anyway!
The only way I can see poi becoming 'mainstream' is if it becomes commercialised/a 'fad' as has been discussed earlier.

Written by: PyroWill
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there are currently 15,552 members on HoP and in my experience about a fifth of fire spinners in the world are on HoP maybe less but just saying a fifth means there are at least 77,760 spinners in the world,
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Just also remember that MANY many of these people are ones who created an account at some time, played around for awhile, then stopped playing with poi. many of those members may not have picked up poi in years...

That's my two cents.

We don't stop playing because we grow old,
We grow old because we stop playing.

this is a great thred...

I have been playing for 14 years in the juggling world and i have seen the yoyoy craze, the astro jacks, the club juggling etc all go through highs and lows... they are all still there and some people are great at it... these people inspire more people to experience it... i cant fault this..

I really think the uk has a great community feel with poi, there is no competition here in the juggling world and this takes away the need to hide your tricks... I love teaching and sharing what i know and it keeps me on my toes to keep improving.. of course there are some egos but the places i play they get absorbed and wither away...

rovo above summed it up beautifully:

"I feel its more of an art and should be used to entertain and for your own personal growth. """

i would love to see a cross between riverdance and stomp on stage with poi... anyone want to help me produce it????

keep playing, sharing and inspiring

its all about the fun fun fun fun and more fun...

Devkev, have you been looking at the "Bola as a rythmic insturment" article again?
It seems like a good idea, if you could get the co-ordination. You'd have to get a company crazy enough to support your idea to just get a grant to try it :P
Cirque Du Soliel is always good for things like that ^.^'

Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> STAY SAFE! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" />