Come Flow with Us!
During the fall, winter, and spring seasons, SpinCo invites a variety of well-known and accredited movement performing local and touring international artists to share knowledge and skills acquired throughout their personal journey as a performing artist.
Working with our established network of partner venues and production team, we organize workshops for these artists and provide full promotion and online registration services.
We do this so students who live or travel to Philadelphia can learn a new form of movement art and apply new concepts gained to their own practice in performance, heath, emotional expression, and general lifestyle.
Check out our full workshop calendar!
Teach A Workshop!
Applications for the season are now open will open! SpinCo seeks a mix of local first-time teachers and internationally-based professional performers that are highly skilled in any dance style with a prop, including but not limited, hoop, poi, staff, and fans.
For more information and teacher application, please click here.
Past Instructors
Below are the artists who have taught at least one workshop or class with the Philadelphia Spin Coalition since its inception.
What about you??
Would you like to teach a workshop with us? Fill out our form and we will be in contact!
Allie Hart
Dance, Hoop, Poi, Fans
Alli is a classically trained ballet dancer and gymnast turned flow artist and choreographer. She has roughly 18 years of dance training and experience in styles including classical ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap, lyrical, hip hop, and modern. Alli discovered flow arts and fire spinning while studying at Drexel University, and was the president of the Drexel Flow Arts Club for two years. She began to explore flow arts choreography and composition while collaborating with other club members to choreograph pieces for several university events. Over the past few years, Alli has performed at numerous private events throughout the Philadelphia Area, presenting her unique style combining technically driven prop manipulation with modern dance. Alli has taught a variety of hoop and choreography centric workshops at a number of festivals including Flame Festival, Return to Roots and Ode to Earth, and in the coming years she aims to get more involved in the flow arts community. Flow arts is not just a hobby, it is an art.
Follow Alli on Instagram at @allihartdance
Anatolia Fire Goddess
Bellydance
Anatolia the Fire Goddess is an international belly dancer based out of NYC and CT. She has been featured in Rolling Stones Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, VH1, and her performances have been sought after by NYC Fashion Week, Tumblr, Google, Fireball Whiskey, and many more. Anatolia Fire Goddess weaves a spectacular story with her technique, creativity and skill. She is notorious for her unique style and custom props and costumes. Her truly one-of-a-kind acts have been performed from Paris to India to Egypt. Blending traditional and fusion belly dance styles; what she likes to call "Neo-Cabaret".
Benjamin Berry
Hoop
Benjamin Berry is a nomadic hoop dancer, instructor, and performer who has been hosting workshops in dozens of cities across the country since the summer of 2015. That year he connected with the online hooping community by participating in Hooping Idol Season 5 and the Electric Forest Hoop Troupe contest, ultimately earning him Hooping.org's Male Hooper of the Year. His mission is to help others embrace their authentic, eccentric selves, becoming more confident, empowered, and embodied through intentional movement and creative self-expression.
Ben "Drex" Drexler
Poi
Ben "Drex" Drexler is a world-renowned instructor, performer, and innovator in the artform of poi spinning. His unique approach to breaking down movement into easy to learn pieces has made him a sought-after teacher, coach, and performer. With more than 3 million views on YouTube and more than 10K followers on Instagram, he is the most popular and prolific poi content creator in the world.
Drex loves to empower people by helping them learn to do things they once believed were impossible. He seeks to inspire a community of spinners to learn about themselves and the spinning world through dedication, creativity, and above all fun!
Brad "Rufio" Goldberg
Hoop
Brad has been a hoop performer since 2010 and is originally from Philadelphia. He is best known for his classes taught at Return to Roots
Brie Mealey
Hoop
Brie Mealey is a Jersey Shore native and brilliant muti-hooping and illusionist performer, with appearances across the east coast’s best music festivals like Electric Zoo and Elrow NYC, while performing at AC’s top casinos like Cesar’s. Brie has been featured across the internet including Hooping.org, HoopTricks.org, and with Instagram video views in the thousands. Stilt walker, adventurer, and networker, Brie’s motto is “Don’t look for happiness; create it.”
