The Art Of Flow

Josie Mae is a contemporary circus artist and social circus educator specializing in club juggling and manipulation. They are coordinator and coach with The Voice Project - a youth training company that uses circus as an inquiry for social justice and systemic oppression - an extension of The Circus Project’s Pathways programming. Her passion for this work utilizes community organization, trauma-informed practices, and a holistic and intersectional educational lens. They have served on the International Jugglers Association (IJA) board and is the current World Juggling Day program director. They’ve also gone on tour with Clowns Without Borders - USA.

Don’t miss out on the upcoming Feminist Juggling Panel, on Sunday, July 19th which was mentioned and by Josie in this interview (she is moderating it)!

Feminist Juggling Panel – part of the IJA E-festival (https://www.juggle.org/festival/) on Sunday July 19th @ 10:00 am PST

In collaboration with and broadcast on Circus Talk (FB: @CircusTalk)

Hear the experiences of women (cis and trans) and those under the non-binary umbrella in the juggling community, and discussion of queer and trans issues, intersectionality, gender inclusion, allyship, and the future of diversity-focused discussions & initiatives

Register for the panel here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xk4gqnb5QjO-3IhVtQl85A

Panelists include: Sonal Aggarwal, West Desert Rose, Mellionare, Love Michalla Lynn, Dallys Newton, and Lucy Juggles

Connect with Josie even more and stay up to date with her creations:

Website - www.josiejuggles.com

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/josiejuggles

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/josiejuggles

https://www.facebook.com/jugglearoundtheworld

The Art of Flow (artofflowpodcast.com) is a free public resource for creators, teachers, and supporters of the arts who are interested in flow arts and fire-dancing. It is creativity, flow arts, and fire dancing podcast that is available for mainstream distribution and provides inspiration for artists and conversations on the creative process.

The podcast is available for download and listening via the following Platforms: iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Play, and www.artofflowpodast.com

Explore how to connect to your body, mind, and soul using movement arts and creative exploration by talking with movement artists, flow artists, and fire dancers. Support the podcast to earn early access full-length interviews, submit questions for interviewees, win freebies, and more by becoming a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=15511651

Inspired by the month of February, so often associated with love, join in an episode that examines the love of flow! Compiled from all the interviews since the creation of the Art of Flow in 2018, jump into hearing individuals flow stories, what keeps folks spinning, why fire-dancing and flow arts is important in their lives. Ask yourself, what creative outlets do you have and what do they bring to your life?

Photo Credits for cover art

Top Right: Photo of Dresden Blue by Juan Davila

Top Middle: Photo of Duncan Greenwood

Top Left: Photo of Troy Grisa

Bottom Left: Photo of Aileen Lawlor by Jerimiah Johnston

Bottom Middle: Photo of Xander Paris

Bottom Right: Photo of Dyami Kaplan

Ronan McLoughlin: [00:00:00] Depending on how I'm feeling on a particular day, I'm either going to be more predisposed to stress or can be more resilient. And that goes down to the basis of how my system operates, I feel. So whether that's how my physical body is working. Have I been, have I been using that well, have I've been doing good things for that so that things are running smoothly with that basis. Then also for all the different aspects of my mind as well. So have I been using my mind well. What if I could consuming. With my body and my brain. What are you putting into this? This mix that makes that makes me up and if I keep putting in good wholesome stuff and leads to more wholesome results. If I've been putting in less wholesome stuff, I get less wholesome result. So I think does a lot of stuff, Can we kind of invest in that? Can we try to take care or ourselves, I guess?

Morgan Dolginow: [00:00:56] Ronan is an innovative poi spinner that travels the world teaching and performing? He is the originator of Contact Poi and has spoken on Ted X about learning to learn. That was an excerpt from Ronan McLoughlin's episode on Awareness in which he discusses self-care. Keeping that in mind, how have we been taking care of ourselves? How can we make sure that we are consuming something that fulfills us? What about what we are listening to? In honor of the month of February, so often focused on love, whether it be relationships, self-love, appreciating friends and family are loving to observe the hallmark industrial capitalistic takeover of holidays present and marketing around us, you know, whenever floats your boat,

Morgan Dolginow: [00:01:41] I wanted to take a moment to examine our love of flow. So many wonderful individuals have spoken about flow and their lives, flow arts, dancing, creativity and what inspires them since the Art of Flow began in 2018. What do they share that reminds us why we love flow? Let's listen, and as an extra challenge, can you pick out what episode each person was in? If you can figure it out, post your answer on the Art of Flow group on Facebook, where you can connect with other listeners and maybe you'll earn a prize.

Tani Olhanski: [00:02:17] My name's Tani. Poi was kind of like I have to spin this to be able to spin fire. It was never like that love at first sight, I held these things in my hand and was like, "Ahhh, this is it" and one day one of my friends calls me up and he's like, "Hey, I found this group of people in Dolores Park" and I was like, "what?" She was like, "they are like spinning poi and stuff, they're like, doing your thing that you do and you should go hang out with them. Practice with them." It's like, yeah. Where are they? And so I went down and it was DoloFlow. And so I started going and I think it was either my first or second day there,

Tani Olhanski: [00:02:54] someone I don't remember who was had a dragonstaff and I picked up and was like, oooo I like this. And I spent the whole day spinning it and I was hooked from then. Every time I was around dragonstaff, I grab one. And then that opened the floodgates where everything else that came after.

[00:03:15] Aileen discovered an enthusiasm towards the flow arts after moving to San Francisco in 2004 and delving into the practice of Poi, contact staff, and flow wand.

