“QiGoth” (from Qigong) teacher Santana tells us about the alternative wellness approach she adopts for her Warrior Healing work. Visitors to ArcTanGent this year will be able to catch a bit of a demo from her at our stall on the Friday.
Roll up your yoga mats, sleeves and unhealthy coping mechanisms, it’s time for a new player to join the board. A form of MOVEMENT for health and wellbeing, that’s unmistakably niche, is here!
Meet QiGoth, the w(H)ell-being brainchild of precursory Social worker come Burlesque performer, and presently disabled baddy Qigong Teacher, Santana Hard-Corr. Also yes, that’s my legal name, but I’ve felt less than hardcore through the, sometimes, terrible tribulations of life.
Let’s break QiGoth down because I know I’m bringing something completely new to most people with Qigong, and then mixing it with an alternative landscape, just to make it notably obscure.
Qi who?> I hear you say
In all honesty, qi can be a lot of things, it can actually be whatever you want it to be. Power from the underworld? Sure! A kick in the balls of the mitochondria? Absolutely. The dark matter that forges most of the unseen universe and has the potential for great unimaginable change. Hell yeah!
Goth What? >Ok, I think you probably have a bit of an idea for this part.
Imagine an unforgettable shadowy soundscape caressing your flowing movements and your marked soul. The translation I use in pinyin Mandarin and logogram translates as “Qi Dark”. So it will be more than traditional goth (but plenty of The Cure still!!). I curate the playlists with black metal, dark wave, Norwegian battle cries and a healthy amount of alternative classics too.
Add it together and you get > QiGoth > Ancient Movement for Modern Weirdos.
Qigong, is the more traditional use though, if you’re not an elder emo. You have probably heard of Tai Chi, well let me tell you (and anyone who will listen actually) that Qigong is the OG, the healing birth mother of Tai Chi and the most ancient form of these slow controlled movements that combine Traditional Chinese Medicine, meditation and exercise to bring you a complete mind, body and spirit practice.
Qigong, Pronounced “Chi Gong” is more than an exercise though, it’s an art form that summons energy. Representing as a Witch and also a Jedi at times, I’d be lying if it said there’s no magic at all.
It’s used to battle life, cultivate energy and produce inner self-protection.
To be clear, I do not think this can be a replacement for therapy or medication, those things are vital for my survival, but now so is qigong, and if I can bring it to a totally new group of people, and help them in some way, that’s what I’m going to do.
My experience of Mental Health unfortunately started when I was young and shaped me hugely. I lived in a council house with my mum, my dad and bipolar disorder, although in those days it was just known as manic depression and it was also never talked about. It was bad, sometimes violent but always with an unmistakable soundtrack. He was a drummer, singer, band manager and record label owner, he was also mentally unwell.
After his suicide, my own experience with mental health would forge me further on this path. Supported fiercely by my goth to hippy mother and his, unfortunately, shocked friends, from bands like Extreme Noise Terror and The Addicts, I would go on to study Social Sciences and Social Work at University.
I became an expert in Trauma, Mental Health and Disability.
After becoming fully disabled at 26, from worsening hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and its co-morbid friends, I spent a significant amount of time housebound or needing to use a wheelchair to get around. I completely lost my mobility and I was in pain all the time. The whole time, I was also fighting lifelong and debilitating, genetic influenced, mental illness and suicidal ideation.
It took me 10 years BUT I actually got better. I discovered Qigong, in my living room, with YouTube as my faithful guide. I had no idea about its potential, I was just searching for alternatives to yoga, as I like yoga but my joints do not. Qigong is completely accessible, you don’t need equipment, you don’t have to get on the floor and it’s suitable for EVERYbody.
Since then, undertaking a level 7 Qigong Instructor course with the University of Wales and continuing to study and practice three different forms of qigong, to blend my own unique and approachable and accessible style. I also became a Music Therapy Practitioner and Trauma-Informed Practitioner to support everything I want to do with QiQoth.
What I unexpectedly discovered was how helpful it can be for my mental health. I know Qigong sounds a bit “woo woo” but I am driven by science, particularly the neuro variety. Qigong works with the Nervous system. This is partly what makes it so impactful. You get all the benefits of meditation and breathwork, but you don’t have to sit still, and as a neurodivergent person, it was a revelation!
It gives you the mental space to process and work through the shit and it gives an actual lesson to your vagus nerve. You are teaching that, main character energy, cranial nerve, which reaches out to all your vital organs, to turn off the fight and flight mechanism. In today’s world, it is usually triggered by terrifying ordeals like having to make a phone call and then stays on forever more because of the general pace and experience of a modern-day existence.
So we start to access our natural self-healing state, and then vitally, I believe now that, movement is medicine.
We are all going through something, we are all processing something and we are all fighting something. We are warriors and this is something we can do together and claim back our physical and mental health.
I hope to bring QiGoth, a spin-off project of my Community Interest Company Warrior Healing to alternative festivals, invoke unique ritual gatherings with live sound and lightscapes in London and hold classes (with container space to chat) on Zoom from October. Festival goers can catch a class of QiGoth with me, and a sound awakening with Metal Health Therapy at Arctangent this August!
Yours Qifully,
Santana Hard-Corr
Heavy Metal Therapy 