We recently connected with Casandra Tanenbaum and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Casandra, thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
I was hired, at the age of 15, to serve as a teaching assistant for a digital imaging teaching lab at a nonprofit photography institute- I had no special training whatsoever, but driven by curiosity I leapt into studying the most recent version of Adobe Photoshop (version 2.5). I spent one full day nosing through Adobe Classroom in a Book, and came in to provide support for my first class, the very next day! I remember lingering in the back of the digital lab, eyes darting about, hoping I’d be able to provide some support for wayward students more than twice my age, and the feeling of fulfillment when I did indeed step in to guide them back on track with the instruction. I knew, immediately, that I was an educator- and a safe space to mentor other creatives. It’s honestly wild to me to imagine my life any differently!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Casandra and I’m delighted to have an opportunity to share my story! I wanted to start a school, and instead I created an educational festival centered around movement and performing arts, community wellness and PLAY!
I created Flow Fests in 2011, and now produced these festivals in 10 major cities across the United States. Flow Fest® provides flow artists and the flow-curious public with movement arts workshop festivals in urban parks to help people of all ages rediscover the joy of learning through play.
“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humanity can unfold.” = Joseph Chilton Pearce
Building the Flow Fests brand and the past 16 years of festivals has been a wholly creative endeavor: managing artists, curating program offerings, partnering with community organizations, sponsors and funders, generating annual themes to express the qualities of each individual festival- and then watching the full picture emerge, a joyous, colorful, expressive array of play! We bring together professional circus artists, families and enthusiasts to teach, learn, share, grow. play, perform and celebrate and each community gets to experience what it’s like to “join the circus without running away!”
What are Flow Arts?
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.
When we combine collective engagement with flow and movement arts with the natural setting of beautiful urban parks, we cultivate a powerfully effective blend of wellness practices to:
1. Radically improve neuroplasticity: our brain’s natural ability to form new connections, which increases our physical adaptability and enhanced cognition
2. Combat the twin epidemics of sedentary lifestyle and loneliness
3. Activate collective joy in spaces that are accessible and appealing for all ages
What could be better than that? I’m so grateful to continue giving my life to this work.
3.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Sometimes we forget that society is MADE of ARTISTS and CREATIVES! “Everyone is creative.” So, how can we collectively thrive? We’ve been perpetuating a prevailing myth among socially constructive business ventures and nonprofits that competition is the only way to survive. We can get MUCH farther TOGETHER- toward ANY GOAL. As such, building collaborative structures, mutual aid and personal wellbeing practice into accessible containers, and activating our social networks to reflect and project the BEST of humanity can only contribute to regeneration within a creative ecosystem. In short- let’s get together, share about each other’s projects and have a great time!
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Creative Mornings! This is a global movement of creatives- 252 cities strong- who gather, network, and share with each other. I’m a proud participant in my local Creative Mornings chapter, and I really think these monthly gatherings have been critical for my journey as a creator.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://flowfests.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flowfests
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlowFests
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crtanenbaum/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FlowFests
Image Credits
Greg Metzler, David Vitz, Andrea Sarcos, Tommy Danger, Marco Garcia, Brian Lester, Jacob Einstein