Anyone who’s ever stretched and moved about with hoop in hands is sure to have felt the incredible benefits of this simple & most gloriously deep shape in ever-expanding one’s range of body movement/s. I have danced throughout my lifetime, but only in the last five years and more intensely in the last one or two years have I felt a dramatic increase in my joint mobility, a lessening of pain to the point of completely eliminating my lower back pain, and a strengthening of my wrists & hands so much more than I ever would have thought possible without the blessing of a healthy dose of hoop practice. Moving your spine does good stuff in your bod. It is my assertion that: twisting, shifting, rolling, and reeling through space with and against gravity, pushing and pulling and dance-making with your circular partner makes you at least a bit to A LOT more happily cope-able with and on this world. Tonight I had an interaction with a woman from the group who comes in after our hoop class to use the space for her Gamelan Orchestra. She was stretching, bending forward with widening arms and such, when I noticed and suggested she try it with a hoop~ explaining after she inquired–> how we integrate stretching regularly into our warm ups and cool downs and into specific movement choices that contribute to beautifully slow & flow-ful paths of hoopdance. She tried it and immediately, enthusiastically agreed how powerfully good it felt~ & naturally energizing! The hoop sells itself. It needs no marketing gurus, no Hollywood Hudsucker Proxy tales of success. It is a magnetic shape in which we want to be enveloped, & with which we want to adorn our lives. It helps us feel united & whole, in a rather torn apart world. Within families that couldn’t be more repelled, it brings folks together. The hoop helps you stretch out of your comfort zone just a little bit more, each and every day. Even if you don’t have time, space, or energy to hoop it out on a given day, the simple act of lifting and lowering, bending and reaching, circling and twisting, & all the while Breathing with the magic ring allows a person to be more flexible in the inevitable winds of challenge & change. May the hoop increase your peace in the whirlwind of your life~