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Kate's Biography
Born 18th December 1975 under Sagittarius fire sign, at Guildford Royal Hospital to James Wright and Penny Baker, I was brought up an agnostic. As an adult I discovered God and benefit everyday having Him in my life, and as such have met some wonderful spiritual teachers along the way and discovered meditation and poi as a place of peace combined with my spiritual beliefs.
Like most people I come from a split family extending out in many directions. My dad’s partners children are also now poi,er. Rihanna even danced with poi on TV in 2009 teaching other children and their tv presenter which made me feel so proud.
All of my family have benefited from poi, especially the changes in myself and my attitude towards my friends and family. They often come to shows and always support me.
Growing up I enjoyed horse riding, ballet, disco dancing, gymnastics, modern dance and participated in many shows and competitions for both dancing and horse riding, which gave me my first taste for performing - I'd constantly make up dance routines and perform for my friends and family in our living room.
School was tricky. I left without any qualifications mainly due to becoming disillusioned by the system through being dyslexic. I did, however, represent my school as their main runner in short and long distances, was their high jump champion and also enjoyed netball, rounders, long jump and hurdles.
At age 7 I was confirmed as having dyslexia and at the time this meant I became a special needs child and put into a special school with extra lessons with the head teacher and staff. This destroyed my self esteem as I started to be bullied for being different. I rebelled and first ran away from home when I was 12 years old, then again at 14. The bullying continued throughout my school life and I was relieved to leave the secondary school system.
Convinced that I was never good enough I forced myself to go onto college to study hairdressing which somehow led to me taking an NVQ in care work. I had a steady stream of jobs, and was intent on settling down and having a family as I felt this was what society expected of me.
A part of me was constantly restless in this role I had cast myself in, in my heart I knew there must be more to life than this and found it difficult to settle. I flitted between many jobs, including chamber maid, cleaner, care assistant, day care assistant, bar manager, hostess, gardener, milk deliverer, dry cleaner, shop manager, until 1999 when a traumatic incident changed my outlook forever.
Fire, in my home. Destroyed everything I held dear to me, all my material possessions were gone and if it hadn't been for a friend who saved my life I wouldn't be here either. Witnessing the power and destruction fire can bring shook me up and I had to up and leave to try and calm the inner torment I felt raging inside of me.
In 2000 I found myself in Israel, which is where I feel my story truly begins.
As I looked across the room my eyes fixed on a beautiful lady dancing with long white chiffon ribbons. She moved and flowed so gracefully I could not take my eyes off her. A sense of peace and serenity ebbed from her movements and I was transfixed. She became my angel. From this moment on I knew I had to learn the art of poi.
The following morning, still almost hypnotised by her movements I bought my first set of poi from the Caramel Market. Not put off with my own lack of co-ordination I was stubborn in my enthusiasm to create the same spell as the angel. Something deep inside of me fell in love with the flow and still to this day, 10 years on, I will never forget that angel in Israel who led me to the poi flow.
After discovering my angel in Israel I thought I must have found what I was looking for. Travelling on I kept training in poi and passed through Thailand and India teaching English. When I made it over to Greece I was good enough to perform fire shows of an evening and make and sell poi during the day, which is how I spent everyday.
After making it back home to the UK I felt I might have been the only poi'er in the country. No-one knew what poi was and it became harder to make a living teaching as so few people understood what it really was. Determined to share my new found freedom and independence through dance I was undeterred and set up Poi Passion to educate people in the art of poi and give them what I so craved in my early days – a teacher! I have made it my mission in life to teach poi and bring that serenity I initially found within my angel, to anyone who wants to learn.
Through these experiences I'm so happy each time I'm able to help a child with dyslexia and other special needs as I feel like I'm reliving the childhood I could have had if I had discovered poi earlier in life. I have researched how poi can benefit these children and now can teach in schools and youth clubs working on the children's concentration levels through the art of poi.
I now spend my life working towards learning new moves, creating new poi routines for Poi Passion's dance troupe, passing on the teachings of poi as well as extending my spiritual learning into the rest of my life through meditating, eating well, gardening, walking, tai chi, attending spiritual workshops and trying to be the best I possibly can to myself, friends and family. Poi has brought me into a performers world and I now find myself branching out learning circus skills, slack rope, trapeze, and anything new and exciting I can get my hands on.
Poi has given me life and a meaning to what I do, it has shown me how to believe in the universe and through poi I have found God and through God I have found myself. I can now be kind to myself, love myself and feel the same for others. After letting go of so much unwanted baggage I am truly free and never do I feel this more than when dancing in the flow of poi. I can let go of old patterns and resentment, feel the universe overflow with love and work with a natural rhythm flowing with the poi celebrating the sun, moon and all elements of life.
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