Ten Confidence Tips I learned from Dancing with Fire Poi

A few years ago I saw someone dance with fire poi, and I just had to learn how to do it for myself.  Fire poi are essentially 2 chains with weighted wicks at the end dipped in paraffin and set alight and then swung about the body in amazing patterns. The picture is of my first ever poi fire-dance which I performed at a friend’s party. (I love how I have 8 arms and no head!). Fire dancing is one of the most thrilling things I have done. The sound of the fire roaring past your ears is phenomenal!  For Christmas one of my presents was a private lesson later this month so I can get better at it.  

I’ve learned a few things about fire poi dancing that you can extrapolate to life and I thought I would share.

1. You rarely get a move right the first time you do it.  However good you are technically, when you learn a new move you look like a novice again.  There is no dignity in learning a new move.  Flailing arms, hitting yourself and tangled poi strings are an inevitable factor of learning.  In life we make one mistake and beat ourselves up saying, “Look I made a mistake I’m clearly not meant to do this.”  With poi you learn not to give up at the first hurdle.  You develop the confidence to carry on, even when it seems hard.

2. You might not be able to do a something well, even after the 50th attempt.  It takes a lot of practise to perfect some moves. Persistence is the name of the game – ( I will learn to do a behind-the-back weave, I really will!).  It’s frustrating, there’s no denying it. But if you give up you will never get what you want.  Obviously don’t start learning a new move with fire poi.  Get the softest training poi you can to practise with and only set some poi alight when you know with 100% confidence that you can do the move.

3. To do a move well you have to be totally committed to it.  This is probably the most important point in the list.  There are no half measures in spinning otherwise you hit yourself which isn’t nice even if the poi aren’t on fire (they hurt!).  The problem is that if you are frightened of hitting yourself then you probably will because you won’t putting all your effort into a move when fear holds you back.  Doubt hurts when it smacks you hard in the face!

4. It’s not the moves that you do, it’s the way that you do them that makes the performance good.  Moving your body in time to the music, smiling and having rhythm can make even the most basic butterfly look impressive.  Sometimes the simplest things done with flare and self-confidence outperform the flashy technically good performance because they carry energy and enthusiasm which is what your audience connects with.

5. Take adequate safety precautions (e.g. protect your hair, be fuel safe and have a fire blanket handy) but don’t let fear stop you fire dancing.  The swoosh of fire spinning past your ears is exhilarating.  Fire spinning can never be 100% safe so minimise the risks as much as possible and then jump in enthusiastically and enjoy the ride.

6. Love the dip, love the plateau. See this blog post.    Sometimes you will pick up your poi and just can’t seem to do even the most basic moves.  You plateau and can’t progress or even more upsetting you get worse!  This is inevitable.  When this happens you need to put down the poi and go and do something else for a bit.  When you pick them up again suddenly the move will click into place and you will be even better than before.  This has happened to me so many times that I expect it to happen now.  I’ve found that a dip or plateau in performance means that I are about to make a big leap forward so learn to love it when this happens.

7. It is fun being the centre of attention for a while.  Even though I don’t normally like being centre stage, having all your friends watch you perform feels wonderful especially when they clap or gasp in wonder!  Drink it up and enjoy the praise – it’s a wonderful confidence booster and you’ve earned it.

8. Keep learning, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut.  Watch others, read – share tips and tricks with others either online or in person.  There will always be someone who has something to teach you.  Keep experimenting.  Once you have learnt a move, learn to do it in the opposite direction, split time, on a different plane.   Be creative and invent new ways of doing things then share with others.

9. Spinning Poi raises your energy.  There are essentially two moves in poi – spinning circles or spinning figures of eight.  All moves are a variation on those themes.  These movements get your chi, blood and lymph moving around your body and is a great workout too.  Who said exercise had to be dull?

10. It is big, hard and cool to play with fire! ‘Nuff said!

And for some inspiration- this video is amazing! I love how the dancers are in total harmony and trust together. Something to aspire to!