“There’s no ritual I really follow to get into it,” Wiltsey said. “I pretty much just pick the hoop up, put some music on and I go.”
She said she would rather be holding jams outdoors, but it is too cold.
“I just kind of get more in touch with that state of mind when I’m outside,” she said.
That state of mind is called flow.
The pace of the jam gradually and gracefully accelerates with more advanced tricks. One member starts the hoop at her ankles and guides it up toward her neck. Another rolls a hoop across her back, one forearm to the other.
“Once you’re into it, you get into a state of trance,” Wiltsey said amid tricks and concentrated silence.
Sophomore Gabriela Garcia, founder and president of Flow Club, describes her experience with flow as “meditative.” She mainly practices hula hooping, with some experience in poi and aerials.
“It’s meant to be a mental state that you try to achieve,” Garcia said, “where you’re not really thinking about what you’re doing, but you’re just letting yourself be and releasing your energy.”
Garcia said flow is not limited to just the flow arts.
“It’s supposed to be your optimal performance state, so anybody could reach that state,” she said.
Flow arts are the expression of flow through stimulating movement or dance and use of props. Some common flow arts practiced by the group are hula hooping and poi.
William Muldoon is a graduate student and member of Flow Club. He has been practicing poi for close to five years.
“The simplest form of (poi) is when you have two chains with something on the end, that either lights up or is on fire, and you swing them around you in intricate patterns,” Muldoon said.
He said he defines flow as a visual performance art in which you express yourself through the movement.
Muldoon said that for him, flow is an internal experience.
“You’re fully focused on accomplishing one thing, but you’re not stressed about it,” he said. “All of your cares and concerns about everything else just kind of fade away, and you’re just in the moment enjoying it.”
Freshman club member Keaton Butler said flow was more about the performance for her. With a background in music and gymnastics, her more technical training influences her flow arts.
She said she likes flow arts to be more practiced. She has been hooping for about five years and said she used to eat fire, which is “not actually as hard as it sounds.”
She said although she focuses on the performance of flow, she never gets nervous when presenting it to a crowd.
“I wanted to do Flow Club so that it was more open and everybody was more welcome,” Garcia said.
Originally, the club was solely for hula hooping, but that changed when Garcia was asked to take over after the previous leader graduated.
The club provided Garcia with strong support and encouragement last year, which inspired her to achieve that kind of community within Flow Club, she said.
Flow Club is not an official IU student organization yet. Garcia said the club is going through the approval process and hopes to become an official organization next semester.
The club has a Facebook page with more information for potential members.
Once approved as an organization, the club will continue to practice flow arts and supply community props for people who do not have their own to practice with, Garcia said.
As an event coordinator for Flow Club, Butler wants the group to perform and hold workshops to showcase their talents and get more people involved.
Butler said she is excited to implement choreography and performance into their arts. She said hooping can be seen as an individual practice.
“You can get more out of it if you actually collaborate with people and perform,” she said.
Wiltsey said she believes that her hobby has had a personal influence on her.
“I feel like I’ve opened up more as a person in college because of hooping,” she said.
For Wiltsey, the jam is a release of stress she has built up in the week.
“I feel a lot happier,” she said.
