The hoola hoop is hands down the most unconditionally-loving-low-maintenance-high-pleasure-forever-partner dreamable. Who else can you choose to or refuse to dance with at any hour of any day and it will always be okay? What else looks as beautiful silently dangling from a hook on your wall as it does swinging boldly around your heavenly hips? Give it a whirl this LOVE day, or tomorrow, or the next… it is ALWAYS a great day for some scrumptious hoop lovin. Photo Credit: Stefanie Atkinson, 2010.
Archive for the ‘Health’ Category
Foto~Circular #11- HoopLove To You, Always
Thursday, February 14th, 2013Revolutionary Blessings To All
Monday, January 21st, 2013
There is so much to celebrate today, and so much more work ahead PLUS PLAY. Make sure to take time to replenish in your self-loving hoop practice as we strive to keep making positive changes, both within society and towards this precious planet. Thank you to all who work for civil rights, children’s rights, environmental sustainability, and economic justice. Happy birthday, Dr. King- may all our various revolutions continue onward towards further peace & loving actions.
My Brain On Hoops
Sunday, December 9th, 2012
Hooping somehow simultaneously quiets my mind AND makes it flow forth with ideas. An intellectually stimulating, meditatively relaxing godsend. Here is a snapshot of my brain on hoops from a lesson plan of long ago- there’s always so much more to explore in the world of hooping. What are you currently working on these days? I have been drilling rolls- horizontal style, from one hand/arm to the other, and then (of course) reversing the direction. Rolls are something I’ve more or less avoided for a long time, and now that I’m actually putting the practice into them, it’s all clicking! Or more precisely: it’s all rolling! Rollin’ with my hoopies… 
Hello100! A Hundred HoOpDancers spin up a New York Isle!
Thursday, June 7th, 2012
This Saturday and Sunday, June 9 & 10, at 2pm and 4pm, Hello100!, a vision of the bold & beautiful Bex Burton will be danced by dozens of hoopers from all over the land on Governors Island, NYC. Strange Powers will be making it up from MD to join in this epic event- part of an amazing arts festival that is free to all: the Figment Project. It’s not every day that you get to see a hundred or more colorfully costumed hoopdancers in a choreographed piece inspired by LOVE. But each day of this weekend, it IS that day. And it’s twice daily. And there’s a BUNCH more wild, fun, love-centered, experiential arts pieces happening on the island all day long, THIS WEEKEND! Here’s a video link to inspire you even more. If you have any way to get to that free ferry that takes you to that pretty island of (pedestrians and bicyclists, no cars:) and spend the day in a priceless, liberating joy-state, I strongly suggest you go. And we will hug you in our hoops when we see you.
Foto~Circular #10- Even Babies HOoP!
Monday, May 21st, 2012
Here’s a magnificent little being who’s already found the ring of love. It’s easy for people of ALL ages to fall for the hoop, since it is simply a pretty-shaped object even if all you’re doing is picking it up, staring at it (a.k.a. being ‘hoopnitized’), or donning it on your wall as decoration. Don’t believe the myth that one needs to be able to actively waist hoop to enjoy all the many bennies. The hoop is far too useful in ways beyond the waist to cast it aside based on your age or body’s physical limitations. So get to it! Start surrounding yourself with circles and watch your world fill with MORE JOY.
Hoop Jam tonight! And Sari Mah~
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012VIDEO: Sari Mah’s Hoop Progress* Time and time again, getting into my hoop to dance for an hour or two (or even two minutes) TRULY DOES TRANSFORM my stress into glee, and fuels love into my body… want to join me? ( : Once again, for another Tuesday night installment, we will gather at Joe’s Movement Emporium (6:45 to 8:15pm) for our weekly community spin jam. Last week I met a brand new hooper who stunned me with inspiration in her commitment to learning the hoop and healing her body. The next day I read about Hooper of the Week, Sari Mah the hooper’s hub that is hooping dot org. The link at the start of this post takes you to a video of the magnificent Sari Mah inspiring the free outta me. And to beauteously boot, she starts of the video with the poetry of beloved Rumi on dance: *Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance if you’re perfectly free.* Thank you for furthering my free, Sari.
