Poi may be combined with Spanish, yoga, surfing or scuba certification courses
Although poi courses continue throughout the year, we have a workshop this July 18-24, 2010 with special guest Zan Moore. Check our Special Poi Workshop page for more details or read on for our regular courses.
Poi originated with the Maori of New Zealand as early as 3000 BC. What was at first a training ritual used to build up strength, flexibility, and coordination has become a dazzling form of performance art. The intricate moves and combinations when augmented with fire, are guaranteed to amaze. As such, poi has recently transcended cultural boundaries and become popular all over the world.
Why Learn Poi at La Escuela Del Sol?
Besides the fact that we are the only vacation fire poi school in Central and South America, there may not be another fire poi academy as committed to individualized attention and growth as ours is. We keep fire spinning classes to a maximum of 5 students per instructor. Lessons are individual and begin with your ability when you arrive so that you can progress at your own rate. Other schools may teach 15 or 20 students at a time, introducing a lesson and moving on before the move is learned by everyone. We teach you personally until you get it. Then we build from that skill to the next logical step, until you get that too. Add our teaching philosophy to 90 minute poi lessons each and every day and it's easy to see why the rate at which our students excel is exceptional. Many have come from absolutely no experience to mastering multiple techniques and flow in a matter of weeks.
Some of the skills you can expect to learn from our poi lessons are weaves, butterfly, buzz saw, thread the needle, stalls, behind the back weaves and turns, wraps, fountains, the gremlin, mind meltdowns, straight jacket weave and butterfly, flowers and many other variations.
Beginner Poi Classes
If you are a complete beginner, in one week we can teach you the basics. It will be a good starting point to build upon with videos, research and practice when you get home. But if you really want to get good...if you want to find flow, feel it and be able to incorporate dance and movement with little thought to what the poi heads are doing, you'll need at least two weeks. Come for four weeks and you'll be astonished at how much you learn.
Intermediate and Advanced Poi Classes
With such talent coming through Montezuma as Nick Woolsey, Alien John, Burning Dan, Zan Moore, Pyrosutra and a hundred other unknown yet extremely talented street performers and artists, we're constantly studying, evolving and incorporating cutting edge tricks and concepts into our classes. If we can't keep you busy for weeks, you're probably already performing in the circus.
Some of the more advanced tricks and concepts might include behind the back (weaves and butterflies), quarter turn, half turn and full turn transitions between btb weaves and waist wraps in any and all directions, poly-rhythms on all planes (including btb), vertical stalls, one-handed butterflies and weaves, a plethora of tosses, isolations, inversions, air wraps, flowers, hyperloops, orbitals, spiral wraps, mind meltdowns, straight-jackets and crossers, anti-spins, complex transitions and a whole lot more.
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Classes involving yoga, poi and surfing, excluding combinations with Spanish, can be taken beginning on almost any Sunday (see schedule for vacation dates). For program combinations which include Spanish classes please see our "Rates and Dates" page for schedules.
Here's a look at what you can expect from our Poi or our Poi combination programs:
1 Week Poi Program
90 minutes of poi instruction, on beach or covered veranda, M-F
Guided waterfall hike
Introduction to fire safety if lighting up
6 nights accommodation at La Escuela Del Sol
2 Week Poi Program
Features of 1 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (13 nights total)
Optional zip line canopy tour or guided horseback riding to private waterfalls (weekends only)
3 Week Poi Program
Includes all features of 2 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (20 nights total)
Optional class on third Friday to allow for extended travel
4 Week Poi Program
Includes all features of 3 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (27 nights total)
4th week graduation bonfire
1 Week Spanish and Poi Program
2 hours of classroom instruction, M-F
2 hours of applied learning (in class or outside), M-F
Books and instructional materials
Introduction to fire safety if lighting up
90 minutes of poi classes, on beach or covered veranda, M-F
Guided waterfall hike
6 nights accommodation at La Escuela Del Sol
2 Week Spanish and Poi Program
Features of 1 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (13 nights total)
Optional zip line canopy tour or guided horseback riding to private waterfalls (weekends only)
3 Week Spanish and Poi Program
Includes all features of 2 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (20 nights total)
Optional class on third Friday to allow for extended travel
4 Week Spanish and Poi Program
Includes all features of 3 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (27 nights total)
4th week graduation bonfire
1 Week Yoga and Poi Program
**Popular program. Book early to guarantee enrollment**
Introduction to fire safety if lighting up
90 minutes of learning poi, on beach or covered veranda, M-F
90 minutes of Hatha Vinyasa-style Yoga, M-F
Guided waterfall hike
6 nights accommodation at La Escuela Del Sol
2 Week Yoga and Poi Program
Features of 1 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (13 nights total)
Optional zip line canopy tour or guided horseback riding to private waterfalls (weekends only)
3 Week Yoga and Poi Program
Includes all features of 2 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (20 nights total)
Optional class on third Friday to allow for extended travel
4 Week Yoga and Poi Program
Includes all features of 3 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (27 nights total)
4th week graduation bonfire
1 Week Surfing and Poi Program
**Popular program. Book early to guarantee enrollment**
Surfboard
Introduction to surfing on beach for beginners
2 hours of surfing instruction at Playa Grande, M-F
Introduction to fire safety if lighting up
90 minutes of fire poi classes, on beach or covered veranda, M-F
Guided waterfall hike
6 nights accommodation at La Escuela Del Sol
2 Week Surfing and Poi Program
Features of 1 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (13 nights total)
Optional zip line canopy tour or guided horseback riding to private waterfalls (weekends only)
3 Week Surfing and Poi Program
Includes all features of 2 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (20 nights total)
Optional class on third Friday to allow for extended travel
4 Week Surfing and Poi Program
Includes all features of 3 Week Program plus:
1 more week's accommodation (27 nights total)
4th week graduation bonfire
2 Week Poi and Scuba Program
90 minutes of poi instruction, on beach or covered veranda, M-F
Guided waterfall hike
Introduction to fire safety if lighting up
Week 1: Daily Scuba instruction in classroom, pool, beach or boat
Weekend Scuba diving from boat
Week 2: Finish last dive for certification plus 2 fun dives during week
7 total Scuba dives
Basic CPR training
Snacks and drinks on boat
Official certification card in hand before you leave
13 nights accommodation at La Escuela Del Sol
Optional zip line canopy tour or guided horseback riding to private waterfalls
For those fire dancing enthusiasts of Costa Rica, great news...we found white gas (aka gasolina blanca, aka Coleman's Camping Fuel), the ultimate fire poi fuel for fire dancing!!! After years of suppliers going dry, we found what we believe is the only supplier of Coleman's Camping Fuel (10,000 CRC) and one of the few stores who supply generic gasolina blanca (8,000 CRC) in Costa Rica. The more who buy from them, the more likely they'll continue to supply the fuel, so please tell everyone who needs fuel to contact:
Muņoz y Nanne
2253-4646
Near San Pedro Mall in San Jose
They are a Costa Rican branch of the True Value Hardware chain
Lamp Oil:
Various stores around Costa Rica sell lamp oil, known as "aceite de lampara" (15,000 CRC), notably Cemaco department stores in and around San Jose. You may be lucky enough to find it in other hardware stores around the country.
Kerosene:
If you're desperate and nowhere near San Jose, ask for Canfin, pronounced "canfeen", at your local gas station or hardware store. It's cheap, burns a little dirty, but it's your third best bet. Most hardware stores carry it.
For more information about our Costa Rica fire poi classes, please Contact Us.
The following articles paint a general picture of a LEDS Poi vacation but may bore you out of your mind!: