Glowsticking

Glowstringing (on the left), and glowsticking (on the right). Either activity can involve LEDs (on the left), glowsticks (on the right), or other forms of light-production.

Glowsticking, known colloquially as Raving at CTY, is an umbrella term used to describe dancing with glowsticks and/or other luminescent devices. There are two forms of glowsticking: freehanding and glowstringing/poi. Both disciplines of glowsticking do intersect at some point, though their roots are radically different.

Freehanding is the neon-tastic rogue sibling of other underground dance styles, such as liquiding, breakdancing, and popping.

Glowstringing originated from poi, a dance that the Maori people of New Zealand used to stay fit and look badass. Poi were traditionally set on fire for performances. It is an internationally recognized fact that fire poi is as visually enticing as an orgy. Glowstringing is essentially fire poi with a different moveset. The moveset of glowstringing is more expansive than that of fire poi because the glowsticks aren't on freaking fire; as such, body wraps and the like are possible without burning skin. However, with the use of LEDs instead of fire for poi, the distinction between poi and glowsticking has blurred; poi tends to have heavier weights. As a result, poi spinners are able to do some moves that glowstringers are not, but glowstringers are able to do many moves that poi spinners are not (especially wraps).

Glowsticking at CTY

Despite common belief, glowsticking DOES NOT always imply that a person is raving, although glowsticking is part of rave culture and also follows the philosophy of PLUR. Glowsticking has many forms; most commonly used are freehanding and glowstringing (AKA, "string-raving"). Glowstringing can be narrowed down further to actual glowstringing/poi and "hitting-self-in-the-balls-with-lanyard." The latter is limited to males (though females are known to be victims of too-close buzzsaws hitting their chests).

At every dance, there are usually two (or more) techno/rave songs. These include the ever-popular "Sandstorm" and the infinitely sextastic "James Brown Is Dead," along with rarer songs including "Liquify" by Toby Emerson, a favorite of Christ. "Every Time We Touch" is also a favorite among glowstickers, and "Satisfaction" is suitable for freehanding.

At some sites, stringraving has been completely outlawed. At Lancaster in 06.2, stringraving was limited to the hardtop in front of the cafeteria during designated rave songs, which are played more numerously due to the newly instated rule. See Lancaster's Hall of Shame for more details. This rule, however, expired immediately upon the end of the session.

At every site, there seem to be one or two really awesome glowstickers every year, be they freehanders, stringers, or both. Lancaster was exceptionally lucky in 06.2, having four glowstickers of such awesomeness, namely Mike Len, Christ, Yoshida, and Matt. The latter two are freehanders while the former two are stringers. Mike and Christ are godly, FYI.

At Lancaster, the organization and management of the stringers and breakdancers during songs such as James Brown is Dead and Sandstorm is the duty of Jack Flash. Jack Flash is a first session position held by a nomore glowsticker who performs in the circle along with other glowstickers and breakdancers. Jack Flash is also charged with promoting and teaching glowsticking among the students. Lastly, Jack Flash plays the role of Jack Flash in the students' circle during American Pie. This position was created in 08.1 by Wes McClung, and he was followed by J.T. Booth.

Carlisle has had its share of sextastic ravers as well; Arthur Schlechter (also of fame for conserving water through alternate showering schedules) raved until his nomore year in 09.2, even convincing RAs to run an activity on No Fun Friday named "Dance Like Your Parents", where he blasted techno music through the first floor of Quad 7 and ran a class on how to rave for CTYers wishing to learn. His tradition was carried on by ravers Kyj Nohachevsky, Whitney Wu, and Ross Rheingans during 10.2. In addition, Whitney Wu and Max Umland performed glowstringing acts for the 10.2 talent show, earning the eternal admiration of the crowd with their mad skills. Whitney and Ross also became popular for teaching younger CTYers to glowstick during Meet Markets, with mixed levels of success, and, in Ross's case, for bringing mass quantities of glowsticks (and flowtoys, and poi-balls) to dances for the express purpose of distributing them to any and all CTYers. However, in 11.1, raving was banned and ravers had to hold their poi/glowsticks in their hands and shake them up and down in an attempt to rave (even though all they accomplished was looking stupid shaking lights in their hands. There is still hope though, raving was permitted at Upper and Lower Quad during 13.2.

