Local Dancer Leads National Honey Bee Event

Flag dancers at an Irish Arts Festival event in McAllen, Texas in 2021. (Courtesy Mykel.)

Mykel, creator of Flow With Me Honey Bee, in Barcelona, Spain earlier this year. (Courtesy EEC Productions.)

A new dance program to overcome isolation and join people globally is the goal of the “Flow with Me Honey Bee” dance presented free on Zoom this Friday, October 18.

The dance will be led by East Bay-born performer and teacher Mykel Dicus (known professionally as just Mykel), and is sponsored locally by Sorensdale Recreation Center, a disabled adult program of the Hayward Area Recreation and Parks District (HARD). All are welcome to join in on Zoom; you can register at https://eecproductions.as.me/honeybee.

“Flow with Me Honey Bee” will unite participants from the United States, India, Spain, and Russia in a free online Flow and Flair dance class designed to combat loneliness and foster joy. 

“The title refers to bees returning back to the hive,” Mykel said. “Loneliness and isolation are real problems to the elderly and disabled, and many others.” 

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently declared loneliness a national epidemic. 

The goal is to gather at least 40 participants from each of the four countries involved, creating a dynamic and interconnected global experience, according to its website. 

The program employs flag dancing, a style that evolved from the older art of fan dancing via gay culture in New York and San Francisco. 

Flag dancing made the jump into the disability community when a flag dancing teacher in New York developed Parkinson’s Disease, a movement disorder. Not only couldn’t he teach it anymore, but he and some of his fellow patients in a rehab hospital had trouble just moving. 

Mykel went to visit his friend and brought flag dancing to him. It was a hit because not only did it encourage people to move but made it possible for some of them to do so for the first time in years. 

“We encouraged micro-movements, to start with what people could do,” Mykel said.

“We also found that it helped people express emotions, even people who had become non-verbal.” 

“We would see somebody start to move a little, and ask them ‘What are you doing? How did you do that?’ he said. “Previously nonverbal people would often respond.” 

That fits in with the approach of the Sorensdale Center, a special needs center in Hayward, many of whose participants are developmentally disabled. On its website, the center says it focuses on what people can do, not on what they’re not able to do. 

Mykel’s approach to therapeutic flag dancing spread first to the tri-state area around New York, then to four other states including California, and then to India and other countries. People who had trouble expressing strong emotions verbally were able to do so through dance. 

Mykel has now taught his transformative dance programs for 16 years. He invites everyone to join this joyful event aimed at promoting mobility, independence and bravery.

You can get more information on Flow and Flair’s programs  at www.flowandflair.com. You can also see their YouTube video at https://youtu.be/0BavRaVwa8o