Dates: April 6, 7 & 8 2012
Time: April 6 & 7 doors 7:30 p.m. / 8 p.m. show
April 8 show doors 6:30 p.m. / 7 p.m. show
Please note the earlier showtime for April 8!
Venue: Dance Mission Theater / 3316 24th Street @ Mission, San Francisco, CA 94110

Tickets: $20 advance tickets/sliding scale at the door
advance tickets recommended

To purchase: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/229293

Highlights reel from the 2011 production:

François Erb’s entry was selected as the winner of the logo contest and is now in use on the show’s promotional materials.  Website graphics will be updated with the new logo as well and it will be used on the show’s program.  Thank you to all entrants for your efforts!

The original call for entries, for reference:

We are in need of a new logo for The Flow Show and decided to tap the creativity of the spin community and see what emerges.  It can be a text-based or graphic logo, but the words “The Flow Show” must appear.  The logo will be used on all promotional materials for the show, including the website, flyers, posters and the show’s program.  Logo should look good either in color or black and white.

The prize for the winning logo will be $250 cash and a pair of watermelon flowlights!

Please email a JPEG, PDF or GIF file of your entry with the subject line “Flow Show logo contest” to flowarts@gmail.com.

Deadline: Friday, February 10, 2012. 

“Do Stuff with Things” Podcast series on object manipulation and its communities around the world ($500)
Richard Hartnell, Noel Yee, Brian Thompson and Bri Crabtree (Oakland, CA, USA)

Hoops to gift to women in recovery from chemical/alcohol addiction ($500)
Charity Edwards (Knoxville, TN. USA)

Comprehensive web and video resource on physical conditioning and injury prevention ($800)
Nick Woolsey (Halifax,Canada)

Spanish-language tutorials providing instructions on various flow arts ($1000)
Fede Fourcade (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Toybox – a box on wheels containing various toys to be brought to fairs, festivals and schools to promote and teach spinning at these events/venues ($1000)
Melanie Troutman (Portland, OR, USA)

London Fire Expo – a free public fire performance in London ($1000)
Emily Morgan (London, UK)

Fahrenheit Festival – a fire and flow arts festival to serve the US mid-Atlantic region ($1000)
Kimberly Berk and Gregory Goldmacher (Warrington, PA, USA)

Congratulations to all who secured funding for their projects, and deep gratitude to everyone who applied for this first round of seed grants. We received over 30 applications from nine countries around the world, including countries from Asia, North and South America, Europe and Oceania.

The variety and scope of the projects were broad and very inspiring, and we look forward to raising funds and enabling more projects that serve the Flow Arts to happen in the future.

The Seed Fund was established in 2011 as a program of US non-profit Fund the Flow Arts to provide small grants to projects and that serve the non-profit’s mission of advancing the prop manipulation-based Flow Arts, fostering local Flow Arts communities and cultivating a global community of Flow Arts practitioners.

The judging panel comprised the Fund’s four current Board members: Khan Wong, Prisna Nuengsigkapian, Lily Rasel, and Sean von Stade; and Sandra Sommerville (Canada) and Shireen Press (Portland,OR), individuals who have been actively serving the flow arts and hooping communities for many years.

Please note the application deadline is January 1, 2012.

For more information on the show, visit The Flow Show’s site.

The 2012 Flow Show dates have been set as well: April 6 – 8, 2012. There will be a performance proposal/audition process soon. Keep your eye on this space.

What makes this a pilot program? It’s the first time we are offering this program, and this initial run is a “proof of concept” for our grantmaking. We are testing our application procedures, seeing what kind of project ideas are generated, and seeing how the field of flow arts works with a formal grants process. What we learn through this process will help us shape and grow this program in the future, and help us learn how to most effectively serve our community.

Most likely, not every proposal will be funded. During the evaluation process, we’ll be looking at those projects that have the highest potential for the broadest public impact.

