Master of the Hoop?

Recently, I introduced myself to a talented, young hooper at a gathering of spinners, and she sweetly replied, “I know who you are.  You’re a Master.”  I felt my chest tighten. I blushed and awkwardly responded, “Well, I don’t know about that…”  You see, I struggle with the new term “Master Hooper” that has popped up in the last few years. My aim in looking at this isn’t about taking any dedication, hard work or skill set away from anyone, but instead to look at how language can be confusing, misleading, and even perhaps limit our growth. I don’t know where the term Master Hooper originated in our community, nor do I think it is all that important, but what is important is that the term lacks clear definition and boundaries. How does one become a Master Hooper? Are there guidelines, tests, rules to be one? Do you have to be able to do every “trick” or “move” possible? Are there varying levels of Masterhood?

In some other sports and arts there are specific guidelines set up in order for you to achieve the next level, whether it be done with points, scores, belts, degrees…  Martial arts, for example, has clear directions for what a person needs to do to earn each belt within the particular modality one is learning. Hooping, however, has no guidelines as such – and I for one am ecstatic about that, being able to continue pushing forward without worrying about what step on the ladder I am or “should” be on.

Now to be fair most dictionaries out there will list one of the definitions of the word “master” as, in essence, an accomplished or great artist or performer and I agree that the hoop community has multitudes of very talented spinners. But then what does it mean to be an accomplished or great hoop artist or performer? Who decides? Can anyone just start calling themselves a Master Hooper? And are people doing this?

One of the reasons this term seems so confusing and potentially misleading to me is because as a community, we hoopers are so very young on our journey as artists. The community has come so far in a relatively short amount of time, but in another ten years how much further will hooping be? My heart beats with excitement at the thought. Of course, there have been a number of pioneers who have paved the way with innovations and creative movement, opening up the hooping world to contemporary methods for manipulating the circle. How much further will these and other hoopers push the boundaries of what already exists? And what about those that have opened doors for us, but are no longer in the spin? Are their contributions less valuable because they left the hooping world? Can they not be considered a Master?

If we look at Master Painters, for example, it is possible to achieve the title within one’s lifetime, although many gain it after death, but it comes from a complex process of fully evaluating a long period of his or her work and the history of the time period. Since hooping, as it exists today, is still a relatively new art form, I have to wonder if it isn’t too early to assign the term Master to anyone, even if they have been in the circle for over a decade. For many of the early years of hooping we didn’t have videos or YouTube to actively watch each other’s work online, and while Burning Man and other festivals were around to allow us to hoop with one another, the first official hoop gathering didn’t happen in the United States until the first HoopPath Retreat in 2005. Our oldest gathering isn’t even six-years-old yet. The others are even younger. It is so soon to be using such a strong term for such a young art.

Personally, while I have a lot of unanswered questions about the term Master Hooper, I also am aware that no matter how developed my hooping becomes, I don’t want to master the hoop. I want to see the hoop, forever, as my dance partner. My partner in creativity, movement and meditation – not as merely an object to be manipulated and controlled. If I were to ever master the hoop, as such, I wonder if then my hoop journey would be over. That thought saddens me beyond belief. Instead, I see this venture as one of partnership, not only with my hoop, but with my fellow hoopers that I encounter. What can I teach? What can I learn along the way? Not only about hooping, but about myself, others and community? I always want to be learning because I don’t believe it is about reaching an apex, but about walking the long, scenic trail and soaking in each moment as it comes.

Getting Our Kids in The Hoop

With Michelle Obama and the Center for Disease Control on a mission to wipe out childhood obesity, it is no surprise that hula hooping has come into the limelight as one way to maintain health in kids. Childhood obesity has, after all, more than tripled in the past 30 years. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of youth struggling with obesity today already have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Something obviously has to be done. Whether or not kids want to exercise, however, most want to play. Hula hooping is a great way for kids to spin up some exercise without really knowing it. And while that may not be a news flash exactly, it has seemed to me, as a mother, that my 4-and 6-year olds have been gaining a plethora of other benefits and life skills from picking up the hoop as well. I knew how much the hoop had personally shaped and improved my life as an adult, but I was curious to know just how good is hooping for our kids, and what are all the benefits for them? So I decided to talk with several hoop professionals who are teaching hooping to children to find out. You might be surprised to learn that hooping helps children develop far more than just good exercise habits, especially when practiced with some regularity.

