While I have yet to take a formal class on the New Zealand-born art of Poi, I have increasingly amp’ed up my own exploration of poi-inspired hooping techniques in recent months and it has proven more powerful for bilateral brain strengthening than most other movement paths I have explored in this lifetime. The basic motion of poi hooping movement involves circles and figure 8s~ infinite shapes that create infinite flow. As a pianist plays one chord with one hand, and another chord with the other, so does a flow artist trace one path with one hand, and another path with the other, while often times crossing the midline of the body & brain~ a critical tool for enhancing neural connections from your brain’s right hemisphere to the left hemisphere. Back and forth, over and over, this criss-crossing & ever-circling figure 8 pattern helps the merging of one’s emotional and rational facilities and in turn eases emotional trauma and improves coordination & mood, among many other health benefits. I’m excited to continue to share more of the poi-style hooping in my classes with both adults & youth, as I think it’s an underutilized & invaluable tool in overall flow technique, shoulder-arm-wrist-hand strength/flexibility, & breadth of one’s off-core hoopdancing repertoire. A big thank you goes out to the several poi & hoop artists that have shared technical know-how with me in the last 6 months to acquire certain moves that would have been tricky if not impossible for me to have mastered on my own. In flowing & infinitely loving gratitude~