Caitlin Bartow
Rope Dart, Poi
Caitlin "Bird" Bartow is a New York-based multiprop flow arts instructor and performer with a focus in the rope dart. She has been a resident instructor at The Floasis, Brooklyn's only school for fire arts. She has taught workshops at Fahrenheit, Flashepoint, New England Flow Fest, Flame, Kinetic, Fire Drums, Great Lakes Flow Fest, Flowmotion Symposium, TriFlow Fest, Spin All the Things, and Juggle MIT and has taught independent workshops in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Lancaster. She has also served on the organizer teams for Fahrenheit Flow Arts, Flame, Flashepoint, CampFire and New England Flow Fest and is newly a member of the Director team for Flame Festival.
Chris Stopherson
Poi, Mini Hoop Tech
Over baked spunana bred, circus freak a leakin twerkasore-ass shakin lazy to the bone, just as crazy, flowin daily, failing, falling, funking, ferkin. Chris is a local spinner who has been teaching workshops with SpinCo since 2014.
Chris Tamburro
Fire Eating, Poi
Chris Tamburro is a multi talented performance artist from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He is one of the co-founders of The Circus-School of Lancaster and teaches poi classes there for all skill levels. In 2014 he learned how to eat fire in Philadelphia at a location formerly known as The First Banana. After quickly picking up the basics he went on to learn more advanced tricks and techniques from several masters of this art such as Shade Flamewater and Matthew James. Since then Chris has performed this art form at a variety of locations and across Thailand with Spark Circus. Now he wants to share his knowledge of this art form with you in the hopes of inspiring a new generation talented fire eating wizards.
Follow Chris on Instagram at @Sparks_of_Mysteria
Curran Smith
Dragon Staff
Curran "Spicy Curry" Smith started his flow art journey in 2017 when he picked up a pair of buugeng. It became an instant passion for him. As his love for flow arts has grown and expanded over the years, he has branched his talents across multiple props, such as Dragon Staff, Double Staves, and Poi. He has performed at local festivals with the Tamed Flame Fire Troupe. Flow arts has changed Curran's life in a miraculous way, and he wishes to share this transformation with others.
Danny Goldberg
Contact Staff
Danny is a well know DC performer who is popular for his unique combination of dance and prop manipulation. He has been spinning contact staff since 2013, and has since also delved into rope dart, poi, hoops, fans and contact juggling. Focusing on his prop(s) as an extension of his own body, Danny continues to create fun and innovative new moves.
Dom Poe (Apollo's Flare)
Poi
Dom Poe ( Apollos Flare ) has traveled across the world cultivating and learning flow art concepts, movements, and methods. Working with acts such as Razed in Flames, Photon Props, and 7textures, Dom is no stranger to the performer life style.
Eric Mamuzich
Acro Yoga
Eric Mamuzich is a Philly-based internationally recognized Certified Yoga Instructor RYS 200 from Hot Box Yoga in Manayunk and Certified AcroYoga Instructor through AcroYoga.org, a 2-year certification process. Sponsored by Lululemon and featured by CBS3, Philly.com, The Metro, PhillyFIT Magazine, PhillyAreaYoga.com, and Timeout.com, Eric believes that proper use and continued refinement of technique and timing are key to any partner acro practice. Eric studies under Jason Nemer, the founder of AcroYoga, and Niko Dowes, a well-known international acrobatic instructor based in The Netherlands.
Erika Bansen
Fans, Hoops, Juggling, Poi
Erika Bansen has been a performance artist for 9 years, starting with poi in 2009. She started spinning mini hoops in 2012, and transitioned to Russian fans (along with ball and club juggling) in 2013. In 2016 Erika became interested in LED Russian fans, however many of the manufacturers only spoke Russian at the time. Erika also wanted to follow Russian poi and fan training videos, many of which were in Russian language on YouTube. To overcome this, Erika has been learning to read and speak Russian and now has a good foundation of the language and good insight into the Russian style. In addition to performance art, Erika is also a dreadlock artist and is the owner of Make Me Dreadful.
Learn more about her business at http://www.makemedreadful.biz or in Instagram at @makemedreadful
FloFox
Fans
FloFox has been teaching flow arts for over 3 years, and dance for over 10. He has taught at FAI events (Fire drums, Flame) and other fire and flow events. His focus in teaching is fans, fire eating, how to be a professional performer, stage presence, and choreography. FloFox Co- Owns the performance company FIRE MAGICK where he is a full time performer.
FloWei Fire
Dragon Staff
With a love of flow arts that started many years ago, FloWei Fire has evolved from touring with a New England fire troupe during the summers to a deep love for teaching and wanting to share object manipulation to as many people as possible. Both Vera and Steve have taught a variety of different props, most notable hoops, poi, fire eating and vapor tricks.