Get a Hoop or Two for the Holidays!
Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
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
Hooping for Social Justice
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
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!
Sage~Hooping
Tuesday, July 12th, 2011
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
Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
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.
Foto~Circular #7: Mural Desde Chile
Saturday, April 30th, 2011
This beautiful mandala is one of many different ones painted on my friends’ property in Santiago, Chile. I do not know of what artist to credit- but I am thankful for their creation. I love the 12 (paralleling astrological houses & signs, all 12-step programs, and the number of apostles, etc.) points on the rose-colored portion of the mandala. Within the 12-pointed flower is a 6-pointed flower- 1/2 of twelve and also my favorite number. Additionally, I enjoy seeing the light beamy bubbles peering from the 4 corners towards the edge of the circle- representing for me both the cardinal directions and seasons where I live. The mint-green colored square, scale-like shape reminds me to strive towards balance in all my pursuits. And finally, the triangular, sideways Star of David-like Venn diagrams resting in the center help me sit with life’s core complexities a little bit easier.
Hoopitation
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
For many of us, hooping practice affords us a chance to clear our minds and be with our breath, grounded & embodied. Whether actively spinning the circle around your core- constantly hugging your hips and heart space, stretching with the hoop as your body follows the curve of the ring, or simply & peacefully sitting inside of the hoop & breathing (like Elsie the cat pictured above), the hoop is a gift to be present.
Many folks new to meditation have a hard time practicing the sitting still part- fidgeting & restlessness being a common experience. A solitary hoop practice can help by focusing on keeping the ring up… and through this physical, rocking back and forth body motion bilaterally stimulating the brain, thoughts & feelings more easily synthesize, come & go- and eventually fade from focus making way for that quintessential feeling of flow.
One way to dramatically enhance your ability to go inward with your hoop practice is to use a blindfold while you hoop. Hooping without being able to use your sense of sight helps to increase the kinesthetic experience of the hoop encircling your body. ‘Kinesthesia’ is defined as the sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints, or the sense of moving in space. Particularly with a rapidly moving object like a hoop whipping around the core, one’s vision can serve as a real distraction from being able to fully feel the hoop’s motion & the body’s innate rhythmic connection to it. Oftentimes when someone begins to hoop blind, they immediately find it to be easier, more calming, and even a transcendental experience. Do you yet practice hoopitation inside your ring? Let us know how it goes and any useful tips you have for finding your flow~
Hoop Funk Shui
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Anyone that has a hoop or two or twenty has likely become well-acquainted with the nature of what I like to call hoop funk shui- the challenge of flowful transport & placement of your hoop/s in your abode or practice space. It’s quite humbling (and often frustrating) after a super fluid and inspiring session of play inside your hoop to then try to clunkily traverse a space, doorway, or narrow passageway with hoops on your person, or even to set your hoops against a wall to have them quickly slide to the ground sometimes knocking over other objects along the way. There is actually an art and dance to simply walking through the world with your hoop (becoming exponentially more difficult when using crowded public transportation). Backing up or turning feels like one should have an accompanying beep like a big truck or otherwise ‘wide load.’ The sheer size and shape of the hoop require that there be intention and actual delicacy in where and how you decide to keep them. I have found the best sources of storage, both practically and aesthetically to be hanging your hoops- this could be from a single nail against the wall for a lone hoop, to a full on bike-rack protruding from the wall for a gang of hoops (make sure to place it above head level to prevent potentially injurious collisions). At a hoop class or jam where there are lots of other bodies around- sometimes a awkward lean against the wall is all you can hope for- but if there’s room to set the hoops flush against the floor- that’s a great option. Hoops demand our attention not just when we’re in them spinning ‘em around us; their mere existence is a cause for pause and thoughtfulness. A lesson we can draw from the difficulty of hoop travel and storage is that we are invited to find and cultivate flow in our lives both inside and outside of the hoop. Hoopdance and the hooping movement itself is indeed a great place to start. As we start to discover our inner dancer and rhythm from within the hoop- we can try to apply the same skill set to our life outside of the hoop. The consideration of how flowing and calm our hoop’s physical placement feels in our life can soon move into how flowing and calm does our communication feel, or our dietary habits, or our accountability for missteps in our relationships. The endless circle of the hoop symbolizes all of the possibilities life has to offer. We can chose to focus on what’s working, and actively work to improve that which is not working so well. There are infinite possibilities and paths- it’s up to us to truly consider what feels best and keeps our energy flowing optimally, each and every day.
