About Us

Flow Fests are free, public, urban arts events offering participants the opportunity to study movement arts with instructors from across the globe.

These workshop festivals bring the fun and learning of flow arts, circus arts, yoga and dance into urban parks. Flow Fests invite people of all ages to create and celebrate performance art, health and wellness in community. Flow Fests take place in cities big and small across the US.

Flow Fests is a Fiscally Sponsored Project of Fractured Atlas, a 501c3 nonprofit organization.

Our mission is to promote movement arts, play and flow by providing education, connection and performance.  We are serving communities and audiences nationwide through the growth and spread of Flow Fests, multi-day free public interactive arts experiences and workshop festivals.  These festivals bring together nationally and internationally touring instructors of multi-cultural dance, circus arts, and yoga to provide wellness activities for all ages and skill levels.  Our annual festivals and events include:
SoCal Flow Fest, established Fall 2019, San Diego, CA

MidWest Flow Fest, established Fall 2017, Chicago, IL

NorthWest Flow Fest, established Summer 2016, Seattle, WA

Mountain Flow Fest, established Summer 2015, Asheville, NC

Texas Flow Fest, established Spring 2015, Austin, TX

Florida Flow Fest, established Fall 2011, Ft Lauderdale, Florida

As a fiscally sponsored entity, we accept tax deductible donations & appreciate your support!
Click to donate!

Flow arts are forms of movement and dance that utilize props to enter a state of flow, described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as an exhilarating transcendent way of being in which effortless control and peak skill seem to erase a sense of time. Flow arts props include poi, staff and hoops; dancers manipulate props to add to the expressive qualities of their dance. The result is an awe-inspiring visual spectacle of improvised movement that inspires an audience to reconsider kinetic possibilities.

WHAT IS FLOW? The Flow State, a psychological phenomenon or aspect of consciousness, was described by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as an exhilarating transcendent way of being in which effortless control and peak skill seem to erase a sense of time. It's the state of consciousness people describe as being 'in the zone' or 'zen'. The FLOW state has been characterized by a number of factors, including the following components: • Intense and focused concentration on the present moment • Merging of action and awareness • A loss of reflective self-consciousness • A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity • A distortion of temporal experience, one's subjective experience of time is altered • Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, (also referred to as autotelic experience).... basically, FLOW is the state where you are CONNECTED, ENGAGED, AWARE, AWAKE, JUICY, ALIVE, CREATIVE, PRECISE, BALANCED, INSPIRED, LIMITLESS, RESPONSIVE, FOCUSED... it is the optimal psychological state of being!

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Casandra Tanenbaum
Creator/Director & Alchemistress

I created Flow Fests to make flow arts accessible to all, to expand awareness of this unique cultural community and to encourage all people to play.  I think PLAY is essential to learning, FLOW is essential to PLAY, and flow arts are a tool for expanding consciousness and improving vital well-being.

FLOW
... is the ideal space for both creating art and learning. When I am in the Flow state, I am limitless, and I can see the immediate fruits of my creative impulsivity.  I am free to create, free to explore and discover the world for myself, directly, through the use of all my senses, and in a state of joyful play.
I love blending my creativity with my rebellious, resourceful and grounded intellect.  I love being a ‘golden mandala of delight,’ a kid-whisperer, and a visionary woman.  I love my feisty, juicy passionate heart, and I love that my willingness to generate joy inspires others to do the same!