Frank Hatsis
Rope Dart
Frank Hatsis is a Rope Dart coach and is the founder of The Rope Dart Academy. Frank has over 13 years of world class Rope Dart experience that include tournament competition, performances and teaching engagements. Franks structured approach to teaching the Rope Dart has quickly proven to ensure positive results, clarity, confidence and fun in the student!
Gina Giles
Leviwand
Gina Giles has been tearing up the flow arts world since the winter of 2016. Starting with hoop, Gina has gracefully moved from prop to prop, ultimate finding her passion with Levi-wands. Gina can be found hypnotizing crowds at various PEX events, Spinco outings and even making videos for her sponsors. As a member of SpinCo’s Street team, she looks forward to sharing the same love and freedom she gets with her Leviwand with all of you.
Give and Take Jugglers
Juggling
The Give and Take Jugglers is Philly's most reputable troupe of professional entertainers and the most consistent hit with both children and adults for over 40 years. www.jugglers.com
Glo Guardiola
GoGo Dance, Hoop
Gloria Guardiola (Glo Bird) is an experienced performing arts professional and hoop dance instructor with a mission to inspire her students to seek greater skill, confidence, while retaining the utmost poise while on stage. She is a member of the performance troupe Happy Is and has also performed at SpinCo's Renegade Runway.
Grace Good
Grace Good also known as Messsmerizing is a multi-talented hula hoop and circus artist based in Nashville, Tennessee. Grace fell in love with circus arts in 2011. From there her circus journey begun! Grace has become a well known and award winning performance artist. Winning 2015's Fire Hooper of the Year and 2017's Fire Hooper of the Year Award on Hooping.org, her videos have gone viral all over the internet gaining thousands of followers. Grace co- owns and performs with Nashville based circus company, Beyond Wings Circus and performs at events with Cirque Dreams Productions, EVOL Kid Media, and directs the circus program at Nashville Circus Center. Grace manages talent and performances at Plaza Mariachi Music City and performs at events across the country
Learn more at https://www.gracegoodperformance.com/
Greg Haskins
Contact Poi
Greg Haskins discovered poi in the summer of 2011. This Boston based flow artist, teacher and performer is devoted to practice and technical mastery. His devotion shines through in his skills and he has served as an inspiration to many. Greg attended Wombat in 2014 and since then has gone on to teach and perform at Fahrenheit, The New England Flow Fest, and Mo-Flow. Greg’s favorite quote "Practice until you hate it, then keep practicing. Learn to love the repetition”, falls right in line with his setting into the creation the understanding and creation of new patterns to combine all aspects of his flow arts into a well rounded foundation. Dreaming big and going forward, Greg would like to travel the world collaborating and sharing his passion for contact poi.
Hannah Pinkos
Hoop
Hannah is a fire and flow arts performer and hula hoop dance instructor from the suburbs of Philadelphia. Hannah's first introduction to prop manipulation was via high school color guard where she was featured on the flag and weapon lines. Looking to fill the void after guard season was over, she discovered fire and flow arts in 2012. Hannah started spinning staff, but picked up hooping in 2014 and that has been her prop of choice ever since. She began performing and teaching beginner hoop dance classes less than a year later. As the owner of Skylark Circus Arts, Hannah provides circus entertainment to events all around the Greater Philadelphia Area.
Artist Website: https://skylark-circus.com
Houdini Polini
Contact Juggling
Nick "Houdini" Polini is a 28 year old circus artist from Lancaster, PA. He's a full time biologist, part time performer/instructor in the Circus School of Lancaster. He has been practicing the fine art of Contact Juggling (aka: Crystal Ball Manipulation.. aka: Shiny Rolly Magic Floaty Ball) for about 4 years, performing for 2. Nick enjoys long walks on the beach, petting fluffy animals, and adding unnecessary information into his instructor biographies.
Follow Houdini on Instagram @houdini_polini
Jenelle Parks
Hoop, Yoga
Jenelle Parks has been a hula-hoop instructor since March 2015. She originally started teaching beginner hoop fitness in New Orleans, LA through a non-profit called FitNola which provided free, all-ages fitness classes across the Crescent City. She acted as a hula-hoop apprentice for a company called Hey Now Hooping which is created and owned by Jennette Ginsburg. For a year and a half Jenelle and Jennette shared the sweet gift of hooping in New Orleans by making hula-hoops, organizing pop-up hoop jams, programming for special events and festivals, hosting hoop exercise classes and hoop-making workshops. Jenelle currently lives in the greater Philly area.
