Forums > Social Chat > Why poi and play with fire?

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
Alright there Tennis!

Well for me about 3 years ago I wanted to take on another hobby that was unique and uncommon, so after seeing some people from uni I knew spinning poi, I decided to take up the staff. I did it I guess because I'm quite a spiritual kind of guy, and I love the elements, so everything seemed to fit in nicely.

It is nice to be aprpeciated for being good at something, and there is a definite rush when you perform in front of people, but I think that should always be a side effect of why we spin. These people you see out there who have learnt about 3 moves so that they've got just enough to exercise some arrogance are not fire performers, they're amateurs for who spining fire is a side effect to the need they have to seem cool. I think that's the fundamental difference.

btw tennis, have you checked out the mansion party that I have posted up in the gatherings section? It's next weekend in Plymouth and there will be plenty of dedicated spinners there so come along and meet up with us!

A conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words...

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
I took up poi when some friends were up for the Edinburgh festival and were also just learning. At the time (and still now really!) I didnt know much about it (I had never seen it done before and didnt realise how many people do do it) and I just thought that it looked really cool. I also liked the fact that some of the moves seemed very similar to staff defense that I had done as part of my martial arts training. I have really only been using poi for 2 months now but, although it looks cool etc my main reasons for doing it are: It is another part of socialising with my friends, I really enjoy the feeling of doing a session (I guess it is quite a physical excercise but you can do it almost anywhere!) and the main reason is probably the adrenaline rush from the sound of the fire!! (I have always liked the sound, bonfires, open fires, lighters - anything with a flame!!

Allie

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
Aaah aaaah i cant find the details pyrophile

Help me i looked on events

My cat's breath smells like catfood

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
Basically, I saw someone spinning fire and thought 'Wow, that's really cool, I need to be able to do that'
To me, it was another in the long list of stuff I started, learnt a few tricks, then pretty much stopped - stuff like yoyos and diabolo.
It was only after I started spinning that I realised it was much better (in my opinion) than anything else I'd played around with before.

That quote's from Ralf Wiggum, in the episode with the girl who's moved into Lisa's class and is cleverer than Lisa. It also has Donald Sutherland doing guest vocals as the girls dad.
I watch far too much simpsons

But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
I bumped the mansion party thread tennis.....you should find it now.

Geologists do it in the dirt................

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
I think, although i am a beginner, that my interest wasnt totally in the art of poiing, or at least it wasnt when i first got interested. Its the culture i loved which led me on to it, and the people it comes with. the rave culture, sitting around in fields with the most good natured, interesting people on this earth, festivals, the acceptance of drug taking, good music,...its all that. I loved all that more than anything, and the people you meet in such situations are the most friendly and laid back people.now i think i am more inetrested in actuall poiing (is that a word?) but no less interested in the culture it comes with.
i went travelling for 9 months recently, and everytime i would see a twirler id be mesmerized, id drag my boyfriend over to watch. the more i saw it the more i was so envious of their skills. the frist time i tried was on board a yahct, sailing the whitsundays in oz. only glow stick pois, but i loved it. when i get better i know i will be able to switch off and not have to concentrate too much and learn to fully enjoy poi for what it is.
But i bet half the people on this site started for the same reasons as you. i perhaps wanted to do something different too. but they wont admit it. But whoever does start with these reasons in mind, soon learns to love it so much their whole drive to learn it changes and it becomes about doing it for yourself, as you said.
ooo anyway. much love to you x

Never doubt that a small group of crusties, activists, and politicos can change the world... in fact, it's the only thing that ever does ;-)

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
Hey Ros,

Hope you're coming next weekend!

A conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words...

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
or just click here:

mansion party thread

or here for the flyers:

flyer from hard education website

hope that helps

Geologists do it in the dirt................

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
Found it
he he he he he I'm soooo happy just what i need a f*****g good knees up ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....sorry but you've just made my day. Don't suppose you want to private mail me some more details?

My cat's breath smells like catfood

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
pyro - check your PM's you big flamy fool!

Geologists do it in the dirt................

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
details on the flyer.......check out my links tee hee heeeeeeeee

Geologists do it in the dirt................

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
Just pm'd you back Ros, check it out.

Tennis, have you got enough info? If not pm me with any q's and I'll pm you back. Glad to hear you're coming!

A conspiracy of silence speaks louder than words...

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
I took up poi when I saw it at a party I thought it was really cool and a fun thing to do. So me and my BF went and crafted our own glowstick poi. We played like that at parties and gradually met more people doing it then I knew about Just Juggles when they were in the Drome (way back) and I never went cause I didnt know what to expect and I didnt want to show up alone.