At LOS, raving is quite popular. Most ravers are stringravers, although a few freehand. An interesting note is the recent abundance of female ravers, with males actually being on the rarer side. 08.1, the main ravers were Lizzy H, Sarah Sch., and Josh Q. 08.2, the ravers were John Xia and Andrew 'AJ' Casner, who both participated in the Talent Show with their Raving skills. In 09.1, the scene grew. Lizzy H, Sarah Sch., and Maggie G (who raved at one dance in 08.1) generally started at the beginning of "Sandstorm", then periodically handed off their poi to Declan M-H, Matt G, and Molly S. In 09.2, Lizzy returned, as well as Alfred Wallace, who had his own poi. During the Second Dance, Jackie Allegra Choi used Lizzy's poi, and during the third dance, Matt Ha tied Alfed's poi to his feet and breakdanced. Jason Boring often borrowed poi or glowsticks to rave at dances, until his 09 disappearance. In 2010.1, the raving crowd included Maggie G, Molly S, Declan M-H, as well as a return of Jason Boring. Others, such as Louisa C, Erika C-S, Vera G, Miranda G, and Gilbert P. knew or learned how to rave, and demonstrated at other times. In 2011.1, Louisa C and Erika C-S returned, joined by Alex O, and Micaela G. In addition, Matt G returned from Lancaster with his own poi. In 2013.2 there were quite a lot of glowstringers, including even the RA Chucho. The raving song at LOS is Sandstorm.

Raving is also popular at JHU. In 11.1, all ravers were stringravers. Kavin Sanghavi and Xinyuan Chen were the main ravers. The rave songs are usually Sandstorm and Satisfaction. Xinyuan Chen taught many how to rave during Casino Night in exchange for CTY cash. In 12.1, RA Peter Yang, Molly S., and Raphael S. were the main ravers, raving at each dance and at the talent show. At 12.2, raving was immensely popular, with more than half the camp at least knowing some basic moves. Many students were stringravers, including Barak Z, Amanda S, and Carla F. Molly S. returned for second session and RA Peter Yang again raved, sometimes even using 6 glowsticks at once.

At Easton in 11.2 glowsticking (mostly freehanding) became very popular in a very short amount of time due to RAs giving out glowsticks during all of the dances, including completely awesome ones that glowed very bright white during the last dance. There were no specific rave songs; people just randomly began putting on a light show whenever they felt like it, which many found quite amusing.

Glowstringing is quite popular at Saratoga. There are at least two raving songs per dance; the first is Sandstorm, played immediately after Time Warp as everyone is already in a circle. The second is the wild card song, as it varies each session and dance (12.1 played Everytime We Touch, while 13.1 had Invisible Colors or Ravers in the UK). The third song is Raver's Fantasy, a nevermore-only song. Occasionally a fourth song is added to the mix, varying from Party Rock Anthem to Gangnam Style. 12.1 had the blessings of the legendary Khristine Yu, record-breaker James Gan, and "Original Lady Raver" Sophie Connor as nevermores, with Hart Isbored notably as the only hand raver. 13.1's glowstringing scene included nevermores Sonya Wang, known for her ability to jump over an orbital and proficiency with spirals, as well as teaching multiple squirrels, Nick Richardson with his hypnotizing 1.5 beat, Steven Jin with his fountain, Brian Liu with his 30 glowsticks, twomore Ryan Guo's orbitals, and onemore Cody Suesser's weaves. Hart Isbored reprised his role as the hand raver, joined by Marion Anderson. Raving was unusually popular during 13.1 (at least compared to 12.1), to the point where a raving daily and weekly were created; at least 7 new ravers joined the circle by the final dance. During 13.1, the infamous move "The Watermelon" was created by Ashley Nobi, much to the chagrin of Ryan Guo. Ashely thought the waterwheel/watermill was called the watermelon, though she was corrected by Kristen Miciotta. Disappointed by the lack of watermelons, she proceeded to take Kristen's glowsticks and thus, created the infamous move. To properly execute this difficult trick, one must first assume a wide squatting stance. Next, swing your glowsticks in the worst possible 1-beat ever, and then slowly squat down and rise up. Repeat and rinse while keeping a straight face. The next morning, Ashley showed this "move" to the other campers, during which someone filmed and took pictures of a fantastic duo, in-sync watermelon (which later made it into the slideshow!). Ashley would then go on to create the sequel move "The Wintermelon".

Glowsticking Culture

Glowsticking is a staple at raves, so glowstickers follow the rules of raves. Raves have only one rule: Follow the doctrine of PLUR. What does PLUR stand for, you ask? It stands for "Peace, Love, Unity, Respect." Follow it. Now. That means that if someone is better than you at glowsticking, respect them. If you want to learn how to glowstick from them, you simply ask. If you ask in a kind, caring, manner, they will most likely teach you. Because of the culture that surrounds the art, glowstickers are normally very personable, gregarious, and open.

Things to Know about Learning Glowsticking

If you are teaching yourself how to glowstring, be prepared to whack yourself by accident. Everywhere. A lot. Face, legs, sides, crotch, arms, ears, crotch, etc.(So start off wearing jeans) You're gonna have to get used to it, but don't let it discourage you, even though it does hurt like a son-of-a. Eventually, you don't even notice the pain, seriously. (Although hopefully you won't whack yourself as much when you've practiced for a while.)