HoopStiltin’ at Malcolm X
Monday, March 21st, 2011
Thanks to the sharing spirit of stilt-owner Tom yesterday at the MXPark play & drum circles, I got to go up on stilts & try my hips at hooping! I’ve been ‘up’ once or twice before, but this was the impetus for me to get more into stilting (with hooping, of course) and share the fun of it with others! For those not in the know, Malcolm X Park (a.k.a. Meridian Hill Park) has had a long-standing drum and dance circle beginning in the 60’s after Malcolm X’s death, and it’s pretty much one of the best gatherings of this nature maybe anywhere. I know that’s a big and bold claim, but for being in the capital of the capital of aggressive, powerful nations~ there is an extra sweet significance to the highly diverse, peaceful, fun, calm, and positively energizing space that is created here every Sunday afternoon-eve, warm-ish weather allowing (think 60 degrees and above). In addition to the on-point, huge, and multi-instrumental drum circle (people full on bring out there drum kits), there are dancers, hoopers, poi-spinners, jugglers, slack-liners, acro-yoginis, picnickers, and happily observing passersby of all ages out and about. Last night there was even fire being spun towards the end of the night. Thanks to Rayhan & Melissa, too- for sharing the shot above & being my shoulder to lean on atop a wildly wiggly slack line. : )
The Subtleties and Vastness of Arm-Hand Spinning
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011I am pretty much in love with light, mini arm & hand hooping these days. My time in Chile just over a year ago really jump-started this relationship, even though I had done it a bit before the trip~ but without as much intention nor attention regarding the many positive & often subtle impacts it was having on other parts of my life. I recently received movie clips captured in the Valdivian rainforest of my first natural exploration with mini hoops in hand. The videos (a portion of which is shown above) were produced by my friend Karin {y Ricardo tambien} whom I had the pleasure to meet during those few months I spent in South America, falling into winter~ 2009.
Core or torso hooping helps you be embodied and feel your core energy centers hugged. What an extraordinary gift to self in this day and age: positive & joyful touch and play, in a not-so-sexual yet body-positive, super sensual and self-loving kind of way, hugging around your belly, pelvis, & heart spaces. There is perhaps nothing to the hooper more personal and basic and raw and intimate as core hooping. Or so I thought- and still do, in certain ways. However, my mind has been super-charged of late through the motion of *lightly-weighted, miniature hooping on the left and right arms/hands/sides of body space. *I prefer a super light grade of tubing for tiny minis. This I feel allows me to focus more on the dance of hoopdance. It’s really up to your stylistic preferences- remembering that heavier tubing (even if only 125 PSI) is going to go a little slower and not fly of the fingers quite as fast.
When I first began “neo” hooping in 2005, I marveled at the brain training that waist hooping afforded me. It was obvious: I could tell core hooping was extraordinarily helpful as my balance increased, and I felt steadied in thoughts & emotions through bilaterally stimulating the two halves of my brain. If core hooping is a brain-boosting college class, arm-hand hooping is the doctoral level of brain training. In the vein of Poi-style object manipulation, arm-hooping is simultaneously a challenge AND a graceful flowing mix; at once the New York Time’s Sunday crossword AND an Alvin Ailey dancer. And cutie baby hoops.
In the last year, I have started to make arm-hooping a standard part of my personal hoopdance practice as well as many of my hoop classes. Sometimes it’s challenging to leave the comforting core space~ but I do believe it’s a risk worth taking & well worth any struggle, in my humble hooper experience. The rewards abound and continue to come ’round. Have you yet ventured off your core for more?
