It was only a video by a well-known hula hoop artist that convinced Taylor Duffrin to buy her first hoop in 2014. Hooping became her introduction to flow arts – an umbrella term for creative, movement-based activities that also include juggling and fire-eating. Soon, Duffrin began posting her own videos on social media, performing under the name Taylor Flows.
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Since then, she’s built a database of over 600 trick tutorials on creator platform Patreon and performs and teaches flow arts around the world. When she’s home in Milwaukee, she plays hoops at private parties and local festivals, including Float Fest and this year’s Summerfest. Here, Duffrin shares how she turned her skills into a full-time career as a globetrotter.
What memories do you have of your first performance?
I was shaking with fear. I also had a bad case of imposter syndrome because I had only been hooping for about a year and I was going to be in front of 30,000 people at Suwannee Hulaween – a festival in Florida. On stage, I was physically shaking for the first few performances. But then you kind of get over it. It’s like exposure therapy – I tell a lot of my acting students that.
The first hour of the festival was probably pretty hard. And the rest of it was just super fun. It was great to be in an environment where I could do what I wanted professionally. I think that was such a big catalyst for my career because it made me face the reality that I could do something with this.
Nowadays you teach online, but also in person at retreats in different countries. Where is the furthest away place you have taught or performed?
Two years after I started hula hooping, I got my first teaching job in Malaysia. So really far away, but not that far away. But being there gave me the impetus to go to other retreats because when you teach at one retreat, you get put on a list of teachers that use many other retreats.
I think Australia is the furthest country I’ve ever been to. There was a hoop retreat in Melbourne called Hoop Away. I taught there for about a month and then just hung out in Melbourne.
When did you start adding fire tricks to your mix?
I decided I wanted to do fire hoop about six months after I started because I saw the online community of fire hoopers and fire performers when I was searching the internet for the hula hoop community. I wasn’t the smartest person when I was learning how to do fire stuff because I just assumed I could teach myself. And it didn’t go very well – I ended up burning my arm pretty badly.
There is a line that can be crossed when you are respectful of fire while also testing the limits of what you can do. I feel like I learned that lesson the hard way as I decided to teach myself about fire. This has given me a driving passion, teaching others how to play with fire so they don’t make the same mistakes I did.
Fire-eating sounds even more dangerous than fire hoops. Is that true?
You know, it’s always so funny because people always assume that fire-eating is the worst thing. But I’ve never really suffered any serious burns from fire-eating, touch wood.
What I like to say to my fire-breathing students and what is completely obvious is that your mouth is wet. So even though you have all the contact in your mouth, it’s actually a great safeguard against burns.
Does that mean I never burn my mouth? I do. But actually, it’s just as bad, or less bad, than burning your mouth on a really hot pizza.
Can you taste the fuel when you eat fire?
You can taste the fuel slightly, but the main thing you feel is the heat of the fire. The fuel a little, the heat of the fire more.
One thing we are always taught is that when we put the fire in our mouth or draw steam, we should always spit it out afterwards because some of the fuel can get stuck on the tongue. This should not be swallowed because it can cause gastrointestinal upset and can cause headaches.
Tell me about your process for creating trick tutorials.
I started making tricks out of everything I know. In hula hooping, there is a baseline of tricks – we have all the basics to help you understand the sequence in hula hooping. It’s like creating choreography in dancing. So I started making a baseline of every basic trick and then started making variations of it.
And then, as I went up the pyramid, I started creating combos and choreographies of tricks. But even with all these different modalities that I practice within Flow Arts, I still have weeks where I’m like, “I don’t know what to make a tutorial about.” And maintaining that creativity can be really hard sometimes, especially when you’re a creative by profession. The pressure can be a lot, and I think pressure is the enemy of creativity because you don’t really have that free-flowing curiosity. You’re stressed because you have to create the next tutorial, make sure subscribers are happy, make money, and stay relevant.
But staying grounded and staying in that position of curiosity rather than pressure has been an essential part of my work as a professional creative. It has allowed me to work under mild stress while still cultivating that creativity.
When I feel like I’m running out of ideas, I dedicate more time to playing. Instead of delivering and trying to serve a community, I make it like I have a week where I just pursue my curiosity and exploration within my craft.
Any advice for beginner hoopers?
I recommend starting hula hooping 10 out of 10. It boosts your creativity and helps you stay active. And it gets you into this wonderful, huge community you never even knew existed. There are so many resources to get you excited about it.
There is just a little bell curve of frustration and learning something new – and I think that is true for any hobby. But once you get over that curve, it feels great and you feelO good about yourself. You feel almost unstoppable.
