INTERVIEWS | GENTLENESS AMBASSADORS
You Can Gently Ignore the Haters and Allow Yourself To Shine
Interview with Betty Kang — Creator of Fan Voi
Betty Kang is a fellow Singaporean who created Fan Voi — a hybrid of fan veils and veil poi. She has inspired me so much with her creative solo dances using Fan Voi, huge dragon poi veil, and silk wings. She even chooses interesting places in Singapore to record her flow dances and posts them on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, so her viewers get to appreciate more about her flow dance, beautiful flow props, and Singapore too!
I started meeting up with her in person to learn how to dance with silk fans, and took the opportunity to interview her as a Gentleness Ambassador. We had a short interview done in mid-January and here are the key highlights of what we discussed.
What led you to join the flow arts movement?
Reclaiming her dancer identity
I’ve been dancing since when I was young and continued to dance even when I started working full-time as a teacher. I love dancing as a way to move my body creatively and intuitively. But since being a stay-home-mom ten years ago after having my first child, there wasn’t any time left for me to perform or even just to take regular dance classes. It felt like part of my identity was missing. So, one fine day six years ago, when my second child was around two years old, I happened to pass by a huge empty space near my home with very few people passing by. I saw others playing with their skipping ropes and doing other sports activities there, so I thought to myself — why not use this space for dance too?
I had some dance props that I kept with me since before I had kids, so I just thought of bringing out these props and dancing right there in that space as my personal dance stage. I decided to record my little impromptu dance for the fun of it and posted it on Instagram. I appreciate using Instagram because I can get a very focused feed based on my hashtags and see much more relevant content.
I got into the flow arts around 2017 and I’ve been flowing since then!
A freer way to dance and flow
So, I noticed that many other Instagrammers all over the world are doing flow arts just for the fun of it. Most of them are not professional dancers and performers. They just do it as a form of stress release which I thought was very appealing.
As I’m a dancer, I would integrate the dance genre I was learning at the moment, such as certain belly dance elements, into my flow dances. It was quite encouraging to receive a lot of compliments after I posted my first few videos to the flow community. I started watching other flow movement and dance videos, learning and integrating my new skills into my personal flow dances.
It feels so liberating because there are really no rules when it comes to flow. You can simply move in the way that you feel inspired to move, and your inspiration could come from your environment, the music you’re listening to, or even the mental and emotional stress you might be under.
Your flow movement could be a release from your internal emotions, and you feel really good after that, especially when you hit the flow state when you’re in the zone.
I think every flow artist flows in order to access that flow state.
Bingz: This flow state reminds me of the way Disney Pixar’s recent movie Soul described as being in the zone! Here’s a short featurette I found on YouTube where artists who were involved in its movie production described what it’s like for them to be in the zone.
What led you to create Fan Voi?
When I saw my Belly Dance instructor using silk veil poi, I felt so inspired to learn to use it! She gave me a set to learn so I could perform in our belly dance shows. Shortly after, there became a new trend to incorporate fan veils in our belly dance performances too.
I wanted to dance with both the silk veil poi and fan veils, but it was so troublesome to keep switching between the two. At first, I tried searching online to see if someone else had already combined these two props into one, but I couldn’t anything similar to what I wanted. So I just inserted poi loops to my silk fan veils and called it Fan Voi! I made my first pair of Fan Voi in 2012.
I posted my dance videos showing how I played with Fan Voi and the flow arts community was so intrigued because there’s no way you can do that with normal fan veils! The silk artists who make silk fans saw the potential in this and asked me for permission to recreate this idea so they can sell their fans fitted with removable poi loops. Of course, I said yes to them since it’s just a passion for me and not a business. There’s no conflict of interest.
Everyone benefits — people are having fun with this new props and my invention helps these silk artists to earn a living. So it’s quite meaningful to me.
Do you set an intention before you flow every time?
Sometimes I flow because I want to move my body, or I want to test out a particular movement I’ve been visualizing in my mind. I feel lucky that I don’t feel stressed very often, but I do think it’s a good way to get release some endorphins and feel good. When you feel good, naturally you won’t need to vent out your frustrations to your husband, kids, or other people around you.
To showcase interesting places in Singapore
Singapore is so beautiful to me. Recently, I started to find interesting places to flow in, so I can share more about Singapore with flow arts people from all over the world. And as someone who enjoys dancing, it’s wonderful to find such beautiful places as my dance stage!
It’s sad that many Singaporeans don’t appreciate Singapore and find it to be very boring. Though I agree that we can’t compare it to places like London, for sure, I feel that we just have to open our eyes and find these pretty hidden corners instead of being too focused on where we want to go to. Stop and smell the roses. Allow yourself to be delighted by the places you see each day. If you scroll through my Instagram feed, I’m sure you’ll be surprised by the interesting sights that are available right in Singapore where we live.
To spread happy vibes!
Sometimes I love the music that’s being played and I just want to move to the music. Initially, I felt a little shy to move because there might be many people around me, and I used to be too concerned with how they might judge my actions. But I’ve learned to ignore that concern. I realized this is just a mental block. If there’s no sign saying ‘No Dancing’ or ‘No Flowing’, then there’s nothing to stop us from flowing and dancing.
