Playing with fire

by Marcella Ortega

Daily Lobo

Twirling a burning rope in his front yard is just practice for Pax Blanchard.

"Raves are the big thrill, because the music is everywhere," he said. "You can't hear what you are doing. You can't even hear yourself speak. It's you and the music, and everyone else is just watching you. Right when you light those things on fire, 10 heads turn."

Blanchard and his friend Jonathan Crandall practice fire poi every day, a New Zealand dance where performers spin a string with a fiery ball attached to the end in patterns while dancing. The string with the ball attached to it is called a poi.

"The ancient New Zealanders used it to increase strength and dexterity in their arms - the warriors," Blanchard said. "Then later, the females started using it for entertainment and the same purposes."

Blanchard said the first time he saw fire poi was at a rave last year.

"There were some performers, and they danced at a party called Earth Base. They did a four-man routine," he said. "It was sick. They did it with all four guys spinning them at the same time so there were eight of them going. It was fantastic. I loved it. I said, 'I have to learn how to do that.' And here I am."

Blanchard said not many ravers can do the dance.

"We're a little chunk within a big group," Blanchard said. "A lot of people don't, so they just watch."

Blanchard said each movement or spin in the dance has a name. He said the weave is a movement where the poi is spun on the right and left side of the dancer, and the butterfly is a movement where the poi is spun above and behind the dancer in opposite directions.

"The butterfly and the weave are two really important tricks," he said. "Most of the moves center around those two moves. It's all directions."

Crandall said it took him a couple of months to perfect basic movements.

"You learn what you are doing, and you practice enough to where you know where they are going to spin and where to turn," he said.

Blanchard said he knew the patterns of the movements before he started practicing because of the time he had spent at raves.

"Just from raving and doing the whole glow stick thing, I knew how to make the circles and step through them," he said. "But other than that, I didn't learn anything for a couple of months. I just spun them around my body the best I knew how, and eventually, it all

set in."

Crandall said it is easy for someone to hit his or her own head when learning the dance.

"It's part of the game you play," he said.

Blanchard said a poi can be a dangerous

instrument.

"It's really hard to hurt yourself, though," he said. "The only way is if you really don't know what you are doing."

Blanchard said some ravers have practiced the dance for years.

"You can tell them apart from us right away," he said. "Their technique and everything is perfect."

Blanchard said he and Crandall would like to form a poi group one day. Until then, they will continue to practice with their friends in their front yard and perform at raves.

"We just learn off each other," he said. "Every couple of days, we come up with something new that we have never really tried before."