Jenny Hill
Hoop, Theatre
Jenny Hill grew up in a theater family and in college her interests moved to art and creative writing. When she discovered she could hoop in 2008, her whole world turned around (see what she did there?) and her theatrical upbringing was revived. Jenny studied multihooping and hoop performance with the awe-inspiring Miss Saturn, and has been mentored and encouraged by many other skilled and talented hoopers along the way. All of her pursuits, whether she is teaching, creating shows, or performing, are infused with the same thing: making a real human connections. You can find her daily practice videos on Instagram at @actsofjennius and find other info online at https://www.actsofjennius.com/.
Also read Jenny's Hooper of the Week interview on hooping.org!
Jo
Hoop
Jo Ryn is based just outside Philadelphia near Mount Holly, NJ and is a true jack of all trades. An experimental juggler, apprentice aerialist, hooper, fire performer, and practicing massage therapist for 4 years, she understands the connectivity of body and mind through movement and applies this concept in all teachings. Jo has her Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Arcadia University and practices her New Jersey State Massage Licensure at a small local spa, “untangling the knots that people manage to make in their muscles.” She has performed at many local events including Mt. Holly’s 4th of July Fireworks, Burning Leaves, Bangarang, and an upcoming performance with RAW Artist at The Trocadero. Jo is an avid humanitarian and master networker, building relationships through participation in many associations like Dance Strong Dance Academy and while serving on The Philadelphia Spin Coalition Street Team as an Assistant Project Manager. Jo is known to her friends as a “fortune cookie,” and believes “There's nothing you can't do; only things you can't do yet.”Jocelyn Gordon
Hoop
Jocelyn is a lifelong dancer and has been a Yoga and Massage Therapist and Instructor since 1997. Jocelyn has been featured in Yoga International, The Washington Post, Origin Magazine, Heart & Soul Magazine, Conscious Dancer Magazine and more. You have seen her on The Dr. Oz Show, on Fox 5 in Washington D.C. and as the lead instructor in the Gaiam produced HoopFit DVD with Academy Award winning actress, Marisa Tomei. Jocelyn is called a Yoga Rebel by Yoga Journal (USA) and was recently featured in their May 2015 issue.
John Badger
Poi, Juggling
Badger’s goal as an instructor is for students to walk away with the knowledge that will allow a graceful and technical style of poi flow.
Josh Architorture
Contact Clubs
Josh has been seen spinning clubs at festivals like PEX & Return to Roots.
Juan Guardiola
Juggling, Poi
Juan Guardiola is a Chicago performance artist who has been practicing his art for over 6 years, as well as performing and teaching across the US, in the circus and Flow Art scenes. Taking his manipulations and juggling to the next level, he inspires to push himself and those around him to maximize their full creative potential.
Katie Emmit
Hoop & Visual Artist
Katie Emmitt (born in Guam, 1992) grew up in Annapolis, MD. She received her BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014 and is currently based in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work spans across mediums – from performance art and fiber work to drawing and painting -- and mainly expresses ideas surrounding science, nature, spirituality, and Sacred Geometry. She is also a flow artist and maintains the meditative purpose of flow arts within her dance.
Kayla Smith
Hip Hop Hoop
Kayla has been hooping for over eight years and spent the last three infusing hip-hop into her hooping. You can check out her dance to 'Fancy' to see what her style is like.
Ken Haines
Juggling
Ken has been juggling since June 2015. The pushing of limits and sense of community it brings keep him coming back time and time again. From creating street shows to partner passing and tightwire. Ken has a well rounded knowledge of the circus arts. Ken values fresh and innovative perspectives into the flow arts and will leave you thinking.
Krstena Vas
Fans, Hoop
Krstena brought the first fan workshop to SpinCo in 2015. She is member of the fire dance troupe Lux Arati.
Lauren Raske
Poi, Buugeng, Design
Lauren Raske (7textures.com): Lauren is half of the creative group called 7textures, that specializes in Experiential Events focusing on design, styling, and entertainment, and how they all layer together. She works as a professional performer and show director for custom shows, and a continuous story event, such as The Ghostly Circus, and features a variety of talents including fire, aerial, juggling, and many more artists. Lauren believes that if it exists, it might as well be beautiful. "Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." - Thomas Merton
Luna
Fans, Contortion
Luna is a contortionist, side-show and circus performer based out of Philadelphia. She loves cats and ukulele.
