Blog » Noelle Powers

Valentine’s Day 2012 @ The Birchmere

Noelle Powers — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:17:38 +0000

Join the world famous Pontani Sisters, the Maine Attraction, Strange Powers, and more special guests for a romantic holiday evening set to sultry jazz favorites with a beauteous burlesque bent. Hooping like you’ve never seen sexy hooping before: set to live jazz music! At the Birchmere Music Hall. Show details: 7:30 pm on 14 February, 2012, Alexandria, VA. Click here for purchasing tickets, and we’ll see you on V-Day for Burlesque-A-Pades delight!

Get a Hoop or Two for the Holidays!

Noelle Powers — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:47:53 +0000

Contact the Hooping Powers team from our CONTACT page TODAY to order your hoop for the holidays or in time for the super pop New Year’s Resolution of more exercise (read: PLAY!). Hoops for tots to elders are available in many colors, weights, and designs. Mini hoops start around $12/each for a set of two, and large & in charge heavy hoops are up to $40. Generally adult-friendly variety hoops are $30-$35. You can also purchase untaped rings and decorate it yourself for a fun solo or intergenerational project during the school vacay days. Untaped rings are $4 to $10, depending on the size & weight of material. Hooping makes EVERYTHING better. Try it and see for yourself! <3

Ottobar Show This Saturday: 12.10.11

Noelle Powers — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:13:38 +0000

Friends! Hoop-Lovers! Holiday-Lovers! Burlesque-Lovers! Come out to Baltimore’s Ottobar club this coming Saturday for a rare B’more treat: The World Famous Pontani Sisters from NYC will be gracing the stage in all of their foxy adorableness. The italian stallionettes will present their seasonal revue: BURLESQUE-A-PADES, HOLIDAY INN! And, in addition to the reigning queen of burlesque & real deal beauty herself: Miss Angie Pontani, joining the fun will be the tres talented tap dancin tornado: Helen Pontani, the great deceiver from Ripley’s Believe it or Not: Albert Cadabra, Baltimore’s boylesque starlet: Paco Fish, and yours truly, Strange Powers, holding it down and all around in the sexy circle… In sum, a veritable cavalcade of gifted hotness upon which to feast your eyes and ring your bells. Doors open at 8pm, show is at 9pm, 18+ years of age & $15 to enter. Get your tickets here and see you THERE!

Foto~Circular #8- Las ‘Upas,’ Las Gaviotas, y La Luna

Noelle Powers — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:13:43 +0000

A beautiful, striking shot my friend Ricardo captured during my stay in Valdivia, southern Chile, a couple of years ago. The seagulls (las gaviotas) were migrating and can be seen as a wispy shadow above my hoops (mi palabra= upas) held high, with the moon (la luna) prettily peering out, too. <3

Hooping for Social Justice

Noelle Powers — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 23:49:41 +0000

The revolution may or may not be televised, but it will most definitely be social-networkified, and it will ONE HUNDRED PERCENT be hoola hooped! Hooping was, is, and will always will be for me a true act of revolution~ not only of the physical variety (which is so infinitely cool) but also for the plight of oppressed peoples who need a lift, a jolt of joy, and a big boost of community momentum. Real and large-scale social change is taking place in our country, the colonizing capital of our planet~ having begun a month ago in New York City with the tremendous Occupy Wall Street movement. Masses of people are rising up in frustration, desperation, compassion, and all in the spirit of non-violent, loving-kindness with a vision of major paradigm shifting. Hoopers are among the many brave ones taking to the streets and inundating social media networks with coverage of what’s actually happening. It’s so easy to get stuck in our analytical, overwhelmed heads these days, amidst the traumatic events, economic crises, and environmental disasters taking place across the world. A hoop can help with this worrisome tendency. Hooping is an immediate source of grounding into ourselves, flexing & strengthening our muscles, and feeling the full range of motion our bodies will allow. Hooping also quickly unblocks stagnant energy channels and returns them to their natural states of flow. It is no wonder that so many hoopers are hip (pun noted) to the greater socio-economic revolution taking place right here, right now. As a general truth, hoopers are community-oriented, justice-centered, optimistic, super flexible, and (as an added bonus:) truly in our bodies. A superb recipe for a revolutionist, I do believe. AND HOOPING IS FUN! Super fun! Plus it keeps you well & feeling frisky. Consider organizing groups of hoopers to take to the streets, not only amongst all of the awesome ‘OCCUPY’ movements happening across the country and planet, but just to walk the walk and spin the circle in united communal fashion wherever you may find yourself, and in doing so draw magnetic attention to this overarching concept of REVOLUTION. There are groups sprouting up all over to hoop for peace and social justice. Tisha Marina, pictured above, has been holding it down with the hoop in LA for a number of years, successfully using our beloved circle as a means for social change. As my dear hooper friend Jaguar Mary likes to say: “Flow is the new Change.” Today I think we can safely add that: “Change is the new Flow.” Welcome to the age of Aquarius and the return to human decency. And let us all hoopdance to celebrate!

Spin Art is Hooptastic Fun!

