I am sure that anyone who saw the fireshow once, if at least for a fleeting moment, had a strong desire to try it.

Not many people know but the origin of the so famous fireshow is New Zealand. Here it is called POI, which in Maori means “ball” on a cord. Originally POI didn’t include fire – it was made from stone, which was held by Taro leaves. Later instead of leaves a simple linen rope was used. Maori Used Poi for equitable development of hands strength, coordination, and feat.

One of the Maori legends tells us about how the fireshow (or fire dance) appeared:
During the ceremonial dancing, in which shaman danced with torches, lightning struck and inflamed the other end of the torch, but shaman didn’t stop his dance. Maori warriors inspired by this spectacle, imitated shaman by lighting their staffs from both sides and doing all his moves. Since then shaman used to select capable and natty young men and trained them in handling the flames.

Maori have continued to develop this union of man and fire, bringing to the dance new moves and experimenting with different items instead of torches and sticks. This training of strength and feat soon evolved into a dance and the accessories became more and more decorated.

Women danced POI to their slow and plaintive songs making the female POI soft and slow, which used to hypnotize the spectators. Male POI was more stringent from the very beginning, it incorporated some rhythmic strength moves. Nowadays, in addition to basic rotation, masters of the fireshow “swallow fire”, make their poi imitate butterflies, waves, fountains, crossers, windmills, stalls, and wraps.

The first tourists who saw this wild dance brought it with them to their homes. Growing popularity of POI is obliged to the shows in Australian circuses, and also to its adaptation by “hippies” all around the world.
Though the popularity of the fireshow grows rapidly all around the world, New Zealand remains the best source for everything that has to do with it.

New Zealand is still POI world centre, it makes the best equipment for the fireshow, trains the best POI dancers, and hold the largest POI festivals, in which in addition to fire you can see also use of ultraviolet and LED lights.

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