Lux Luminous
Contact Leviwand
Lux Luminous created Contact Leviwand and has built most of the frame work for it. She have been spinning for more than 6 years and has been teaching for over 4 years. She runs the Facebook groups Levi-stick and Leviwand Tech. Lux also plays a part in Leviwand.com. Her current project is New England Flow Fest - she has her fingers deep within the community. Lux has been featured as "instructor of the month" for Flow Arts Institute. She has also performed in Flow Show Chicago and Flow Show NYC.
Matt Mills
Poi, Juggling
Matt Mills comes out of Richmond VA, Spinning poi for six years, he loves to inspire and share. He first saw spinning at a party and immediately fell in love, since then hes hasn't been able to put them down. He taught at Fahrenheit this past June and performs with his local troupe The Party Liberation Front(PLF). Juggling has been a big part of his spinning recently along with tons of no beat tosses and contact rolls. Spinning changed his life and he wants to hopefully share that with everyone.
Matthew Porretta
Hoop
It was in the Spring of 2012 on the campus of South Jersey’s Rowan University, that the circle first rolled into Matt Porretta’s life -- well, it was actually 1/5th of a circle to be exact. From humble, community-rooted beginnings of a hoop shared amongst 5 close friends; Matt quickly fell in love with the art of flow, acquired one of his very own and dedicated every second of his free time to either hooping or scouring YouTube for inspiration. From there it wasn’t much longer than a few weeks until it became to hard picture him without a hoop somewhere on-or-around his person, and around campus friend & stranger alike knew they were watching a true prodigy.
Around the same time that Matt was coming into his own as a hooper the Electric Forest Hoop Troupe Audition videos were impressing the hoop community nationwide; and just like that, as soon as Matt saw an audition tape he had set his first major goal as a flow-artist: joining the 2013 Hoop Troupe. For the next 3 seasons the only things on Matt’s mind were circles and the beautiful Sherwood Forrest of Rothbury, Michigan -- and he channeled that energy into nearly a full year of practice and exploration -- spinning hoops, making lifelong friends and engaging in incredibly rewarding creative collaborations all along the way.
Finally after a year of the most enjoyable sort of training he could have ever hoped for, Matt Porretta managed to encapsulate the magic of his first year with the hoop in the form of the 3-minute audition tape that we had been dreaming of all this time. The feeling of capturing the essence of not only Matt Porretta the performer, but Matt Porretta the person, was more rewarding than he had ever imagined; and as soon as he posted his entry he felt his first chapter as a hooper come full circle. The next few weeks were spent obsessively checking Youtube and Gmail, culminating in the acceptance letter and of course the Electric Forest 2013 performance that Matt had worked so hard to earn. The whole experience was surreal and fulfilling, and before Matt even made it back to New Jersey he had set a new goal for himself: sharing his experience and passion with the hoop community worldwide! Which brings us to right about here…
“I’m beyond excited to begin the next chapter in my journey and hope to continue to share it with each and every one of you. Love&Light”
-Matt Porretta
Maurice (Reese) Crawley
Contact Staff
Maurice (Reese) Crawley, also known as "Stoop Kid," has been practicing flow arts since January 2014. The passion and freedom found in the arts has taken him through many different forms of self-expression, but his love is for performance and giving back to the community. From volunteering at the American Youth Circus Organization (AYCO) in Portland, Maine, to video shoots in Birmingham, AL, to fire performances in San Francisco, CA; every endeavor receives all of his time and dedication.
Follow Reese on Instagram @treblemakur
Mike Hayataka (That Hoop Guy)
Hoop
Mike has been hooping for over 5 years and in that time has fallen in love with hooping and teaching object manipulation technique. With his unique style and liquid flow he’s now taking his over 4 years of teaching experience to the flow community. His analytical teaching style informs intuitive, hard to explain concepts, through single technique-based breakdowns. With successful workshops at The Spin Summit (2014, 2015), Kinetic Fire (2014), Flow camp (2015), Mo Flow (2015), FlowMotion (2014, 2015), Hyperion (2015),Florida Flow Fest (2015), and FlowDown Fire Festival (2014, 2015). Along with popular videos online, Mike hopes to help hoopers throughout the community expand their repertoire.
