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.”

Turning the Music Off

There is a line in the Dar Williams song “As Cool As I Am”, where Dar is speaking to the man she is with, who is in turn ogling a drunk woman dancing in the bar: Dar sings, “And as long as she’s got noise, she’s fine. But I could teach her how to dance when the musics ended.” I’ve always loved that line and felt a deep connection with it. In reality though, I didn’t try the practice of hooping without music for a very long time. Sure I would drill and mess around with my hoop without tunes, but a real practice session, with full body in movement, arms in flight, legs dancing, full expression, without my ipod? No Way!

This past spring, as I began to settle into my new home in Michigan, my hoop practice began to transition, as I was also transitioning from Carrboro, North Carolina, to the Detroit Metro area. Picture this: out in front of our house a relatively, loud, busy road, but in the back a serene stream running into a small, quiet lake, with just a handful of other houses on it, and large trees surrounding it all. Gorgeous right? I couldn’t help but just hoop and soak in my surroundings the first time I picked up my hoop here, music seemed almost an offense.

Thus began my practice of hooping to the natural rhythms of my environment and I have to tell you, it is an enriching experience both within the hoop and looking within myself. So how do you start this type of practice? Well, truly everyone is different and what worked for me, may not resonate with you, but I do want to share my experience to help get you started and stir up your own creative process for this exercise.

First as I start my practice, I follow my breath while doing a light exercise, like rolling the hoop on my arms/hands or gentle core hooping. Then I begin gently swaying with the hoop until I can start to let go of what I brought into the session, becoming more mindful of the here and now. Give yourself plenty of time to relax into the exercise and fully release what does not serve you. If you have done mindfulness exercises before, utilize what you have learned and incorporate them into your hooping.

Next focus on one sense, for me at this point it is sound. I will listen to the sounds around me and find the natural rhythms and music that are occurring in my environment. These organic noises provide a basis to begin your hoop practice. Often you discover things you would have never heard had you not intently listened, perhaps crickets, frogs or birds, wind chimes from several houses away, a dog barking, traffic, sirens, the sounds the trees make as they blow in the wind, the possibilities are limitless. The rhythms and music created by nature and our environment allow new movements within your hoop that are unique to your own life and experience.


Then I will move into another sense, usually touch.  How does the hoop feel as I moved it around my body? What is the sensation of the tubing/tape on my skin? How do the earth/floor and my feet work together? Am I grounded or feeling like I am tripping myself up? Can I be more balanced? What does the breeze, sun, rain, (if indoors) lights, air conditioning, feel like on my skin?  How is the temperature of my skin changing how the hoop is moving across my body?  Be aware of all of these things and how they influence your body and the hoop.  Notice what works in your hoopdance as you move throughout the practice.  These are helpful clues to take with you into a practice filled with music of a different kind.

In this way you can move from sense to sense.  Examining your body’s reaction to the sense and how it may (or may not) cause the hoop to react as well.  Does what you see, taste, or smell have any influence over you as you move with the hoop?  Does an unpleasant smell cause your body to tighten and therefore the hoop to respond in kind?  What about getting lost in the sight of something beautiful?  Again note how your response with the hoop varies as you play with your senses.  Find things that will enhance your overall experience with your hoop.

The information we receive from our senses is undeniably valuable. We rely on this knowledge to navigate our daily lives.  What valuable tool our 5 senses can be also when we tune into them for our hoop practice!  Ann Humphreys, of the Hoop Path, had this recent experience with hooping music-free, “For the 3rd time in my life, circumstance (iPod had failed to load somehow) I was forced to hoop without music…and something wonderful happened: I started listening to my hoop in an altogether new way– the rough sound as the tattered tape slid across my palms, the light slap of the hoop as it moved on my core– and I found this music quite beautiful.”

So, my friends, shall we all hoop as if the music has ended and see what happens? Will it open a new doorway for your hooping journey or just be deafeningly quiet?  I can’t wait to hear what happens!