Aileen Lawlor: [00:03:24] We drove to the Rainbow Gathering, it happened in a random national park throughout the country. And this time we were lucky because it was pretty close by. So this must have been in '98, 1998. You know, it's just like this total hippie fest where everyday's camping out, and I remember seeing this girl spend fire poi right as the sun was going down and it just it clicked for me. There's something about the fire, there was something about the movement that felt like, "OK, this is the type of movement that my body can do." And I had a feeling that I was gonna be able to do it well. So I knew that, that was the thing that I wanted to do in the future. When I moved to San Francisco in 2004, I went with the specific goal of learning fire poi to enhance my resumé as an actor. So studying acting in New York and I thought, ...

Krystin Railing is a classically trained dancer and a professionally trained circus performer and has performed across the United States and internationally as a professional juggler and hula hooper.

Performing hula hoops since 2009, she has appeared at Seaport Village Buskers Festival, the Fringe Festival, The House of Blues, and on Norwegian Cruise Lines, among other venues. She has been featured on numerous news programs, late-night talk shows, magazines, newspapers, and blogs for her incredible skills.

In 2011, Krystin created Circus Mafia, an International Talent Agency for Circus performers, to support the careers of over 100 circus performers on 3 continents including North America, Europe, and Australia.

In addition to her performance experience, she was the Communications Director for the International Jugglers Association in 2019 and is a certified Firewalking Instructor and Empowerment Coach through The Firewalking Center.

In 2019, Krystin founded the Performer’s Guide, a Business Coaching and Mentorship program that is designed for professional performers who are looking to take their career to the next level.

Stay in contact on social media!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theperformersguide/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theperformersguide

Website: https://krystinrailing.com/the-performers-guide/

Liz Knights is an avid flow artist specializing in poi, buugeng and hooping. She has taught at numerous flow festivals, organized the Ladies of Tech Poi collaboration series, and has recently been getting into teaching private online poi lessons.

In non-pandemic-times, she runs a Boston-based entertainment company, Cirque de Light, specializing in fire, LED, and circus performance and is also a bookings manager for the Boston Circus Guild. When she’s not busy spinning she can be found sewing sparkly costumes and doing her best to keep her two cats away from those sparkly costumes.

Stay up to date with Liz by following her on social media and checking out her previous work!

Websites:https://www.cirquedelight.com/

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/cirquedelight/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BostonCircusGuild -Boston Circus Guildhttps://www.facebook.com/cirquedelight - Cirque de Light

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFWmabsoiuOWJ3Dmsx_MgtA

The Art of Flow (artofflowpodcast.com) is a free public resource for creators, teachers, and supporters of the arts who are interested in flow arts and fire-dancing. It is a creativity, flow arts, and fire dancing podcast that is available for mainstream distribution and provides inspiration for artists and conversations on the creative process.

The podcast is available for download and listening via the following Platforms: iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Play, and www.artofflowpodast.com Explore how to connect to your body, mind, and soul using movement arts and creative exploration by talking with movement artists, flow artists, and fire dancers. Support the podcast to earn early access to full-length interviews, submit questions for interviewees, win freebies, and more by becoming a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=15511651

Ben "Drex" Drexler is one of the most prolific and popular content creators in the flow arts. He is a world-renowned movement artist, dancer, and instructor who has spent the last 12 years teaching and performing the art of poi. His YouTube channel has more than six million views and more than 48,000 subscribers, and he has more than 20,000 followers on Instagram. He has taught at countless events on 3 continents, and his online tutorials have been a gateway for 10’s to 1000’s of people all over the world. He believes in the power of flow arts to improve fitness, build problem solving skills, and as a tool for personal expression and hopes to bring the transformative power of flow to as wide an audience as possible. In the first part of a two part interview, Ben discusses with us what the flow arts are, flow history, and how the community has changed over the years.

Important Links:

DrexFactor Blog- https://drexfactor.com/weirdscience

DrexFactor YouTube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/user/TaoAvatar20

DrexFactor Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/drexfactor/

DrexFactor’s favorite technical video project as mentioned in this interview –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3UGRGYfRf8

About the Podcast:

The Art of Flow is created by Morgan, a flow fanatic dedicated to sharing information about movement arts and flow arts, the history of fire-dancing and flow, and reflections on the creative process and self-care to the general public. Flow arts are defined as the use of objects/props to explore movement and self via repetitive practice of a series of movements, and are often a practice that assist individuals in accessing a “flow” state. Props often include poi, rope-dart, hoops, fans, puppy-hammer, contact ball, meteor, meteor dart, dragon staff, contact staff, clubs, buggeng, levi-wand, double staff, and anything that can be rolled, spun, and manipulated. This podcast all about fire artists, flow arts, creativity, fostering community, and optimizing learning is available on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Google Play, and at www.ArtOfFlowPodcast.com You can follow The Art of Flow on Facebook or the Art of Flow Podcast on Instagram for sneak peaks on what episodes are coming next, and for insider opportunities such as community events, videos of guests, and more.

Like the show? With YOUR support I can keep the podcast going, and incorporate your feedback, suggestions, and questions, to make the show even better. Together, we can make a flow arts podcast not only happen, but a continuing REALITY. Please consider sponsoring it here on Patreon!

Where else can I listen to the episodes? iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-of-flow/id1441666847 Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4heSAjGlrqCbxt0PiOgkD3 Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/810810810 Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/listen The Art of Flow Website: http://www.artofflowpodcast.com