Led Poi Jam at Brasilipinas 2012

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="504" caption="Thanks to Flowtoys and Home of Poi for the wonderful LED poi toys :)"][/caption]

credits to Planet Zips


Poi is define as a performance art in which ball or balls are attached to a handle through a string or other materials, usually a plaited cord, are held in the hand and swung in circular patterns. Poi is one of the traditional performing arts of the Maori people of New Zealand, and has developed into many forms like fire poi, glow poi, sock poi etc. Poi is being enjoyed by thousands of people nowadays, it can be done at performance level or as a hobby. Poi dancers can be found performing alongside jugglers and other entertainers in festivities, especially ones that are celebrated in beaches.

Poi comes in two forms: the shorter one in which the cord equals the length of the wrist to the fingertips, the second form is the longer and more famous version which spans from the shoulder to the fingertips. Usually, poi balls are made of native plants called harakeke and raupo. Today though, modern materials such as cotton, plastic and other synthetic fibers are chosen because of their stability compared to the traditional materials.

Normally, poi spinning begins by learning the basic moves and then eventually improve into a more complex moves while learning to transition effeciently the various moves or the kinds of moves. There are a lot of people say that it is more effective to play a music while praticing the moves on spinning the poi in order to keep the smooth beat and rhythm.

There are two main types of poi : (1) Sock Poi, which is made up of two long socks,with a small bean bag inside to the end of each sock. (2)String poi is more likely a bean bag attached to a handle with a piece of string. The only advantage of sock poi from a string poi is that a sock poi can be stretch as you spin them but don't overdue it because when you over speed the spinning of you sock poi, it might stretch out too much and then smack the people from a distance. So when using this type of poi you must always remember to spin it up with moderation and I also strongly recommend those newbies to used this type poi whenever they are going to practice spinning to avoid any accident.
In the modern poi performances, a lot of versions of the art and devices have come out. One of the popular variation of the poi is the glow poi that is said to be made up of materials that are UV-sensitive, glow sticks and LEDs , the other variation of the art and perhaps the most popular is the fire poi, that is made up of fire proof materials such as kevlar. Fire poi performers usually uses kerosine to fire it up.

It is indeed really fun to perform with this kind of things because you will not only spinning your poi in just one trick but you can also create tricks like weaves, butterfly, wraps, flowers and more further tricks.

 

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