Kelly Breaux of Hoop It Up Worldwide has been hooping with children for close to nine years. What benefits does Kelly see as she works with these kids? She told Hooping.org, “It definitely improves self esteem in the kids because there is always a skill that a child can master. Also, when we go back to the same schools every year, the kids who are hooping are in better shape and have higher self esteem than those who didn’t keep up with it.” Kelly added, “At our company we call hooping a phenomenon because we have an obesity crisis with kids in our country and it is so easy for them to get hooping and have fun. They learn technique and core cardio. This gets kids to work out because they love it! Often to get boys and girls to exercise for an hour is unheard of.”

At Turners Youth Circus in Louisville, Kentucky, Rebecca Hellemansteaches and choreographs hoop dancing routines for the children involved. Rebecca, also the mother of young hooper, Sierra Hellemans, has witnessed the prodigious effects hooping has on children at both a personal and a professional level. She has also noticed a significant increase in self confidence from the time she first starts hooping with a child, through the end of their circus season, but Rebecca expanded on that further. “The kids build not only self confidence in terms of their self esteem, but they build a body awareness and overall body confidence. Confidence in what their bodies can do.” Rebecca explained there are other major benefits that are often overlooked as well. “These are children in development stages of life. The youngest I work with is 5-years-old because, unless they have already been involved in movement activities from an early age (like yoga etc), they are just starting to connect the dots on how to move the hoop around the waist. As they progress in learning new skills, they develop their fine and gross motor skills and coordination through hoop dance.” Rebecca also noted that through learning choreography in the circus the children are also working on team building and trust. She said, “As the kids are practicing moves for their routine, for example partner weaves, they must learn cooperation and trust in their team members in order to complete the move without injuring each other.”

Julia Hartsell Crews of Hoopdrum in Carrboro, North Carolina, has been teaching children’s classes and camps for nearly nine years. She has experience teaching all levels of children from elementary school through high school students. Julia admits that while there are no case studies, as such, through her own personal experience of talking to multitudes of parents, they all agree that hooping 
opened their child up in areas of self confidence and self esteem, especially at the middle school ages when a child may be going through an awkward phase. Her experience working with middle schoolers dealing with peer issues has allowed her to use hooping as a way to dive into those issues, address them gently and stop things before feelings get hurt. “Hooping gives us the opportunity to change behavior. We move with respect and I let them tell me how we can do that. I facilitate the answers by asking them questions. What do we need to be aware of in this class? What could get hurt in this class? We also change behavior by reframing language. Going from ‘I can’t’ to ‘I will’ – teaching them to open possibilities in their world.” She has also seen hooping become a sanctuary for a 9-year-old girl watching her parents go through a divorce, as well as a source of empowerment for an autistic girl who after hooping with her for two years developed the confidence to perform in a talent show. It’s also an ever growing source of inspiration and responsibility for Pete Morello, now 14-years-old, who has been hooping with Julia since he was 7. He’s now taking performance gigs.

The combined years of experience of these three women and the children touched by hooping through their efforts, are evidence to the positive effect the hoop can have in the lives of our kids. Obviously physical fitness in a time when childhood obesity is a considered a crisis in our country is one major draw to hooping, but increased self esteem, body awareness, improvement of fine and gross motor skills, team building, peer relations, better concentration, and a sense of responsibility are just more reasons to get your kid inside the circle. So if you’ve been wondering if hooping is really stimulating your child’s growth… the answer is a resounding YES!

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Re-Entry after a Hoop Gathering.

photo by BELLAWILLOW

When I walked into Louisville’s historic Turners Gym, the site for most of the second annual Snow Flow Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, I took a deep, cleansing breath, knowing I was home for the weekend. The fact that I had been in this magical place before, mattered not. I was once again transformed into a calm place of hoop/flow solitude, without even picking up my hoop. This past weekend, February 3rd - 5th, formally kick started the U.S. hoop gathering season for another year and I was excited.

Orchestrated by Rebecca Hellemans, I glanced around at the professional equipment we were were so blessed to have this year thanks to Tour Support Services. Booming sound, lasers flashing, lights of all colors radiating across the room, smoke steaming up, my heart thumped just thinking of what was to come.

The ceiling was covered with aerial rigs of all kinds, many that would be used for classes over the weekend, including my first lyra class - oh how I fell in love with the aerial hoop! The gym was separated into sections so up to four classes could happen at one time. Hoop, poi, fire eating... well you name it, Snow Flow probably had it. 35 classes, 20 instructors and over 130 participants spun it up this year. Ten of the classes were dedicated solely to hooping, while others could definitely enhance your hoop practice. Fire safety, belly dance, the list goes on and the connectedness between participants that occurs in an intense setting of learning, physical exertion, and emotional opening left me in a state of bliss, and exhaustion by the time the weekend was over.