The application deadline is 14 November 2011 and the process is very simple: download the PDF or Word version of the form (“Save As” to your computer), answer the questions (you can type right in the text fields) and return by email to flowarts@gmail.com. You can either attach the completed form to the email or copy and paste your responses into the body of the email. (The submit button isn’t working properly.)

We hope to announce award recipients before Thanksgiving. Good luck!

> Click here to download the Seed Fund Application (pdf)

> Click here to download the Seed Fund Application (word)

“Flow Arts” has become an overarching term for the up-and-coming movement-based artforms that integrate dance and creative exploration of movement with skill-based prop manipulation. The Flow Arts draw from a multitude of ancient and modern movement disciplines from tai-chi and Maori poi spinning, to martial arts and juggling, to circus arts, hula hooping and modern firedancing.
> Click here to learn more about the Flow Arts!

The Fund’s two inaugural programs are:

Flowarts.net: An online community portal that provides resources for beginner to advanced Flow artists. Join to connect and find tools and resources to build artistry, technique, and community.

The Flow Show: An annual Flow Arts performance showcase presented in San Francisco with more cities to follow in the future. The dates for this year’s Flow Show are 29 April – 1 May. Get your tickets, support the Flow Arts and enjoy the Show!

The idea for the Fund was planted in late 2010. Its founders Khan Wong, Prisna Nuengsigkapian and Sean von Stade have been working behind the scenes with flow artists from around the world to launch this website, and the Fund’s two inaugural programs. Since then Lily Rasel has joined the Fund’s Board and we are looking to recruit more Board members.
> Click here to read more about the history of the Fund and the Board.

We invite you to support the Flow Arts Fund by seeding it, making a donation, or getting involved.  More.

Support the Fund and be part of efforts to grow and advance the Flow Arts. Since May 2011, several shops from around the world have joined as community partners in offering commemorative watermelon flowlights to their communities, and more shops are continuing to pitch in.

You can get watermelon flowlights from:
Flowtoys, USA
Ellumiglow, USA
Emazing Lights, USA
Happy High Herbs, USA
LiveWireNeon
Mystik Toyz, USA
Naranja, Japan
Poi Community, Japan
RaveReady, USA
Showshop, Russia

About the Watermelon flowlight
Flowlights are LED lightsticks produced by Flowtoys. Each flowlight has 3 LEDs with 11 different light modes for a variety of applications from spinning to ambient lighting and camp marking. Flowlights are rechargeable and come with a lifetime warranty.

Watermelon flowlight

Watermelon lights were first released in May 2010, when Flowtoys launched a special limited run in honor of Los-Angeles-based Burning Dan. Dan was a dynamic performer/teacher, who actively fostered community around the artform both locally through his weekly FlowTemple parties in LA, and globally through his travels, teaching and inspiring people all over the world.

Burning Dan was also known as “Watermelon Dan” for his love of the pink and green watermelon color scheme and the positive effect it has on people.

The watermelon flowlights were very popular and the run sold out before the end of the summer. Later that fall, Dan passed away and the flow community worldwide mourned the loss of a champion. Dan was a radiant and generous soul, who left an indelible mark in the flow community, touching the lives of everyone he met. Dan had many dreams for the flow arts. Following his passing many wondered how they could contribute to continuing Dan’s and the collective flow community’s vision.

His friends at Flowtoys came up with an idea to start a fund for the flow arts, and to seed the Fund with the profits from a commemorative run of watermelon-themed flowlights. The Fund would be a non-profit and serve the mission of advancing the flow arts, and fostering flow communities. Its first two projects are Flowarts.net and the Flow Show.

The commemorative Watermelon light can be distinguished by inscriptions on the circuit board:
“Burning Dan: 1974-2010, carpe awesome, the Flow must go on”

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While our current activities do generate a bit of revenue, our earned income will not be enough to grow our programming and offer the services we have planned in an effective way. In the future, the Fund plans to expand the Flow Show to other cities, add new functionality to FlowArts.net and implement grants to Flow Artists and communities.

To support these efforts and make a tax-deductible contribution through our Fiscal Sponsor, please donate to the Fund using the button above.