I’ve been flowing in public so many times and 99.9% of the public reactions I get are positive. I don’t mind that some of them take photos and videos of me because I’m recording myself too. It always feels good when I see some kids who are curious and brave enough to approach me. I would lend them my props and they’re so happy playing with them! Their energy is amazing! I love that I can pass on happy vibes just by flowing in public and interacting with them.
What does Gentleness mean to you? And how do you see flowing as a way of embodying Gentleness?
Gentleness is similar to compassion to me.
When I’m flowing by myself in public, I’m also showing others that this is a fun and creative way to release your mental and emotional stress. Through flowing and allowing onlookers to touch my props and to even try them out for fun, I’m sharing my way of practicing Gentleness to them.
I enjoy treating my flow dances as free entertainment for others too! There are many old folks who spend most of the time just sitting around, and so I enjoy lighting up their faces with my flow dances.
Giving others permission to give themselves permission
Sometimes, certain onlookers would comment how I’m so brave to flow in public. My message to them would always be: “well, nobody says that you can’t do this. So why wouldn’t you do it if you want to?”
You simply take that mental shift from seeking external permission to giving yourself permission to do what you desire to do. As long as it’s legal, of course! Sometimes, you just need someone else’s permission to give yourself permission. Bingz: I love how you are so generous in using your talents, passion, and courage to bring joy and inspiration to people you don’t even know! You definitely show compassion to the general public with your flow performances!
Being a role model for my kids
Choosing to flow in public and sharing my flow videos has definitely affected my three kids. They’re all a little shy, especially my daughter, who’s the eldest. She used to feel a little disturbed at the way passers-by would watch my public flow performances and occasionally take photos and videos. She just wanted to dig a hole and hide inside!
This has improved since my kids started seeing how people express their appreciation for what I do through social media.
I’ve received personal messages sharing “watching you do this in public has given me the courage to do the same too!” There are many more people like me who see these beautiful places and feel inspired to dance in them too, but they have been holding themselves back. After watching my flow videos, they feel inspired to do the same too.
I guess knowing the impact of how I’m helping others changed my daughter’s perception of what I do. So now, she doesn’t try to hide and even helps out occasionally as my camera person! My daughter just turned ten years old, and my two other sons just turned six and eight years old. My two boys just see it as “okay, mommy’s just doing her own thing.”
Bingz: What you’re doing with sharing your flow dances and inspiring others is so amazing!
Do you have a big vision for your passion?
What I would love to see most is to have more ordinary folks like myself flow in public more often, just for the fun of it.
I’d like to help people make that mental shift to not be overly concerned with how others might judge and just follow their desires to flow more in public. Hopefully, when this pandemic ends and we no longer need to do any social distancing, I would like to see more people flowing in public.
I see this starting to happen already!
I see dancers who record their dances in public, though they look more like professional dancers, and often do this as a get-together activity.
The fitness community is getting into the flow arts as well! There is a trend in the fitness community where they flow with different props such as skipping ropes and Kettle ball weights. There is even a dynamic body-weight workout system called Animal Flow.
I met up with this gym instructor, Marcus, who flows with this steel mace, which is a long steel rod with a weighted ball attached to one end. I taught him to do the three-beats wave so he could spin his equipment and he was super thrilled to do it. I met up with another fitness group for a thoroughly enjoyable group flow jam too!
What I would love to see most is to have more ordinary folks like myself flow in public more often, just for the fun of it. I don’t care whether passers-by like what I’m doing. I’m flowing for myself and that is good enough for me.
Let go of what others think of you
Being able to go ahead and do what you love is so important because we need to be able to let go of what others think of us in our day-to-day life too! We need to be able to make the right decision without worrying about the opinions of other people. It’s a life skill to be able to ignore the external noise. We need to filter out the haters in our lives so we can reduce this unnecessary stress.
Here’s a short video from Betty encouraging us to flow :)
Recommended Resources
Do you feel inspired to try out the flow arts too?
Silk Fans
Here are some shops that Betty recommends to purchase good quality silk fans:
- For beginners and people with a low budget: check out Winged Sirenny (Get 5% off with the code “dagezk”). Great for beginners and people with a low budget. Their fans are made from good quality silks and are hemmed at the edges to prevent fraying.
- For smooth ombre styles at reasonable prices, check out these silk artists: A’kai Silks, LunarWear, and Sahariah’s Desert Silks. Each artist has her unique style of dyeing and cutting of the silks, so do take a look at their past products to see which ones you prefer.
Poi Tutorials
These two sites offer great Poi tutorials:
Silk Fan Veils and Fan Voi lessons
Betty offers private lessons over online Zoom to teach you silk fan veil and Fan Voi techniques.
Here’s a handy YouTube tutorial that she created to teach you how you can create your own Fan Voi!
Connect with Betty Kang
Thank you, Betty, for sharing your insights and experiences in flow arts with us! I appreciate your integrity, courage, friendliness, and compassion so much!
I hope that this interview has inspired you with new ways to be gentle with yourself, or perhaps it serves as a gentle reminder for you to release mental blocks that you are already aware of.
If you feel inspired to continue learning from her flow journey, do connect with her through her Instagram account.
