The Art of Poi

When I was in Georgia on Spring Break back in 2003, I had a few lessons in Poi - The Art of Fire Spinning. It was something different that I had never even heard of before. The woman who was teaching us (I can’t remember her name anymore) was amazing. She had entered into many competitions and won a few, I think. As we were only there for 1 week, I only really mastered the basics, but I bought a set of Poi from her and went back to college and kept practising. It was so much fun, but as I didn’t know very much, it got quite boring after a while. So as so many things do, the poi got shoved into the back of a drawer to become friends with the spiders and dust. Then as I was sorting through my room last summer to redecorate, (oooh, that’s just reminded me of another post I could write!) I came across them. I took them out into the garden and had a go, I could remember pretty much everything that I had been taught, and managed to impress my parents with my very limited skills! I figured I might as well bring them back up to Derby with me, and have a play around when I get bored, and boy am I glad that I did. We have just recently met this guy called Iain, who is incredible at poi. I haven’t really met anyone else over in England who had heard of Poi, let alone able to do it! It was so exciting. The other night he came over, and we had a bit of a mini lesson out in my recently patio-ed back garden, and he taught me so many new moves. I had forgotten what it was like to have a teacher and trying to learn out of a book, or off the Internet. It always makes things so much easier when you an actually watch somebody doing it. He taught me the basics of how to a ‘Backwards Weave’, which I was struggling with and couldn’t get my head round. But that night, it just wasn’t working, so I gave up on that one. Then last night, I was a bit bored, and needed something to do to get rid of the excess energy I had. I picked up the Poi, determined to figure out the ‘Backwards Weave’. So I stood there, and played around and then after countless bruises to my back, ribs, hands and yes, even my ears, I DID IT!!!!! It was incredible! There are so many more moves you can you once you know this one. I was so excited, and just kept doing it over and over again! I didn’t want to stop, in case I couldn’t do it again! But I tried doing some other moves, and then went back to it, and I could still do it. I am proud of myself for sticking with it, and overcoming the urge to just give up, and I’m proud of Iain for showing me how to do it.
As I sit at work and write this all I want to do is go home and play some more! Only 6 hours to go!