A levitation wand twirls throughout the air, exposure lights dance around the gym, and laughter echoes off the walls as students accidentally hit themselves with poi. On Saturday evening, Photon, Andover’s flow arts club, hosted its annual Flow Fest in Borden Gym, transforming the space into a kinetic playground of color, movement, and community.
Flow Fest offered students the opportunity to explore spinning props such as poi, diabolo (Chinese yo-yo), and LED swords. With stations dedicated to building custom practice poi and experimenting with long exposure photography, the event invited both experienced performers and complete beginners to engage with flow arts. Ansel Bartell ’28, a relative beginner, described the collaborative and accepting setting.
“At the start of the year [Photon’s] show [for new students]… really attracted my attention.
A lot of people were really open to teaching me — everyone’s really friendly. They’re really open to new people and talking about their passion here and the different art forms of performing that they have learned,” said Bartell.
The event was co-headed by Hannah Chen ’25 and Cindy Yang ’26, who, along with the rest of the Photon board, coordinated the logistics, gathered materials, and led several of the teaching stations. Yang explained a couple logistic hurdles that led up to the event, highlighting the larger turnout and scale compared to regular meetings.
“Mostly administrative stuff [was a challenge] — finding a chaperone was a little difficult, and we had to book this space. Otherwise, it’s like a normal Photon meeting: we throw all the props into the room and let people learn and play. The only real differences are the make-your-own-poi station and the long exposure photography. It’s really cool to see flow arts on a bigger scale. Around busier times of the year, fewer people come to meetings, but events like this remind me there are still a lot of us out there,” said Yang.
While some Photon members led formal demonstrations, other members helped to guide newcomers informally. Gavin Shyroc ’28, a club member who attended to drop off a prop, stayed to help demonstrate some of the basics to beginners.
“I’m not the greatest teacher. I will admit it. But I knew how to do three peat, which is your fundamental first step, from muscle memory. It’s cool to try and show other people something that you’re interested in and see them go through some of the steps that you went through at some other point. It’s nice to get all [of] Photon together along with some new faces in the large gym so we have a lot of space to rehearse and do a lot of independent things, because we don’t have a lot of dedicated space in our normal rehearsals,” said Shyroc.
Despite the occasional missteps, props flying out of hands, or people lightly bumping into one another, the event fostered an inclusive environment where learning through trial and error was welcomed. Alex Lin ’28 expanded on the communities embracing nature.
“It’s a great event for people who’ve never tried it before. Photon is super accepting toward beginners. For the dance festival, they have a lot of beginner choreography. Hannah, Cindy, and Allegra [Lee ’27] are great teachers. Everyone’s still learning, so we get to mess around together. It’s a really great community,” said Lin.
For many students, Photon’s performances and events are their first exposure to the flow arts. Chen emphasized that, though flow arts may seem unapproachable and difficult at first, through Photon’s meetings and shows, one can fully immerse themself in the form and learn productively.
“It’s definitely a little difficult at first since spinning poi is kind of counterintuitive, but it’s also really fun because most people haven’t tried it before. [A common misconception is] that you can’t do it if you’re uncoordinated. It takes some practice and some hitting yourself in the arms — or face — but even if you think you can’t dance, there’s definitely a place for everyone. We meet [on] Saturdays at 7:00 p.m. We’re also preparing for our annual end-of-year show, Glow Show, if anyone wants to perform,” said Chen.
