Today, we’d like to introduce you to Clifton Burton. Clifton was introduced to us by the brilliant and talented Andrew Zhao.
Clifton, thank you so much for joining us today. We’d love for you to bring our readers up to speed – can you introduce yourself and share your story?
My name is Clifton Burton my Glover name is Treemeister and I’m from a town called Sevierville, Tennessee. I’ve been a Glover since 2012 for about 9 years now but just recently got sponsored by the company Throwlights. Gloving is a dance art form using LED’s on ur fingers in tune to the music, showcasing ur interpretation of the music through ur gloves. I started gloving when I went to a festival called Bonaroo in Tennessee it was my first music festival and ran into a person gloving during a Skrillex set and got my first light show and it completely blew me away and was the highlight of my festival experience so I knew from that point that I wanted to make people feel how that person made me feel in that moment so that’s why I decided to pursue this art form and it honestly was one of the best decisions, not only was I able to make people happy and enhance people’s festival experience but it was also a great stress reliever for me and a way to express my emotions. I have also met so many amazing people through this art form. When I first started there was literally no other glovers in my area so I mostly just watched online and practiced then I found the group Glovers lounge and found a bunch of other people gloving from different places so I decided to travel the country to trade light shows with other glovers. I flew to places like Florida and Colorado and Arizona to connect with other glovers and get light shows, it was amazing I was able to go to so many places and through this art be able to connect with all these people and see their different styles of gloving, experiencing the different communities inspired me to want to get people where I lived to start gloving and eventually after a few years some more glovers started in my area and that’s when I met my friend Taylor and from there we started growing the gloving scene more in the East Tennessee area.
Please talk to us about your creative work and career. What should we know?
So there was a time in my gloving career that I really started to take it seriously, it was after about 2-3 years into my gloving journey I decided I wanted to start competing in gloving competitions. I went to a few and in my first 3 competitions I ended up losing in the very first round. But instead of being crushed I used those losses to motivate me to get better and losing like that honestly was one of the best things that has happened to me because I told myself that I did not want to lose ever again and that’s when I decided to really get better. I went and took a year and a half off from competitions and practiced almost every day in the mirror giving myself shows and labbing whenever I heard music, and I also got paid to judge a few competitions which is when I really studied the scorecards and when I decided to come back to competitions I ended up not only winning but winning 3 competitions in a row 1st place then also winning my last comp which was a “Flow Arts” competition in Knoxville close to my hometown which wasn’t just gloving it was against hoopers, poi spinners, orbiters, whips and other flow props. Gloving is a newer flow art compared to those others and some of the other people had even told me they didn’t consider it a “flow art” because I didn’t spin a prop but after winning that competition and the judges picked my show over all the other flow arts I feel it proved that gloving is a legitimate art form and flow art and that it definitely deserves respect from all the flow arts so for that reason that competition was one of my favorites because I feel if u really put ur heart into ur light show doesn’t matter what it is the audience will connect with u and get an emotional reaction which is always my goal in my light shows. U can check out my light shows and competition videos on my facebook and tik tok @cliftonburton is mostly where I post just look up Treemeister or my name and you can find them. Also to the people that are reading this if you are interested in starting gloving I will definitely help you get started and point you in the right direction to minimize ur mistakes to where you can get good quicker and to get a pair of gloves I recommend the Apollo’s from Throwlights and if you use my code “Treemeister” you can get a discount on their site. 🙂 As of right now I do not have any plans of competing I just want to promote my sponsor Throwlights and our vision and continue to help my community and inspire others to start gloving and give light shows at festivals to make people happy and improve my art. <3
So, as we mentioned to our audience earlier, you were introduced to us by Andrew Zhao and Throwlights and we really admire them and what they’ve built. For folks who might not be as familiar, can you tell them a bit about your experience with Throwlights.
I knew about Throwlights and bought their products for a long time but at a gloving competition I was judging in Charlotte Nc was the first time I met the founder Andrew Zhao. I didn’t even realize until after I judged one of his matches who it was and that his light shows were phenomenal. We ended up hanging out for a little bit that night and I thought he was an amazing person. The things he has done have really inspired me and then I found out what Throwlights really was about and their vision to make gloving more popular to where it’s recognized globally to the point where glovers will be able to travel and be paid like other art forms and dance styles. Gloving I feel is still just getting started and progressing and it will continue to grow and with people like Andrew and Jakeb Livengood pushing gloving the way they are I believe that vision can come true, also one of the other main reasons I knew I wanted to be apart of Throwlights is because they will always put the art first. We are all glovers and care about the art form and will put that ahead of anything or greed but to be able to make a living off of this hobby and doing what we love will be the goal and i truly believe it can be accomplished. When I seen that Throwlights were having online tryouts I knew off the bat that it was something I needed to try for because I always wanted to be on their team and when I found out I was picked it was truly an honor to be able to be the first sponsored Glover from my area. Then I decided to drive to Tampa Florida to Sunset Music Festival to meet with them and that’s when I met a lot of the other Throwlights team and I was given my Throwlights jersey and was officially apart of the squad. Ive been doing it a long time and I got to a point especially during COVID with no festivals or shows where I struggled to keep going but after getting the sponsorship it re ignited my motivation and hope to really get better and make our vision happen. The Throwlights team are amazing people and artists and I’m so happy to finally be apart of them and I will do the best I can to help them and I’m so excited to see what the future holds for all of us. ^.^
Website: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRYn5bsP/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/treemeister69/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Treemeister69
Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCp_eaghen0yBVYPuzSHFaZw
Image Credits:
Tara Lacy
