STORY BY OLIVIA LITTLE
The Hoop and Flow Arts Club provides students with a unique way to beat stress during the school year.
Pia Supino-Mayka, 32, third-year Illustration student, president of Hoop and Flow Arts, started the club in September with her friend, Chris Moors, 22, third-year Illustration student and vice-president. After discovering hula-hooping a year ago, Supino-Mayka and Moors decided to share their newly found outlet with others in hopes that it could help with the stress of college.
“Especially with our programs here at Sheridan being so intense, a lot of us sit down for long periods of time and get really absorbed with our studies,” said Supino-Mayka. “The club is about embracing your inner silliness and being able to find a source of activity that can serve as a stress relief.”
“It’s great for when you don’t have an outlet and you don’t want to commit to something in say, Toronto, that’s farther away,” said Supino-Mayka. “It’s something I can do it in my living room. I could be working on an illustration, then go hula-hoop for a bit, kind of move around, stretch out my limbs and then go back to illustrating.”
They meet Thursdays in the gym from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. “We have at least 30 people who are interested in participating in the club and turnout is mostly 10 people per session,” said Moors, who is vice-president.
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“We just play music and let people do what they want. There’s no instruction, but if people ask we will give them a few pointers,” said Supino-Mayka.
She says that the club is not restricted only to hula-hooping, that they are open to people using different forms of flow art. “We haven’t had anybody yet, but if they have other apparatuses for flow art, such as Poi or juggling, they can come and do that too, so its pretty open-ended.”
Tuyi Chen, first-year Computer System Analyst student heard about the club at the Sports Bash in September and attended for the first time at the last jam session.
“I could only circle it on my stomach at first but now I can do it on my arms too and do isolations,” said Chen. “It’s very fun. I’m definitely going to come back next week.”
Supino-Mayka and Moors are excited to announce that they will be hosting their own pub night at the Marquee, on Feb. 26, The Birthday Cirques Pub. They are hoping to have dancers with LED hoops there to perform.