Noelle Powers — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:18:59 +0000

I cannot believe that I did not know about spin art until this week of my life. Not only am I a hooper (so naturally obsessed with mandalas and all things that orbit) but I had never set mine eyes on a spin art machine, much less even heard of it until I got a chance to see one in action at a camp where I taught hoopdance last week. After we’d wrapped up our hooping, I saw all the youth bustling in a far corner of the retreat space, and when I followed them over I found several gorgeous, bright-colored, circular-blasted paintings hanging to dry and a sweet older fellow helping folks one by one, affix their paper canvases to the inside of the spin machine and go to town on creating their prize paintings. Apparently this man had found an heavy-duty grade spin art machine at an estate sale and took time to clean it up and get it running well, and then volunteered his time to spread the spin art love with these young campers. What a splendid combination of activities for a youth (or any age!) camp~ hooping AND spin art… when I mentioned the natural association, people said they hadn’t until then thought of them being related. Well I’ll be! I want to spin more art! Pictured is the one I did very quickly just before departing… I shall name it ‘Spin Rising.’ : )

Musically-Inspired HoopDance

Noelle Powers — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:20:09 +0000

Over the last few months, no doubt thanks in large part to the incredible musical offerings of the MXP drum circle players on Sunday afternoons, I have been able to fuse my hooping with my dancing more and more seamlessly each time I enter the ring. Hoop-Dance fusion has always been my favorite ’style’ of hooping (vs. being a trick monkey or exercise monkey, e.g.)~ and now that I’m getting better at it, I like it even more! While I’m enjoying newfound levels of pleasure and skill in this realm, I am concurrently developing ways of how to easily instruct folks in the art of ‘hoopdance musicality.’ We are in the process of lining up some dates for fall classes and workshops~ where we will definitely be working on techniques to better bridge the gap that frequently exists between a person’s hooping and the accompanying music. If you are interested in enhancing your own hoopdance musicality, please do message us from the contact page and we’ll keep you abreast of class information as it solidifies. The shot above is of several hoopers feelin the beat with drummers backs barely visible to the left and in the far center background the Joan of Arc on horse statue that presides over the southern end of this most magical spot in our nation’s capital. Do come out tomorrow and join us! Drumming begins around 3:00, is LIVE BY FIVE, and wraps up by 9pm~

Squashportation

Noelle Powers — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 15:55:53 +0000

My dear friends were such good sports taking the back seat of my auto with hoops monopolizing most of the space en route to our afternoon park-time. Tis the life of the hoop lovers~ we’ve gotta share our space and hoop love, at pretty much any cost. : )

Sage~Hooping

Noelle Powers — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 17:05:30 +0000

Recently I was lighting some cleansing sage (a.k.a. salvia apiana) in my oh-so-woo-ish way and popped outside for a quick spin with the hoop~ I kept the burning sage in my hand as I twisted within the infinite ring~ spinning my torso both counter-directionally from it- and then also conjoined in a sustained spin… a flowing, scented dance. Twisting as the ring surrounded my torso while burning sage in hand proved to be a great way to combine multiple senses (touch, scent or aromatherapy, movement & vision) and hence to combine powerful healing modalities. Over a number of years I have professed hooping to be a highly ‘neurobic’ activity- combining use of our senses in novel & interesting ways to help increase our brain wellness. For those of us who’ve been hooping now for quite a while- I believe we are wise to find creative ways of making our hooping practice stay novel & therefore, neurobic. I purport that adding scent inhalation to your hoop-experience is one such way. According to Wikipedia, the term ‘neurobics’ was coined by late neurobiologist & author Lawrence Katz to describe mental exercises designed to keep the brain alert. Wikipedia states, “It is presumed that unusual sensory stimulation and activities like non-routine actions and thoughts, produce more of such chemicals of the neurobiology system of body that encourage growth of new dendrites and neurons in the brain. Routine actions become so automatic to the individual that most of actions are done largely unconsciously. Such automated or unconscious actions require less activity in the brain, and exercise it less. With the help of neurobics exercises, it is claimed that one can stimulate the brain. An example of a neurobic exercise is to carry out a routine action such as brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand,” OR, to this I add: HOOLA HOOPING IN YOUR NON-DOMINANT DIRECTION! And for an added brain boost: breathing in a special or sweet smell that you fancy. Oh wise and fragrant sage, you keep me sane! : )

Hooping for Emotional Alignment

Noelle Powers — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:45:19 +0000

Those of us in the hoop-know are also likely well aware of the hoop-feel-and-release phenomenon. Hooping & hoopdance help to process emotions quicker- just like movement in general…so that when we feel not only physical lethargy or stiffness, but mental anxiety, confusion, depression, or fear, we can literal step into the hoop to help stretch and spin it out of us. The hoop melds our emotional brain half with our logical brain half, thereby creating healing to take place at the connection point~ or what I like to think of as our soul~spirit spot. For whatever reason, this works. You must try it to believe it. If you’ve heard of the therapeutic healing modality called EMDR or if you’ve heard of trauma relief through bilateral brain stimulation, you have a general idea of why hooping may be so helpful… it’s a more physically exaggerated version of what’s happening in these other therapeutic forms- but basically boils down to the hoop touching your right and left body sides over and over again- and attuning your logical and emotional centers in the process. To keep track of what we are working through, along with our progress and discoveries made along the way, we can choose to hoop nearby a pen and paper, a dedicated flow journal (see one of my own in photo above) or our computer~ and go back and forth between free spinning and free writing~ stimulating each activity through the other. I have personally hooped myself through a great deal of grief in the last 6 years. The hoop has kept me afloat in a turbulent sea of sad~ a literal oversized lifesaver that has not only helped me work through the hard, but continues to renew my faith in joy and play and healing~ over and over again.