POI Spinning Workshop!!!

On 15th November here at ISH there was a FREE POI spinning workshop. Hands up if you dont know what POI is?! OK, OK, put your hands down and let me explain….

” Poi” originates from the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand and simply means “ball”. For over a thousand years Maori women have danced the Maori Poi, a dance with balls attached to strings, swung rhythmically to keep their hands flexible for weaving and also to provide entertainment. This has now evolved and there are many variations including Fire POI, LED POI and Sock POI spinning. It is used in schools to promote a link between sports and arts, to improve co-ordination and physical confidence. POI spinning has also been used to help with injured joints and to improve muscle strength.

Here are the students learning POI spinning at ISH:

So last week Mandy, our lovely facilitator from Perfect Circle POI came to ISH and ran a fantastic POI Spinning workshop. We started with having our POI measured to make sure they were the right length (and we werent going to be whacking each other with our new toys!) and then we started learing basic spinning moves.  Mandy showed us a variety of spinning techniques, from forward/backwards spinning – to turns and kicks. and let me tell you, it is a LOT harder than it looks!!!

After practicing the spinning moves and hitting myself several times on the arm/leg/back/bum with them, which luckily didnt hurt too much, I started to feel quite confident with the moves. There was a lot to take in, but the satisfaction of getting a move right was soooooooooo good! We were soon spinning our POI to music and Mandy came round and helped us sort out any problems we were having, giving handy hints and tips, such as ‘if you cant make it, fake it’. which I personally think is good advice in many of lifes challenges…!

For the final part of the workshop we were spilt into pairs and given time to create a short piece, spinning our POI to music and showing which moves we had conquered! Each group did really well and everyone had learned a selection of moves which they were happy with. This was a really nice workshop and everyone had plenty of opportuity to talk with the other students and make a new friend or too, which is also what the culture nights are about!

The POI Spinning was a two hour workshop, open to all student members of ISH – absolutely FREE! Sign up to our ISH newsletter to make sure you are the first to know what December’s culture night will be: http://www.ishevents.org/contact-us/newsletter-signup

See more photos of the POI Spinning workshop here: http://www.ishevents.org/useful/gallery 

Find out more about Mandy’s fabulous POI spinning classes here: http://www.perfectcirclepoi.co.uk/ 

Watch Fire POI in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDAI_mWHYc

Tags: Culture night, Free Event!, ISH Events