Lawyer moonlights as flow artiste

Sarena Beri is a flow artiste. She performs with her partner, Rohan Jacob, who goes by the stage name ‘Yacobeh’. Their aim is to popularise movement culture while creating awareness on pressing issues such as climate change and pollution.

“I started around 2013, but it has only been three years since I started focusing on the form,” says Beri. While dangerous, the practice makes one aware of how one’s body would respond to a movement or a prop, which reduces the risks involved, she says.

A lawyer by profession, her journey with fire flow arts began when she was introduced to the form by Yacobeh. He encountered the form during a visit to Goa. When he came back, he started to work towards performing. “I joined his cause, to be honest,” she says.

Commonly known as fire dancing, fire flow arts is a performance-oriented form that combines aspects of martial art, dance, and juggling. “It helps in body coordination, focuses on geometry and patterns, and increases spatial awareness. Regular practice leads to the development of ‘flow’, which can be described as a feeling of being energised, present in the moment, and focused on the current task,” she shares.

As a child, she had experimented with various dance forms such as folk dance, breakdance, salsa and contemporary.

She combines the techniques that she has learned into her practice. As the dance form is not popular, getting the props they need for their performances often prove to be difficult. So, they either make their own props or buy them from abroad. “Young people seem to be very fascinated by what we do. We perform at music festivals, birthday parties, weddings. There is definitely an interest in what we do because it is so unconventional,” she says.

Along with Yacobeh, she created IndieFlow movement arts, with the aim to encourage all movement forms, with special emphasis on flow arts.

They organise flow jams, workshops, and events while developing a community of like-minded people.