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Meet the Woman Who Brought Professional Poi Spinning to Egypt

November 7, 2021
Genena performing with the fire poi. Photo taken by Randa Said.

While working at a South Sinai camp in 2015, Donia Genena recalls how one of the camp’s guests left behind a fire poi, which comprises two round weights tethered by a string. Intrigued, she picked them up and attempted to understand what they were, when one of the camp’s guests, a young Indian woman, approached her and asked to use them. The guest began swaying them around in harmonious fashion as Genena watched, her curiosity growing with each rhythmic movement. Genena asked her what this type of dance was called, to which the woman responded with: “Poi Spinning.” It may have seemed like a random sequence of events at the time, but it resulted in a ripple effect that helped Genena discover her passion for a unique art form for the first time; a passion that would soon encourage her to teach poi spinning to more than 200 individuals. “I got hooked immediately,” she recalls. What is Poi Spinning? Poi spinning is a form of dance characterized by weights (or poi balls) that are tethered together and swung around to form different patterns. The dance originated in the Maori culture…


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