Rebecca Hellemans spins fire.
photo by Kurt Strecker

After teaching my last class on Sunday, I rushed out of the gym saying quick goodbyes, not lingering too long on the ache that was sure to follow in order to start my six-hour car ride home. My heart was full, my body was sore, and my mind was overflowing with ideas and thoughts to process. I began my journey home realizing this is the part of hoop/flow gatherings that no one really tells you about. THE AFTERMATH. Does this sound at all familiar? The days, sometimes weeks, after a gathering of this intensity, can involve a processing period and a downshift back into “the real world”. A world that is not all hoopers, spinners, and full of a genuine spirit of community. Here are some tips that can help you re-enter your world and be gentle with yourself.

1. Allow time to process. Through journaling, hooping, meditation, or just plain old time in solitude, take the time you need to process. How do you know if it is helping? You feel better after, not worse. Or it may be time spent processing with others. Talk with other hoopers or spinners who attended the event as well. Share your experiences.

2. Pick up your hoop. You’ve surely learned a lot over the course of the event you’ve attended. Pick up the hoop and practice what you have learned. Don’t let all that knowledge go to waste. If you aren’t feeling it, then just love on your hoop and fall into a nice flow, allowing your hoop to embrace you as you bring back those feelings of joy created.

3. Drink Plenty of Water. Hydration is key to life. Your body is most likely exhausted. One of the best ways to nurture yourself is to drink water, and a lot of it. Even if you stayed well hydrated throughout the event, continue this hydration after as your muscles and body continue the healing process. Your body will thank you for it.

4. Get Plenty of Rest. Go to bed earlier than usual if possible. Your body is your temple, allow it to be healthy, rested and restored. You have most likely put more physical and emotional (yes even positive emotion) stress on it than it has seen in awhile. Give yourself an extra hour of sleep or whatever you can squeeze in. Again, remember your body needs time to rebuild and restore itself, physically and emotionally.

5. Stay connected. Most of us are on Facebook and Hooping.org. Stay connected with the new friends you made. Take time to watch the videos from the weekend, look at the pictures posted, and bask in the memories created. It helps to ease the transition back into your daily life.

6. Plan your next event. Knowing that you have something else up your sleeve, even if is months away, can help take the edge off. It doesn’t have to be a full blown hoop gathering either, perhaps it is just a road trip to meet a new friend that you connected with at this past event, or a trip to a city an hour away to learn from that teacher you’ve been hearing about. If you are able to dream up something big or small it can help give you some excitement for the future.

Leaving an event such as Snow Flow can be a big transition and self care afterwards is warranted and necessary. These are just a few guidelines to help and we would love to hear comments and ideas that have worked for you in your transitions from hoop gatherings back to everyday life. I was thrilled to participate at Snow Flow in multiple roles this year including organizational, workshop instructor, performer, and of course attendee. It was an experience to be able to witness the event from so many aspects and still walk away with my mind absolutely blown.

Video edited and created by Jessie Eckles, Snow Flow Instructor and Participant.  If you are receiving this via email and can not view the video, please visit www.havenhoopdance.com

My Hooping Attachments

"Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away."
~~Aitken Roshi



Do you have a hoop that you are particularly attached to? Or perhaps a spinning skirt, shirt or out of this world pair of pants that make you feel hooptastic when you're in your flow? While these “things” to others may seem inconsequential, as we gaze upon them we are flooded with images and emotions that are assuredly powerful. My Buddhist nature tells me to let go of attachments, yet I still find myself holding on to a few certain hoop items which produce deep nostalgia.

My hoops themselves often hold energy having moved me through life experiences and transitions. I may use a particular hoop for years or just months. It depends on my station in life, the hoop size, the type of hoop I am using at the time, what my body needed. Changing a hoop is often as easy as changing the tape, letting go of past energy and bringing in the new spirit. To share a secret though, I, personally, am not one to hold too tightly to a hoop (except the one I am currently using). So what, you may ask, are my hooping attachments? Well, until a few days ago I’m not sure I could of answered that question. And then "it" happened.

I was teaching at the yoga studio where I hold my classes. It was a full class of bright-eyed, spunky children and a couple of moms. I left reveling in the uncomplicated, innocent joy created there. I loaded the hoops in my station wagon, my bag of supplies, and all other necessary items I had carried with me. As I drove away from the studio, I reached for my water bottle and swore out loud when I realized I had forgotten it. I immediately turned the car around.