On Healing Mandalas
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
I recently came across this wonderful gem of a book: Healing Mandalas, which is of course all about mandalas and their innate healing qualities. Lisa Tenzin-Dolma offers a wealth of information to expand your consciousness and exploration of mandala meditation as the hugely healing practice that it is. Not only are the words a breath of fresh air, but the mandala images themselves are quite stunning, intricate AND calming all at once~ a welcomed surprise in contrast to the few other mandala-themed books I have perused to date. Tenzin-Dolma gracefully shares on topics such as: finding one’s whole self by living in the present, embracing change, and trusting intuition; engaging with others through balancing opposites, fostering freedom, and offering loving kindness; and dealing with challenging times such as grief, illness, and fear. Each visual mandala is accompanied by text suggesting how to meditate on the mandala itself, though the offered guided meditations stand powerfully on their own without the accompanying picture (if, for example, you wanted to share the meditations with a large group of folks and didn’t want to have to make a bunch of color copies of the mandalas). I leave you with the wonderful words of Jung on mandalas, as they appear in the beginning of this beautiful book:
“I saw that everything, all paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point- namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the center. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the center, to individuation… I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate.”
A Comfortable Depth of Stretch
Sunday, January 30th, 2011
Recently I was asked in a circle of spinners to share my current favorite hoop move. My answer was actually: “Hoopstretching.” For those of us who regularly use a hoop to assist us in our various stretching practices, we know that there’s an ability to experience a broader range of movement in the rather safe-feeling confines of the hoop. Often in classes I refer to the classic Leonardo da Vinci drawing above (Vitruvian Man, 1492) in which the human figure has outstretched arms and legs- and fits perfectly within the circumference of the circle. Having a rounded object such as a hoop to hold while warming up before more dynamic hoopdance helps us move through our ranges of motion feeling a deeper sense of groundedness, stability, and hoOpfully doing so a little further than we might otherwise be able to go sans hoop. For my particular body & range of motion, the hoop informs me of when I’ve stretched to my limit, and because of it’s circular shape, it more safely brings me back into my upstanding position with ease. In addition to helping with deeper side plane & forward/backward bending stretches, twists are significantly easier while wrapped happily inside a hoop: Holding the hoop while standing in the middle of it (hands on the sides around 3 and 9 ‘o clock’ with hoop equidistant from torso on all edges) is a great position for doing torso twists which help to keep the spine limber and complement the typical back and forth hip motion that waist hooping requires. Depending on the height of the hoop in this twisting exercise, one can get specific with the area of spine that you are loosening rather precisely (envision hoop below waist level, at waist, at chest, at head, overhead). Similarly, if you lean forward while twisting (like steering a wheel upside down) it helps to stretch the oft-tense sheets of muscle on the sides of our spines. Twisting variations abound- from the center-standing variety to placing the hoop against the front or back of your body for arm adjustments & consequent flexing of different muscles areas.
Taking the time to stretch in your hoop is also a wonderful opportunity to deepen your breath, release or ‘table’ distractions in order to become more present, set an intention for your practice, and generally become more embodied in the beauty & simplicity of the circle. Please do let us know how you like to warm up with your hoop, if you in fact do! Flexing blessings your way~
Hoopy Dia De Los Muertos~
Monday, November 1st, 2010
Today and tomorrow are days originating in Aztec tradition to celebrate all deceased beings who are living and dancing and hooping among us. The first day of November, Dia de los Angelitos, is especially to focus on children who have died~ and the 2nd of November is the more general and traditional Dia de los Muertos. The hoop is a symbol that begs us to remember always that life is full of cycles: birth, growth, evolution, death, composting, and regeneration, to name a few. When I make altars and draw pictures that reflect my Mother and other loved ones I have lost, I enjoy incorporating mandalas & hoops of all varieties~ simultaneously representing ALL of these cycles of life, or a tunnel to transport ourselves from one dimension to the next, or a frame to encapsulate and rock us into a more calm state of being. Hoops are, overall, incredible devices for enhancing one’s flow and acceptance of change, shifting weight and plane. Today I shall hoop. Tomorrow I shall hoop. I hope everyday ever to hoop~ always feeling more embodied & in touch with my loving heart space because of it.
Hoop to Jupe!
