By Gianna Kozaczka
Most everyone in this world dances in their own way. There’s contemporary dance, ballet, hip-hop and many more forms. Another form of dance, which is unlike any other is flow dance or flowarts. It’s called flow because you use inanimate objects and synchronize it into dance, which causes it all to come alive and all flow together. While doing this all other issues go away, your mind opens and it’s all about the dance. With lots of practice you learn to flow with different objects such as hula hoops, staffs, poi and spheres.
There are many people in Batavia High School that do flow arts. I asked Batavia High School student and Hula hooper Bri Houde to explain hula hooping for her and what it made her feel like. “Hula hooping really just empties my mind and that’s why I started in the first place,” Houde said. “If you like to dance flow arts is the way to go.”
A girl that would like to remain anonymous told me an intriguing story about her teen years as a flow artist. When she was 16 she fell in love with a older poi artist. Poi is an artform where you’re swinging two tethered weights. She ended up moving in with him and he started to abuse her. Her only form of happiness was through poi and other flow arts. Flowing is really good for helping with anxiety or depression and just releasing all negative energy in general. That’s why most people start flowing.
“Gloving to me is an escape from reality where I’m able to be in control of what I make and manipulate. It’s a form of self expression and I love doing it to relieve stress and anxiety,” said Omar Ahmed, a finger tutter from Aurora. You can see that people love the way you can just create your own style or flow while clearing your mind.
Flow arts is not just something you do during your free time. It’s a lifestyle. Once you start with one instrument you just want to start learning other forms. “For me flow art is a science,” said Chris Iteen, “There are many things to be manipulated: speed, negative space. You have to pay attention to time patterns, symmetry, focal points and grid work”.
As you can see flow arts is something that many people do. Many do it for exercise. Not just for the body but also for the soul. There are many different variations of this art form. I personally think that this is so that everyone can pick a specific one that suits them.
