Angela Wooi is our very talented Arts tutor who teaches a range of creative courses from Drawing & Painting to Belly Dancing! With a background of working as a multidisciplinary artist in illustration, collage, textiles and as a trained dancer, Angela has a wealth of creative experience to share with her students.
She graduated with a BA degree in Fine Art from Wimbledon School of Art and KIAD, before becoming a dancer, choreographer, and artistic director where she performed and exhibited her creative work across the UK and abroad. Ten years ago, Angela returned to fine art in Margate, where she is also actively involved with the Power of Women Festival and Margate Pride, as well as hosting a weekly radio show on Repeater Radio.
Angela is inspired by all female artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Penny Slinger, Judy Chicago, Yayoi Kusama, Dorothy Tanning and Betye Saar, who she says have struggled to be seen or get an artistic education.
She enjoys teaching and seeing her students progress in her class and says: “I love it when students feel they can express themselves creatively with pens, paints or through movement, coming together playing, learning and having fun with no pressure in a non-judgmental environment. Sometimes over the years we lose confidence in our abilities and its pure joy to see students regain and rediscover that. You’re never too old to pick up a paint brush or to move to music.”
Angela says she tries to make her lessons fun and informative where she encourages experimenting new things as well as learning technical skills in a supportive environment. She says: “I have recently involved my students in a famous event called Margate Made. It was great and all the learners loved getting involved with the community!”
Her classes incorporate learning and developing creativity from people of all walks of life. She says: “I am dual heritage and that’s made me aware of the lack of diversity and equality sometimes in the Arts. It’s important to me we get opportunity through art and dance to find out about other cultures, women artists, LGTBQTIA and BIPOC artists in all fields.”
Angela’s Art courses involve basic and technical skills in drawing, observation, colour theory and painting (watercolour gouache acrylic). Each term will look at a range of core subjects such as portraiture, figure drawing, landscapes, seascapes, still life, building and perspective. As well as tutor demonstrations and fun exercises there will also be theory-based learning, looking at an eclectic mix of artists ranging from 19th century to contemporary.
Her Dance courses involve a safe and effective warm up to improve stamina, coordination, flexibility and to help maintain mobility. This is then followed by step combinations, improvisation, and choreography techniques for Egyptian and other Middle eastern dance styles, while learning about the culture.