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Tonight is an ideal time for going outside to gaze up at the gas giant that is Jupiter as it is now closer than it has been since the early 1960’s, and it won’t be this close to us again for another twelve more years. Bring your hoop while your at it… Astrologically, Jupiter represents optimism and expansion~ I like to think of it as expanding my feeling of hope in this world that is complicated with so much hard. Despite Jupiter’s winds gusting hundreds of miles an hour, and cyclones raging that are twice as wide as Earth, the planet still represents hope & positivity. This, too, is the feeling that hooping offers me on the regular. Of course there is a great deal of suffering throughout our world and lives, and sometimes environments that feel altogether inhospitable, yet when we step inside of the hoop we tend to feel safe, grounded and generally really good. Consider, too, that Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is a visually stunning sphere covered in disks just like hoola hoops! What a better way to exponentially expand our hopefulness, hoopfulness, and all-around optimism but to hoop tonight while staring up at Jupe!?! Do let me know how it goes. : )
The Infinite Power & Joy of Poi
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
While I have yet to take a formal class on the New Zealand-born art of Poi, I have increasingly amp’ed up my own exploration of poi-inspired hooping techniques in recent months and it has proven more powerful for bilateral brain strengthening than most other movement paths I have explored in this lifetime. The basic motion of poi hooping movement involves circles and figure 8s~ infinite shapes that create infinite flow. As a pianist plays one chord with one hand, and another chord with the other, so does a flow artist trace one path with one hand, and another path with the other, while often times crossing the midline of the body & brain~ a critical tool for enhancing neural connections from your brain’s right hemisphere to the left hemisphere. Back and forth, over and over, this criss-crossing & ever-circling figure 8 pattern helps the merging of one’s emotional and rational facilities and in turn eases emotional trauma and improves coordination & mood, among many other health benefits. I’m excited to continue to share more of the poi-style hooping in my classes with both adults & youth, as I think it’s an underutilized & invaluable tool in overall flow technique, shoulder-arm-wrist-hand strength/flexibility, & breadth of one’s off-core hoopdancing repertoire. A big thank you goes out to the several poi & hoop artists that have shared technical know-how with me in the last 6 months to acquire certain moves that would have been tricky if not impossible for me to have mastered on my own. In flowing & infinitely loving gratitude~
Strr r r e t c h with your Hoop
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
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~
Hoopy Pi Day!
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Hope we all get a chance to spin it up today: the 14th of the 3rd month of the year (3.14), or annual “Pi Day!” Pi is the mathematical constant that represents the relationship between a circle’s diameter and circumference. As hoopers (and even more as hoopmakers) there’s a chance we think beyond most (non-mathemetician) folk about the strange and infinite number that is Pi. It seems fitting to me that a number so critical to the existence of a circle would be an INFINITE one. Hoopers know that the ring is a supreme device of connection for us all~ that there is indeed a spot in/on the circle for all beings, feelings, and choices to co-exist. It is by far the most inclusive tool I have come across in my lifetime to joyfully unite, build community, uplift, induce laughter, generate peace, self-awareness, transcendence, and energized calm. While traditional scientists and math geeks celebrate & reflect on the wonders of Pi today through news reports or fancy calculators or pie-eating parties, us spiritual scientists can express our gratitude by taking some time to move our bodies inside the circle~ and feel infinitely connected to all that has come before us and all that will come after, AND most importantly: feel an enhanced connection to the present moment through the grounding and whirling and never-ending shape of the hoop. And then maybe eat some pie, too! Holistic & happy hooping to all~
Spin Jam Sunday the 7th, Mount Rainier
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
DC’s burnery, object-manipu-
latory, improvey crew DanceAFire is hosting a Free Pajama Jam at the Mt. Rainier Artist Lofts featuring the musical stylings of DJ Sam starting at about 6:30pm tomorrow eve, Sunday the 7th of March. Wear your PJ’s or something equally as cozy and prepare to move and groove. It’s been suggested that you can DVR the Oscars if that’s a concern. 
Your body will thank you for hooping. The address is 3311 Rhode Island Ave., Mt. Rainier, MD. Hoop~dancers are ENCOURAGED to come and play!
HoopJam for Haiti~ Follow-uP!
