Mistakes In Flow Arts – Misconceptions of Flow

“Mistakes” in Flow Arts

You’ve dropped a poi ball. A hoop went flying. The tethers got tangled mid performance! What are you going to do when you experience mistakes in flow arts? Take it from the pros – there ARE ways of making seemed “mistakes”, look like a part of the performance all together, and here’s how.

It’s your show! It’s your flow!

Flow arts isn’t just about the prop and the tricks you can do with it. If you’re focusing solely on the trick, and making it happen, it could be easy to “make mistakes”, and worse… make the mistakes look like mistakes! See, flow arts is less about the prop itself, and the tricks you’re able to perform. Flow arts is about “flowing”! When you are “in the flow”, the prop is moving with you (rather than you are moving it).

The two become seemingly one, and movement feels fluid; effortless. This is because the subject of flow arts is actually you!! You’re the source of the movement, and the real magic here. If the tethers get tangled, or the hoop goes flying, you get to choose how you respond. There’s no difference from when you nail a trick perfectly and respond with a big cheesy smile, right? It’s all a play, a cause and an effect, fun, and flow… if you make it so.

Don’t take it so seriously!

If and when mistakes do happen, don’t take it so seriously! Have the humility to respond just as if you’d intended it to happen. Simply flow on. If you make a scene about your mistake, it draws conscious energy and attention from others about your mistake, thus making it more obvious. Freezing up is quite similar. If you are able to keep your body moving, keep those tangled tethers in flow, often enough your audience won’t even realize it was a “mistake”. Was it a mistake? It could become your next new trick!

There are ways of incorporating seemed mistakes into your performance and making it look like it’s part of the act! For example, if the hoop goes flying… now is your time to shine and do a solo dance. Twirl around in circles… get on the floor and do some yoga poses… keep the momentum rolling while moving towards your hoop to reincorporate it in your new and improved act!

What are mistakes anyways? 

One might define a mistake as an outcome that was not intended, or something that “went wrong”. We encourage you to ask yourself – Who is the judge of whether things are right or wrong? What truly makes something a mistake? If it’s just an unintentional redirection of your flow, is it really worth calling it a full-blown mistake? When going for perfect mastery of a particular trick yet keep “getting it wrong”, it’s easy to label the not-quite-perfect-mastery as mistakes, but what is that doing? Affirming the mistake? Why do that?  Here’s our take – The more we practice, the more we improve, so might as well shift the perspective, and start telling yourself you’re doing it right, even if it doesn’t feel right at first. The more we can visualize the “correct” flow, no matter how frequently the “mistakes” happen, the faster our flow evolves in the ways desired.

Keep flowing,
With effervescent ease,

–Liora of Infinite Comings
A Sacred Flow Art Community Blogger

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