About Andy – your poi tutor
The poi lessons are held by Andy Holdsworth from Circus Wunderbar. Andy is a well known poi performer with years of experience in stage performance.
He has been teaching beginner and intermediate poi for more than a decade and has not only the skills , but the ability to break down and explain complex patterns that they are easy to understand and learn.
Why Learn Poi?
Enhance Your Stage Presence
Learning poi can significantly elevate your stage presence and captivate audiences with mesmerizing visuals and fluid movements. As you spin and weave the weighted tethers, each graceful motion creates striking patterns of light and form, instantly commanding attention.
The beautiful rhythms and dynamic flow of poi add an unmistakable energy to your performance, allowing you to engage the crowd with a truly entrancing display.
Whether incorporated into dance routines, fire spinning acts, or as a standalone art form, the mastery of poi equips you with a powerful tool to leave a lasting impression and heighten the overall spectacle of your stage presence.
Build Coordination and Focus
Practising poi is an excellent way to cultivate coordination, focus, and a profound mind-body connection. As you engage in the intricate movements required to manipulate the weighted tethers, your brain and muscles must work in harmony.
Each spin, toss, and intricate pattern demands precise timing and spatial awareness, challenging you to develop impeccable hand-eye coordination. The repetitive yet dynamic nature of poi spinning also hones your ability to maintain unwavering focus, as even a momentary lapse in concentration can disrupt the flow.
Over time, this practice forges a deep sense of mindfulness, enabling you to stay firmly grounded in the present moment.
By mastering the art of poi, you’ll gain heightened proprioception, improved reaction time, and a heightened capacity for sustained concentration – invaluable skills that extend far beyond the realm of performance.
Our Poi Lessons for Performers
Beginner Level
For beginners, we start with the essential moves. The 2 Beat and 3 Beat Weaves, which introduce the concept of weaving the poi in intricate patterns around the body.
The Butterfly and Thread the Needle further challenge coordination, teaching spinners to manipulate the poi in closely entwined paths.
The Windmill and the Reels (Hip and Shoulder) introduce vertical and horizontal plane movements, essential for fluid transitions between moves.
Chasing the Sun is a visually captivating pattern that involves circular movements above the head, offering a glimpse into more advanced techniques.
Additionally, an introduction to Stalls marks a crucial skill in controlling the poi’s momentum, allowing for dramatic pauses and direction changes in a routine. Alongside these practical skills, understanding poi terminology is vital, providing beginners with the language to learn, communicate, and grow within the poi spinning community.
The poi workshop was awesome. Andy is so knowledgeable and patient the support was great. Really friendly, fun atmosphere and Andy even helped me after the workshop to get my three beat weave. Would highly recommend! (Tattobeth – fire performer and pole artist)
Intermediate Level
To best allow the poi performers transition from beginner to intermediate and advanced levels, we expand the repertoire significantly and include a diverse array of sophisticated moves and concepts that challenge both precision and creativity.
At this stage, we delve in our lessons into variations of Weaves, exploring different grips, directions, and planes to add depth to their flow. Fountains integrate vertical and horizontal planes in a continuous, flowing motion, demonstrating the spinner’s ability to move seamlessly between movements.
Flowers and CAPS (Continuous Assembly Poi Spinning) represent a leap in complexity, you will learn to incorporate arm movements that trace geometric patterns, while the poi extend these shapes with their own paths.
This creates visually stunning effects that are hallmarks of advanced poi spinning. Stalls become more nuanced, with spinners learning to halt the poi’s momentum in various positions, enabling sudden shifts in direction or the initiation of new patterns.
The introduction of movement and dance principles marks a significant evolution, encouraging you to use your entire body and the space around them, transforming poi spinning from a series of moves into a dynamic performance art.
Building hybrid flower patterns, where different movements are combined into a single, fluid sequence, challenges spinners to push the boundaries of coordination and rhythm, resulting in a highly personalised and expressive form of poi artistry.
Our advanced lessons not only refine technical skills but also foster a deeper connection between you, the poi, and the surrounding space, enabling you to perform poi at a high level and including it in other performances.
I attended a poi workshop with Andy last month. I would put myself as a beginner improver and Andy showed us so many tricks we could work up to as well as ones I was able to walk away with. He made the atmosphere super fun and didn’t mind when I through my poi across the class. He had tricks for everyone at different levels and even showed things we could work up to. I would highly recommend Andy for teaching and look forward to returning again! Becky Power (Dancer / Aerialist / Singer / Fire performer)
Contact us now to find out more about our next poi lessons for performers.