You can just start off using a pair of dead glowsticks (almost any CTYer can get you some of these) and a pair of shoelaces. That's it. Check out this video to get you started with the basics, and you can use youtube videos or any old glowstringer to teach you the rest.

Popular Raving Songs

• Sandstorm (Darude)
• James Brown is Dead (L.A. Style)
• Raver's Fantasy (Manian)
• Feel Fine (Manian)
• Ravers in the UK (DJ Manian)
• Everytime We Touch (Cascada)

Though almost any song can be raved to, popular raving songs typically have a fast tempo (around 140 bpm) along with a heavy bass.

Tutorials

1. GenXGlow.com -- Better than GS.C, tutorials are frequently updated in addition to a more 'open' forum for beginners.
2. Glowsticking.com -- General awesomeness.
3. Home of Poi -- For Poi only, but still awesome.
4. Do More Poi -- More Tutorials.
5. Play Poi -- Great tutorials and structure; entertaining.
6. CTYSARRAVE -- Tutorials by the forevermores of SAR.12.2
7. Drexfactor Poi -- Great set of tutorials for poi

Where to Buy Glowsticks/Poi

In order to glowstick, you need glowsticks, obviously. Go into your hardware store or local camping outlet to find some. Military surplus stores also have them. This is not recommended, however, because the glowsticks they carry normally suck and cost 4 dollars a pair. Glowsticks can also be found at some Wal-marts and at many dollar stores (although they are usually not sold for exactly a dollar, but rather for slightly more). Occasionally, RAs may be able to buy glowsticks on supply runs.

How do you get glowsticks on the cheap? You can either buy LEDs or buy in bulk. Buy glowsticks on the cheap at this place. They also sell high and ultra high intensity sticks. They rock. Trust me.

A great site is Emazinglights.com where you can get glowsticks EXTREMELY CHEAP for 30 cents EACH!!! Unfortunately, this is no longer true, they now sell glowsticks for 1.25 each, 95 cents right now because they're on sale :( Use coupon code "CTYSAR1" for a 5% discount or "CTYSAR2" for a free pair of raving gloves. :) Your welcome -Saratoga Springs (Skidmore Site)

Another trusty source is ExtremeGlow, which has many bulk deals such as 50 assorted standard 8-hour glowsticks for only $25, which is pretty nice, along with the ability to buy glowsticks in small numbers. Ultras, industrial, and non-standard lengths (15" anyone??) are also available.

If you want to be a a pimp, buy high intensity LEDs, or photons. These are the best photons available. Granted, they're expensive, but they rock hard. They also strobe. DUDE, THEY STROBE. That alone should warrant the 40 bucks. If you want, you can even modify them to make them trail better.

If you're a stickler and you just NEED an LED stick, go to Home of Poi. They have some awesome LED stuff in their shop along with invaluable tutorials.

And if you really feel like splurging on probably the sickest LEDs glowsticks and poi you will ever see, check out Flowtoys. Albeit expensive, these will be the source of plurgasms for sessions to come. The flowlights are a good place to start if you just want some LED sticks, but their different setups are also great if you want to go more all-out, such as the soft covers for glowstringers and multi-stick poi units for an intense light show. (*)For those who are having trouble navigating the 11 modes on their [g2] flowlights, here it is in a nutshell. Starting with the flowlight off, pressing the central button once will bring to the first mode, "breathe." pressing it again will shift it up once to mode 2, then 3, until mode 5, "beacon." pressing the button again will turn the flowlight off. In order to access the second "dimension," press the flowlight and set it onto any mode from 1-5. now, press and HOLD the button until it changes to a strobing mode which is still visible. You are now in mode 6. Continuing to press the flowlight will cycle through the second dimension modes until mode 11 (demo mode, a mode which cycles through all 10 previous modes). Pressing the button again will turn the light off in g1 lights, but in a g2 light, the flowtoy will enter suberbright mode. now, you can cycle through the previous 11 modes in a mode which is twice as bright, but will burn battery twice as quickly. Pressing the button again after mode 22 (superbright demo) will trun the flowlight off. (*) All g2 flowlights are also equipped with a mermmoy function, which enables you to acess the mode you were on before the light was turned off or ran out of battery. In order to return to the previous mode from "off", simply hold down the button and release when it reaches your desired mode.

A good place to begin is with the soft LED poi manufactured by YOHO. Bear in mind that these are toys, not the real thing. You can keep using them, if you gradually replace every piece of the apparatus with duct tape. The cool thing- they can stay any color of your choice, slowly change colors, or strobe different colors, creating rainbow-colored trails. The downside, the batteries cost as much as the poi themselves.

Glowsticking Videos

1. CTY LAN II Talent Show Christ and Mike at Talent Show LAN.06.2.