Back at the studio, one of the owners, Dan, helped me look around the few places I possibly could have left it. I started to feel a strange sensation in my chest that I quickly pushed away. "Umm, Bonnie it’s just a water bottle," I tried telling myself. I told Dan it must be in the parking lot or I missed it in my car somehow. We began looking for it outside, my heart slowly sinking. It wasn’t in my car or anywhere near where I had parked. Getting in the car to drive away, that's when I saw it, on the ground, near the stop sign. Excitement filled me until I picked it up. The aluminum had been crushed. It had obviously run over by a car, probably mine, after being left on top of the wagon while I loaded the hoops. Unexpected tears began to brim.

What? Was I was actually crying because my water bottle was destroyed? I mean I know I’m emotional and all, but this was just a water bottle. Or was it? I looked at it again and stared at the two stickers on it, both HoopPath stickers...old school HoopPath stickers they don't make anymore. My eyes welled up more. Memories flooded my heart and mind. This water bottle had traveled with me everywhere for years, even more than my hoops did. I took it to every Monday night Maidan hoop class in Carrboro, to every hooping event I'd ever attended. I nursed my babies with this bottle by my side. When I traveled anywhere, I brought my water bottle. Even on planes I would go through the hassle of emptying it and packing it for that constant reassurance. I'd even brought it on dates (ok weird I know). It was like an aluminum snuggly blanket full of life giving water that nourished me and reminded me, through the stickers, of my tribe, and of three vital stages of life learning “Belief, Strength, Grace”. Now, it was mush. I couldn’t believe I had to throw it away.

Metaphors being as they are, I've since recognized that it was the right time. I moved from Carrboro to Detroit nine months ago, and this was the perfect moment to physically let go of what I’ve been holding onto so tightly. All of those memories, people, love, they'll always be a part of me, even without my security water bottle. As I search for a new water bottle, I’m excited to put a Detroit Fire Guild sticker along side a HoopPath sticker I have packed away. I am fully embracing my journey where ever it is taking me. Most likely with my water bottle, for me a sign of the life water gives, always by my side. We may develop our hooping attachments, but they come and go right on schedule.

Glorious Muscle Memory

This week, just as Hooping.org’s 30/30 Challenge was kicking off, I took my four- and six-year-old ice skating for the second time in their lives. I, myself, have not skated in over 20 years and was surprised to find how quickly I picked it back up. While my immediate thoughts turned towards hooping (“Wow, wouldn’t it be fun to do today’s 30/30 on ice skates”), I also was surprised at how naturally my body fell back into rhythm with the feel of the ice, skates on my feet, and mixing the two together. Initially, I gave this only a moment of thought as I returned my focus to the task at hand; teaching the boys some basic skating skills.

Have you ever wondered how your body changes from struggling to keep the hoop up, or fighting to learn a new move, to then doing it effortlessly? Yes, practice, practice, practice is essential. But why is it that when we first start hooping we have to hoop with fierce intensity to maintain the hoop’s rhythm, but as time goes on we are able to slow down, almost to where our body appears to barely be moving to keep the rotation afloat? Simply put, it is muscle memory.

Muscle memory is a glorious method of learning where our muscles, simply by repetition, are able to move more fluidly and fluently. Continuous repetition of an action allows our bodies to then perform the action nearly effortlessly. In hooping, by practicing a move or trick frequently, our long term muscle memory takes over and soon we are able to execute the task, often without thinking. Just think of the saying, “You never forget how to ride a bike.” It’s all about muscle memory!

Back at the skating rink, while I was teaching the boys the basics, and watching them fall repeatedly and then dust themselves off and get back up again with joy, my thoughts, for moments at a time, turned back to hooping again. I love the learning process. I find it absolutely enthralling to watch a student go from fear of picking up the hoop during his/her first class to rocking it in both currents, and perhaps learning a move or two by the time the hour has ended. Surely some people don’t learn as quickly and are maybe only able to hoop for 5 minutes (or 5 revolutions) by the end of the first class, but still progress has been made. Muscle memory is being formed, and this I find oddly fascinating. Seriously, I relish in the magnificence of what memories our bodies hold, and how our muscles retain memory and help us hoop or learn other new skills.

As we continued to skate, I could see the boys falling less, pushing with their feet more, laughing harder, and their muscle memory growing and growing. I took notice that not once during this learning process, through all the falls and bumps on the ice, did either one of them EVER say , “Mama, I just can’t do this.” I began to reflect on my own erudition with hooping and how many times, even just in passing, I said “Oh I can’t do that, yet…” What powerful words, “I can’t”. Even just the subtlety of the words “I’ll try” vs. “I’ll do it.”. After all the brain is a muscle too, to be exercised, to gain muscle memory. What kind of muscle memory had I been giving it?

