Senior performs light shows for friends

Although senior Drew Hsieh has never been to a rave, he is well learned in the art of light shows, a type of entertainment common at raves where performers use a special type of gloves with colorful lights to dance with their hands, creating a brilliant spectacle for their audience.

“People usually do them at raves,” said Hsieh, “but I just do it for fun just because I liked the experience of receiving a light show.”

Hsieh first became intrigued in this type of dance after witnessing a performance by one of his coaches of his tennis team from Courtside while they were at a tournament.

“[My coach] is very well known in the rave world,” said Hsieh. “He showed me these lights, and I was just blown away, so immediately after I came home, I bought myself a set.”

Since then, Hsieh has learned this form of art on through online videos and his own experimentation. After practicing and performing light shows for a couple of years, Hsieh finds that he enjoys not only performing the shows, but also the entertainment that it brings to his guests.

“I like entertaining people in general,” said Hsieh, “and I find that this is a really unique way to do it, one that people haven’t seen before.”

Although few people know about Hsieh’s talent, he often gives light shows to his friends as gifts.

“I usually show it to close friends only, and they might tell other people, but I don’t go out of my way to show people because it’s kind of weird and I don’t really want to show it off to too many people,” he said.

So if you ever hear techno music blasting and see a flash of colorful lights coming from Hsieh’s room, know that he is just working on perfecting his light show skills.

“If people come over and we have nothing to do, I’ll put on some techno music and do it,” said Hsieh. “If someone wants one, they can pay me five dollars.”