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
This weekend’s hoopjam fundraiser for Water Missions International and the Haitian community was a beautiful time~ with around 20 hoopers coming out to move & share in the joyful revolution, send healing energy outward, self-loving energy inward, and also to learn more about the importance of clean water for our fragile human systems. We collectively raised $265 for this vital cause, with our intention being to raise $400. If you were unable to attend, but would still like to contribute, please do so securely right here, and thank you very much for your support! To learn more about how our thoughts and emotions affect water, both in our cells and beyond our individual physical bodies, check out the groundbreaking work of Dr. Emoto and the Hado Institute. If you are interested in learning about the alkaline-rich water we drank on Sunday which helps balance out acidic dietary tendencies, check out this link about magnesium-oxide Prill beads. Big thanks again to Jocelyn from Love Movement who spearheaded this fundraiser and super sweet jam-time. Peace, love & healing to all people of our ever-shifting earth~
Opensure Closure
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
I was talking to my dearest on the phone today about the concept of closure, and I quickly made mention of “opensure,” ’cause that’s where my goofily mercurial mind traveled… We both had a minor chuckle, but later I got to thinking more seriously about how much hooping & in particular full-bodied hoopdance truly captures both Closure AND Opensure~ and of course how vital both of these contrasting concepts are for helping to balance out our precious celestial earthling selves. As hoopers, we have a head-(& shoulders & knees & toes!)-start over non-hoopers in finding this balance, simply because the *spinpetus* (motivating orbit) of the hoop requires opensure and closure, it requires a certain amount of both protecting and surrendering, both left and right body and brain activity, rocking forward and back, convex, concave, low & high, right and left, thin & wide, fast & slow, big & small, up & down; translating into sun & moon, lightness and dark, work & play. I suspect that most of us feel not quite as balanced as we’d idealize on most days; like we could frequently use a V-8 or other body-aligning beverage d’jour… constantly weeble-wobbling back and forth between too much of this or not enough of that. Of course a certain amount of this wobble is an integral part of living life. However, sometimes the scales tip a little or a lot more to one side for too long for many of us to remain comfortable and we get an ache in our back or our belly or our brain. If we were hooping our way through life in this lopsided fashion, the hoop would be dropping far too often to advance much at all on our path. Sometimes we need to get back to center and ground out in our bodies. When we’re ready, we can expeditiously find grounding and attain high levels of embodiment in the hoop. The simultaneous push and pull around the circular form reflects both our openness to our selves and evolution, as well as our need to feel protected and even guarded within the bounds of the hoop itself. The hoop is our tool, but if it’s not aiding us, if we’re not able to hear it’s rhythm beckoning us with each hug of our core, we can set the hoop down for a moment or few, or simply & subtly move our bodies inside of the hoop as we hold it relatively still in our hands around us. We can try to feel our bodies from more of an internal awareness. We can try to quiet our minds enough to truly feel Embodied~ to let go of our external concerns and worries and doubts, and to circle and circle and circle and circle and c i r c l e~ creating a joyful human-hoop-movement fusion. Fast or slow or mid-tempo smooth~ our moving meditation makes sense across the nation & world, planets & universe… Hooping is orbital be-bop for folks who realize that the speed of the earth around the sun (18+ miles a SECOND!) creates an invisible ring which places all of us earthlings inevitably on a hooper’s path! By the way (as just noted) we’re moving so so fast that it’s OK and in fact necessary, to slow down or even break to play (in other words, Adults: you have a right & dare I say need to hoop or otherwise have fun!). Circularity continued: The moon around our Earth is also a ring. The bits of moonlet around the planet Saturn? Rings. The rest of the rotating planets also form a target of rings around the biggest star this side of what we’ve discovered thus far in our circle-clad solar system. All of these circles and spinners and even hoopless humans, too, ever opening and closing and opening again. The only constant we know is this ebb and flow~ and what a delightfully (whirled) peaceful way to notice as when you’re inside of your hoop! Above is a quick picture I drew in between hooping and marinating on the center of this hoopdance seesaw of life. Please do comment if you have any of your own circular insights or musings to share~ oneLove, noelle