Then one of my best friends took it up and I didnt realise how good she was until I saw her spin... (Amy K I love you!) Then I found out she had been involved in gatherings and meetings she told me about HOP (two years after I started spinning) and I joined. Since I have taken up staff and double staff. I began to juggle in Brazil and as yet cant get my dam three club cascade yet... I also began contact juggling in Brazil and finally I attempted devil stick, and diabolo then found out I should focus on some things first get good then learn the others...

I began for myself I still spin for myself I would not have started othewise.

MANIPULATION... Its a way of life a way of symbolising the constant juggling one has to do in ones life. For me its all about the metafore and all about the fire although when I spin without fire I get the same feelings minus the rush of the sound of something so unpredictable under your control to a certain extent...

Its all a bout beauty and expression thats why I started.

Much love, Drome

JUGGLEwithyourmind!

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
The summer of 2000 was a transitional time for me. It was then that I discovered that I was never going to be the "normal" white-picket-fence type. That was the first year I went to Burning Man, among other things.

I was living in this hippie co-operative house at my school. We had a party that summer and two girls spun fire on the front lawn. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.

I remember thinking "wow, I'll never be able to do that, but wouldn't it be awesome if I could?"

Fast-forward eight months. I had been to several raves and at one of them, I saw a guy flagging. So I asked him if he wouldn't show me how and he gave me a few basic lessons. I went home and promptly made my own set of flags and started learning. And I got quite good.

A few months later, I was spinning flags at a rave when someone came up to me with glowsticks on string (yes, I am a shameless candy raver, even though I'm 25...sad, eh?) and asked me to do them. I told him that I didn't know how and he said "sure you can." So I gave it a try.

Now, with flags, you can only do a two-beat weave, but the basic idea is the same, so I had the two-beat weave, corkscrew, and windmill down instantly. And as soon as I could do that, I realized that spinning fire was easily within my grasp. I talked to a spinner friend who sent me here, I got some practice and fire pois (personally, I think that these firepois are a great first fire set because they're light, but as you get more advanced, you can switch to heavier, chain-based pois).

And the rest is history. This summer, I spun fire in front of that same co-op where I first saw it done. It was poetic.

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
I first saw fire poi about 3 or 4 years ago at a squat party in london. I thought that looks worth doing, and promptly forgot about it until 18 months ago. For me its something I do more for myself than for others, I don't like showing off or being the centre of attention, I got roped int to spinning outside a club a couple of weeks ago and made a complete tit of myself, I kept dropping my staff and doing all sorts of things that I don't normally do whilst spinning by myself. As much as I tried to ignore the crowd, and as much as I told myself 'you're better than this', it just got worse and worse. I'm just glad that I was on the guest list that night and didn't have to queue up after I'd finnished spinning! But why do I like to spin? I wouldn't call myself good, and everyone I've taught to spin is now infineately better than me at it. I just enjoy what I do. There's been alot of talk recently about the popularity of spinning and how everybody seems to be doing it now. Some people think this is great, and others deplore the idea. Well, if you trend setters want to just get out of everybody elses way, maybe we can just get on with having some fun. If you define your uniqueness and how special you are by spinning, I think thats a pretty materialistic way of viewing yourself. Maybe you could consider yourself special by the way you make somebody smile, or the way you help people out, or maybe your special just merely because you're a human being, lets face it were all pretty special in that sense. And just because everybody else does it, are you really that paranoid that it makes you less special? If you want to be special and individual why not go and join your local young conservatives club? or maybe we could make people pay a couple of thousand for a spinning liscense or something? or hey maybe we should just resreve spinning for the aryans? Starting to sound a little eliteist? In my experience its the elitism that destroys communities.

Hey I breathe air, and that makes me feel special, would the rest of you mind stop breathing for a while, because its detracting from my own self importance......

[ 12 October 2002, 01:23: Message edited by: Spiral ]

Posted: 11th Oct 2002
I'm just a pyromaniac!

I honour you as an aspect of myself..

You are never to old to storm a bouncey castle..

Posted: 13th Oct 2002
why?
december 2000: i was a crap jugggler, and cpt_shiner gave me a staff on fire, and i twirled it. Then i got into combination moves and he got real pissed about me dropping it on the sand.
To me it is a marriage of a love fire and of entertaining others! 'till death do us part!
'tis easy to love twirling when it makes so many people happy! glow staves can stop babies from crying!

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