Monica Marie
Hoop
Originally from Chicago, Monica Marie hoops is currently traveling the states teaching, playing, and enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Identifying as a student of life, sister, mother, teacher, traveler, writer, dreamer, hula hooper, seeker of connected truths, and explorer of expression, she has set out on her path with hopes to share, create, and inspire through moving meditation and other forms. After hooping for three years, she has developed unique insights into double hoop tech that she is determined to communicate and explore with the community!
Follow Monica on Social Media:
Noel Yee
Vulcan Tech Gospel
One of the most important figures of the modern flow arts scene, Noel Yee has had a strong hand in the evolution of flow arts culture and brings a unique understanding of object manipulation to the table. With thousands of students over his eleven years of training, you can’t go wrong with a class from Noel. In addition to his performing career and quality instruction, Noel is part owner and founder of many notable events, performance troops and flow arts companies including Flow Arts Institute, FireDrums, Kinetic Fire, Vulcan Crew, Foreways Project, Vulcan DVDs, Give Props Documentary, is the director of the Flow Show Project and is a board member of the International Juggling Association.
Patrick K-hill
Poi
Patrick has taught at many festivals and is used to adjusting learnings so that everyone comes away with new techniques, exciting challenges, and fun tricks. He has most recently taught at Fahrenheit Flow Arts Festival.
Purna Shakti
Belly Dance, Yoga, Hoop
Purna Shakti is a certified Yoga Siromani (Sivananda TTC Madurai, India) and International performing artist based in India. She combines teachings learned from a variety of cultural influences around the world. She studies with Masters including Zoe Jakes, featured performer for Beats Antique, and Anita Sapera, traditional Rajashtani Kalbelia (Gypsy) dancer, along with many international teachers including Sharon Kihara and Kami Liddle.
Purna Shakti studies Odissi, bellydance, Tribal Fusion, Kalbelia, hoop dance, Persian dance, and fire dancing, but specializes in Fusion bellydance- a combination of hula hoop dance, bellydance fusion (Hip hoop), fire bellydance fusion, and other circus and fire acts. Master of Sacred arts of Yoga, meditation, and spiritual healing, Purna Shakti finds expression of these deep meanings through dance, performance, costume and jewelry creations.
Ravenbane Firecraft
Fire Performance & Instruction
Shane and Amber are co-owners of Ravenbane's FireCraft LLC - a fire performance, prop and instruction company. They have performed all over the northeast and collaborated with performers such as Flambeaux Fire of NYC - including the immersive theatrical fire performance The Calling. Shane has been the safety organizer for multiple fire and flow festivals including WildFire and Fahrenheit and is the general manager for Northeast Fire and Arts Festival in Oxford CT. Amber has also been involved in the fire & flow community as an organizer and general manager for WildFire and manager of Northeast Fire & Arts Festival. You can find more great material from Ravenbane's Firecraft on their website and on facebook and instagram
Regina Armenta
Aerials, Yoga
Regina AKA Velocity Charms has been teaching movement arts, designing costumes and performing for over a decade. After earning her degree in Physical Therapy and completing a 200 hour Yoga certification, she attended the New England Center for Circus Arts in Vermont and is certified to teach aerial foundations for lyra, trapeze and fabric. Additionally, Regina has been a street performer and costume designer for almost 10 years. Regina specializes in instructing beginner students and currently runs a project in the Kensington area called Circus Trash Monster where she trades circus classes for trash.
Check out Regina’s projects Kensington Triangle and Circus Trash Monster
Ryan (Rye Hoops)
Hoop
Ryan (@ryehoops) began his flow journey towards the end of 2014, picking up a hoop in January of 2015 and hasn't been able to put it down since. With a 15+ year background in dance, picking up the hoop was a connecting point for two of his favorite things, dance and flow arts. As a dancer he always enjoyed traveling, jumps, and leaps so learning various ways to manipulate his hoop with jumps and leaps was his favorite part of learning to hoop.
Facebook: RyeHoops Performance Art
Instagram: @ryehoops
Sara D' Angelo
Rope Dart
Sara D' Angelo is a Rope Dart instructor based out of Brooklyn, NY and is co-Owner of The Rope Dart Academy. In the past 2 years Sara has racked up teaching engagements, performances engagements and tournament competitions! Her love and passion for the Rope Dart ignited a few years ago, and has grown into a burning desire to spark and spread the Rope Dart to others who want to learn this beautiful, badass art form!