The 30/30 challenge had begun that day, and I knew the first thing I had told myself was, “Well I can’t commit to this, but I’ll try.” I skated on the ice with my boys, my teachers, and gulped, fully swallowing this knowledge of what I have been doing for so long. I watched them, bliss exploding from their beings as they continued this journey on the ice, the words “I Can’t” never exiting their lips. I took pause and promised myself to be actively mindful of the silent messages I told myself, but also to take care of what I spoke out loud, little ears are listening. And in those moments I started to rework my muscle memory, “I will do the 30/30 Challenge. I can do it!”.

The Power Of Dance

There are times when words can not adequately express all that is happening in my personal world and the world at large.  This is one of those times.  I chose instead to "hoop it out", dancing to reclaim my personal power and freeing myself from some powerful emotions that were dominating my current situation.  I hooped continuously for over an hour to this song, "Minds Without Fear"by Imogen Heap, recording as I did because I found it so powerful and connected to it deeply.  I know very little about editing videos, but took about three or four pieces of the hoop session and put them together to create this one video.  It is a sample of my overall experience, clearing my mind, expressing myself, and empowering myself again.

Thank you for watching.

If you can not view the video, please go to www.havenhoopdance.com to see the entire post.

A Portrait of Cally Chavez

Meet Cally Chavez. A single mother, hooper and healer from Cheyenne, Wyoming, who took a leap with full force in November 2010 and turned her many passions into her full time career. It was at this point, almost a year ago, that Cally says she found herself, “stepping out of a place of fear to follow my heart and dreams”. She opened Creative Healing Studios which encompasses a store front to sell Cally’s art, knitting, massage oils and sugar scrubs. There’s a middle office where she offers massage and sound therapy (using tibetan singing bowls), as well as a back studio where she creates her artwork. knitting, and makes her hoops. Cally has been hooping for three years and teaching hoop dance for two, but admits that she became very serious about her teaching in the past six months. All of these arts coalesce to fulfill Cally’s dream at Creative Healing, and this year she was even able to take her massage therapy to the Return to Roots Hoop Gathering. Cally says, “Merging massage with hooping at Return to Roots Festival was awesome, but it has really come full circle with merging hooping with my art.”

Vedauwoo is an area of rocky outcrops located in south-eastern Wyoming, between Cheyenne and Laramie. Its name is an anglicized version of the Arapaho Native American word “bito’o'wu” meaning “earth-born”. Known for it’s distinctive natural beauty and sacred mystery, with history literally stretching back thousands of years, Cally often used this landscape, brimming with natural divinity, as she worked with great intention on her first collection of artwork; a dozen paintings of hoopers. While Vedauwoo provided huge boulders, caves, and in the evenings the voices of Native Americans singing for added inspiration while she stenciled and painted, she would listen to her own music, hoop and become in tune with her surroundings as part of her creative process. Cally’s time painting at Vedauwoo as part of her creation of 12 paintings, resulted in these artistic expressions of her connection to the hooping community. “Hooping has inspired me and made me so much better. The connection to spirit and the therapy that happens through hooping… This is my way to put it down and let people know how much it means to me.”

"Hoopers Heaven" - a painting by Cally Chavez

While Cally has been creating art for as long as she can remember, her dozen hooper pantings are the first collection she has ever done in her portfolio. These stencil and graffiti style pieces have been surfacing and circulating throughout Facebook and are receiving high acclaim. In fact, to this date, Cally has already sold half her collection. “It’s really just a testament to how embracing and supportive the hoop community is,” she said in her continually gracious manner. Cally originally had been doing similar style painting for the local roller derby team, The Cheyenne Capibulls, when she thought, “Why am I not painting hoopers?” So she gathered some photographs and obtained permission from the hoopers in the images and went to work. You can view her full collection here.

Cally created a video before putting the finishing touches on these 12 paintings. In similar fashion to her approach on so much of life, Cally entitled the video “Gratitude”. She commented, “I put everything that I have gotten back from this community into these paintings.” And the lyrics of the song [Chico Gospel by MaMuse (on iTunes)] speak so strongly to Cally and her work when MaMuse sings, “I am walking on this earth stronger than ever.”

What is next for Cally of WYO Hoops For Life? She is clearly ready to start more paintings and continue on this path, always celebrating the hooping community along her way. “Hooping has enriched my life and made it possible to connect to people on such a large scale. I had no idea that going into this lifestyle that I would be so ‘rich’ as a result.”