Isa
Isaacs founded the Temple of Poi, a school and community
dedicated to empowering artists to gain greater facility
with their body movement and increased body awareness through
the use of poi and other flow tools. In doing so, she was
able to draw upon distinctions from her diverse background
and 15 years experience in systems engineering, computer
consulting, customer support, courseware development, training,
marketing, project implementation and department management.
While her career in the computer industry garnered her financial
success and various awards for performance excellence, Isa
sought to integrate her artistic passion and creative desires
with her entrepreneurial spirit which has resulted in building
the premier poi school in the world.
In addition to her corporate career, Isa spent over 25
years exploring various music projects and instruments
including voice, flute, electronic music composition,
and has written, recorded and published a CD of original
songs performed on piano.
Initially drawn to San Francisco dance parties because
of the music, she began dancing to the electronic beats
in 1998 and after two years, she found poi. Over the next
two years, she developed and honed her artistic skills.
In February 2001 she left her corporate job and became a
professional poi fire and light dancer.
Isa established The Temple of Poi in the Summer of 2002.
Isa believed that teaching the art form would enable her
to have the greatest possibility for mastery and could raise
the awareness and standards for poi artists everywhere.
Recognizing her own limitations as an artist, student and
instructor, Isa applied her systems engineering background
to her poi studies. By Spring of 2004, Isa distinguished
a structural model of poi to guide her development. As a
result of the dramatically accelerated learning Isa experienced
through her poi rEvolution model, Winter 2004 brought 6
new classes to the school and by Spring of 2005, the model
emerged as the basis for all new poi class offerings.
In addition to offer the 1000 person client base over
30 different poi classes, Temple of Poi has emerged as
a popular dance studio in San Francisco. In 2006, Temple
of Poi won their second Best of the Bay award for "Best
Dance Studio." In support of the fire dance, Temple of
Poi sponsors an annual Fire Dancing Expoosition in San
Francisco's landmark location, Union Square.
Isa, also known by her performance name "GlitterGirl",
has been internationally recognized as a leading performer
by being featured as a finalist in the Circle of Lights
4 and Circle of Lights 5 videos. Her competence
and attractiveness translates well to film and her fire
dancing has been featured in a commercial for Pioneer Sound
Systems. She is currently performing both as a solo artist
and with her the Temple of Poi dancers.
Isa has been a guest and co-host on San Francisco radio
show Reality Sandwich aired on KPOO.
Isa and the Temple of Poi were featured in a business
profile in the San Jose Mercury News in April,
2005; SF
Weekly
cover story in November, 2004; won Best of the
Bay awards in July, 2004 and 2006, have been highlighted
in the Golden Gate [X]Press, Dance
Spirit Magazine, Hooping.org and were featured on the front page of the Living Section
of the San
Francisco Chronicle in August of 2003. They
were also featured in February 2007, Isa and Temple of
Poi were featured on KRNV television news
in Reno, Nevada.
When she is not teaching, performing or developing the
Temple of Poi, she can be found pursuing her own evolution
and development in body, mind and spirit, bringing the wisdom
she gains to the school and community. |