HUMANS of Flow Arts | Marvin Ong

Marvin Ong, or “Grand Master Ong,” as he’s affectionately known in the Flow and Juggling scene, was born and raised in Malaysia before relocating to the U.S, specifically Los Angeles, California.  As of this summer, Marvin has been playing with props for nine and a half years now. The meaning of the flow arts to Marvin is a mix between finding one’s center through meditation and shifting between the vast experiences he’s gathered through his travels over the years. Flow arts has come to be a presentation and expression for the soul with a high level of movement involved. At least that’s what Marvin believes for himself.

When reflecting on what being part of a community means for Marvin, he looks back on the transition he made when he decided to move 9,000 miles across the world. When he first came to the US back in December of 2004, he moved directly to LA where he didn’t know anyone. It was the difficulty of experiencing this feeling of being alone and not having a community he could turn to that inspired him to push to build up his own.  Since then Marvin and his brother Elvin have created Marvin Ong’s Prop Shop (or MOPS) where they sell and distribute juggling and flow equipment to facilitate others journey in object manipulation and in building relations the community.

Marvin’s core motivation in continuing his interactions within the Flow Arts community has been his ability to share the concepts and pass along the things others have taught him as well as the simple joy of idea sharing with another human being while simultaneously seeing and creating bonds. Seeing through other people how he was like them. Something Marvin has learned in his international journey is that if we stop teaching, then we cease to grow. This is a big part of the reason why MOPS has a bi-annual flow and juggling festival called “MANIPULATION.” It’s a time when we gather to share in our humanity and continue to learn and grow for one another.

You can follow Master Ong’s swift prop manipulation on Social Media by following the links below!

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