Shade Flamewater
Fire Eating
Fire Eating, Magic, Dragon Taming… Shade Flamewater is the founder of Flamewater Circus based in Sydney, Australia. With over 12 years of stage performances up his sleeve, Shade Flamewater knows how to make the magic happen. Specializing in the mystic arts of fire and magic, Shade and his team have dedicated themselves to creating otherworldly feats. Audiences the world over have been left spellbound by Shade’s unique blend of circus, magic and fire performance. Proficient at card, production and dove magic, Shade also is one of Australia’s greatest doublestaff performers. Considered by his peers to be the best fire eater in the world, expect to learn something you’ve never seen before when Shade Flamewater takes the stage! https://flamewatercircus.com.au/meet-the-team/shade-flamewater/
Sheena Good
Acro Yoga
Sheena Good has been practicing Acrobatic Yoga for over 3 years with a background in dance. She brings her love of movement and laughter together for the purpose of creating a real human connection. Finding AcroYoga has opened the doors to other circus communities and Sheena is looking forward to bringing them all together for Lancaster to enjoy. She believes that everyone should play, no matter what their age! Sheena is the co-founder of SpinCo's sister organization The Circus School of Lancaster, hosting movement arts workshops, classes and events in Lancaster, PA.
Stefi Spins
Hoop
@Stefi.spins is a Hooper from Philadelphia with a knack for teaching and learning. She has developed her own series of super-easy-to-follow Hoop tutorials which she shares on her Instagram and YouTube pages. She's performed for & taught children and adults and she is ready to teach you, too! Stefi's teaching style is open & reciprocal. She believes learning & teaching are one in the same. Her goal is to share the joy of flow arts with everyone.
Follow Stefi on Instagram and watch her YouTube Tutorials
Stephen Haines
Staff, Poi
Stephen Haines is a multi-discipline flow and fire artist from Philadelphia, and has previously taught contact staff workshops at festivals such as Kinetic Fire and Fahrenheit. He owns the prop company Nimbus Prop Art.
Suzy Brown
Certified Pilates
Suzy Brown has invented the workout "Pilates with Props" which features traditional Pilates exercises combined with spinning or juggling props. She is a certified veteran instructor.
TanookiTwirls
Hoop, Yoga
Tiffany Tung ( commonly known in the community as Tanooki or TanookiTwirls) started hooping about two years ago in August of 2014 in Philadelphia . She quickly fell in love with the prop, and started performing a year later at PEX, Soundgarden Hall and Trocadero Theatre. She is 100% self taught from online tutorials and self-exploration, as at first she didn't know anyone else in the community. In that respect, she also started making her own tutorials as her own way of giving back to the community that has brought her so much happiness, to help others progress their journey.
Tara Adelizzi
Hoop Dance, Theatre
Tara Adelizzi is a Philadelphia-born, Pittsburgh-made artist. She has been a participant of nightlife culture since the age of 15 and spent a lifetime growing up in the Theatre Arts, which she dually majored in alongside English Writing at the University of Pittsburgh Honors College. Her graduating thesis project focused on Absurdist Drama, Clowning, and physical acting, in which she directed a production of Eugene Ionesco's "The Chairs." Is it any wonder she was pulled right into the world of underground circus arts upon her return to Philadelphia? Since 2011 Tara has pushed deeper into the study of dance and drama through hooping and fire performance. She has participated in countless projects including collaborations with Borgata Nightlife, A.I. Cats Entertainment, Jewelz Entertainment,, Touch Me Philly, The Five Minute Follies, PEX, Parks and Recreation, and Market East Arts Initiative. She has made appearances with honorable mentions such as Lil John and DJ Tiesto, to name only a few. Tara teaches weekly hoop dance classes to the budding hooper community in Philadelphia where she preaches a spiritual and technical development through "the practice" of Hoop Dance. She is a co-founder of the Spin Coalition. She most recently (and proudly!) co-produced, wrote and directed a children's show with the Artist Direction of Jennifer Alvarez for her children's program, "The Philadelphia HoopStarz." Tara is a producer for the Return to Roots Showcase, a variety show culminating at the end of a Yoga and Hoop Dance Festival which occurs every summer. She is also the author of 2 blogs that catalogue the adventures of her hoop journey,"Flowtography," and, "Floetry," which harnesses her more poetic side. Check them out at http://taraadelizzi.tumblr.com/ and http://bikiniscousin.tumblr.com/
Terry Fields
Martial Arts Staff, Side Show
