Teafaerie holds forth on the Flow Arts
Why the Flow Arts are Awesome by the Teafaerie
When people ask me what I do, I tell them that I teach Flow Arts. That's much is easy. The hard part comes about three seconds later, when my well intentioned interlocutor inevitably insist that I define my terms.
What is Flow Arts? It's a question that has been posed to me countless times. As one of the co-founders of Flow Temple (along with Burning dan), I'm often asked to explain why so many fully grown adults suddenly seem to be rediscovering the magic of playing with a certain class of toys. The answer turns out to be complex and involved, but it's ultimately intuitive at the core. Which is actually a fairly decent description of Flow Arts itself, now that I come to think about it. (click Read More for more)
8-Ring Isolating by Kotaro
This fantastic demonstration of isolating "eight" rings comes to us from Malabaristas, the Tokyo University juggling club. Kotaro, a university student and dedicated juggler, rocks out the rings with creativity and precision. This is a great reminder of the power of practicing with others of many skill levels.
Club Juggling by Dodo
This fantastic short film features some pretty sick club juggling and manipulations. The level of technical difficulty is high, and the level of artistic creativity meets it. It's a great mix of juggling, contact and club swinging techniques. I really love seeing routines/footage that blends these different modes of manipulation. This is also good videomaking. The performer goes by Dodo.
Your Brain on Juggling
In this article from Oxford University, scientists discuss their research on: juggling! In a very exciting discovery, for scientific and flow communities, practicing a skill like juggling creates new connections in the white matter of the practitioner's brain.
No previous studies have been able to show ways to improve these connections, called the "cabling network" of the brain because they pass messages between different grey matter areas (those parts that take care of processing and computation). So, what many of us have long suspected has now been proven true: juggling is good for your brain!
The Notion of Flow on TED
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a leading researcher in positive psychology, says creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. He has devoted his life to studying what makes people truly happy: "When we are involved in [creativity], we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." Here he discusses the notion of "flow" -- the creative moment when a person is completely involved in an activity for its own sake.
Poi and Contact
This is another video showing a fusion of manipulation modes. This one is done with poi, and combines poi spinning and contact. I was blown away by the routine Cyrille presented at the very first Flow Show (which he does not want posted). The time he has put into developing this mode of poi manipulation is quite evident in this vid!