Beginning at the age of 9 and continuing forward through the past 18 years, Terry Fields has become renowned in his martial arts training, specializing in staff and nunchuck(s). In 2010, Terry began incorporating Fire Arts into his Martial Arts methodology, professional performances, and teachings as well as expanding his skill set to contact staff, fire breathing, single and double nunchuck(s), rope dart, fire swords, double staves, isolation mini hoops, dragon staff, and the ancient art of Fei Cha. He has taught advanced fire breathing from 2010-2011 at the Wildfire Re-treat, an established event focusing on the intense and proper training of fire and flow arts located in New England. In 2010, Terry was welcomed as a performer in the Squidling Brothers Sideshow, a well known Philadelphia based alternative theatre, specializing in circus sideshow acts, where he continues performing at present time. For the 2012 Burning Man event, he was the Shin (director/choreographer/performer) for the Fire Conclave, Aish Tamid, one of a select group of performance artists from around the world who create choreography in dedication to the man. In 2013 to present time, Terry became the Director of Live Fire Arts for the east coast event, PEX Summer Festival - an eclectic barrage of interactive art, music, workshops, and performances. In 2014, Terry performed in the Swarsky Crystals promotional video as well as fire breathing in a credited role in 2015 for the film Rocky VII aka Creed. Aside from performance art, Terry is a builder and operator of pyrotechnics (fireworks props), staves/dragon staves, as well as laser dragon staves, taking an intelligent approach to quality product - the creation of props by one who works with them.
Terry’s passion and dedication to his diverse and well honed crafts reflect in these components: performance, instruction, fabrication of props, and inspiration toward the exponential growth of these art forms. He is never without a prop, never without creative sketches of his work, and always open to sharing his skill sets.
Thalia Patrinos (Tippy)
Fans, Fire Eating, Double Staff
Tippy has been performing and teaching flow arts since 2010, when she was gifted her first homemade hula hoop from her best friend. Since then, she has celebrated her passion for fire and flow arts all over the world, including but not limited to: Burning Man in Nevada, the Flow Show in New York City, Ozora in Hungary, Psy-Fi in Holland, and Afrikaburn in South Africa. While the hula hoop will always be her first love, her style and interests have grown substantially with the incorporation of contact staff, double staff, and fire fans. She loves to seamlessly integrate a soulful dance style with intricate tech—especially box tech. When she’s not hurling props wildly around her body, she is a teacher, a writer, and a world-traveller. To follow her fantastical adventures abroad and at home, you can find her on Instagram at @to_be_tippy or on her Facebook page, To Be Tippy.
TyFoods
Double Staff, Poi
Tyfoods is a Hip-Hop Poi Dancer, Movement Enthusiast and Neuroscience Graduate. He has been spinning poi for nearly 5 years, and dancing for nearly 3 years. In that time he has developed a systematic approach that focuses on "how to learn tricks" rather than on the tricks themselves. He is the founder of PropDanceCulture, a platform created to bring ALL movement artists together so that skill growth can be accelerated, key ideas may be shared, and creativity stimulated.
Check out PropDanceCulture and follow Ty on Instagram @tyfoods
Wolf Bukiet
Double Staff
Wolf Bukiet is a dancer, a flow artist, a performer, a yogini, and a midwife. She has spun fire on six continents, and devoted herself to the study of body-object integration. In addition to teaching double staff at festivals worldwide, Wolf has acted as Shin for New York City's conclave: Empire Fire Collective, camp lead for the flow arts based Burning Man camp Vulcan Empire and Producer of Flowtopia Retreat in El Salvador. After a decade of heavy travel, Wolf currently lives and teaches in Brooklyn where she performs as Shewolf Shakti as lead of the SubFlow Show. In addition to individual performance consultations, Wolf teaches flow-based group classes, private clients, and youtube tutorials on spinning.
Zachary Lambert
Hoop
Zachary has been hooping since 2013, and teaching since 2015. He is known for his coinflip workshop series and has brought it to cities around the USA such as NYC and Chicago. He has taught at different flow festivals and events such as the Denver JAMboree and monthly Tampa flow jams.
To get an idea of some of the tricks Zach is known for, feel free to check out his Instagram page: @_Zachh_Attackk_
Teach a Workshop
We are accepting instructor applications for workshops; seeking hoop, poi, staff, fan, fire spinners, and all other flow artists to teach students in the Greater Philadelphia area.
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