Break Free from Your Hooping Rut

Last week I performed at a retirement home for a group of delightful men and women, who were more than generous with compliments at the end of the hour long set.  One beautiful woman even approached me to say, “Honey, I am an artist and that was wonderful.  Now I am going to go to my room and paint you.” I was humbled. Their praise left me feeling comfortable and satisfied that I had done my job of providing them with an afternoon of entertainment, but on a deeper, personal level I was disappointed.

Throughout the set I felt like I performed the same moves repeatedly and was unable to get out of this pattern. I found myself thinking too much while hooping and not enjoying what I was doing. The smile plastered on my face was purely for the audience, but inside I was struggling to find different ways to move with my hoop, my dance partner. Ugh, I was in a hooping rut, but what was I going to do about it?

When I came home my hoop sister, Lauren Currier, and I began brainstorming ways to move forward and I’m here to tell you that they really work. Here are our top ten ways to turn a hooping rut into a hooping channel for further growth and movement.

1. Hoop! Don’t give up. One of the first things many of us are inclined to do when in a rut is to put the hoop down and walk away. Don’t do it! Pick your hoop up, embrace it, and have confidence that this is just temporary and you will move through it. Then follow some (or all) of these other tips.

2. Remember you are not alone.  In my 9+ years of hooping I never met a hooper who did not at some point find themselves stuck in a hooping rut. You are not alone! You will get through this!

3. Change your music. Often something as simple as changing your music to a slightly different, or perhaps dramatically different, genre will effect the way you dance with your hoop and produce openings in your hooping you did not know were possible.

4. Drill, drill and then drill some more.  Work on things you are already do well and refine the movement.  Spend part of you hoop practice drilling a specific technique over and over and over again, bringing your attention to each part of the process. What are my feet doing, my breath, my hands, shoulders, my head, etc.? Be very aware. There is no such thing as perfection, so you can always improve and develop new skills. Drilling is often the time when breakthroughs arrive.

5. Hoop in your non-dominant direction (second current).  It is important to stay balanced on both sides of your body, but often hoopers forget to hoop in their second current.  Spend a song, or entire hoop session working in your second current.  Hoop on your waist, shoulders, legs, or anywhere on your core in second current and see what opens up.  Likewise with off body hooping, switch hands so that you are hooping with your dominant and non-dominant hand. This type of focus balances your body and range of skills.

6. Hoop blindfolded. Baxter of the HoopPath introduced this method of hooping “blind” years ago and it has caught on for a reason.  When you are blindfolded there are no distractions from the outside world, allowing the hooper to go deeper into his/her own practice and work on the intricacies of their movements with the hoop, as well as have a more meditative practice. When one sense of the body of the body is removed other senses become heightened, allowing you to connect with your hoop in new ways.

7. Hoop with other people.  The energy that is created when people get together to hoop is bound to put a smile on your face.  Hooping with others creates an opportunity to learn to skills, build community, and share your hoop knowledge.

8. Find a class.  If you live in an area with local classes, sign up for one!  This is great way to learn new ways of moving within the hoop that can help you climb out of your rut.  If classes aren’t possible, look at the 281 free online tutorials here on Hooping.org that can also teach you and add to your library of moves.

9. Teach someone else! Whether you are teaching someone else how to waist hoop or a more advanced skill, teaching others is a valuable way to realize how far you have come. Giving back to the community can help you break moves down in simple steps that may improve your own hooping.  Teaching others often will open up your own hooping to new movements and improve your current repertoire and skill set.

10. Do something creative outside the hoop.  Write, bake, paint, draw, sing, play an instrument, dance without your hoop, and the list goes on! Opening your creative channels in other areas can foster a positive influence on your hooping when you step back into the circle. So whether you hoop then take a break to do another creative exercise, then hoop again, or set the hoop down for a day and create in a whole new way, just remember to keep creating, holding a space for your unique potential. Creativity breeds creativity.

The Dog Park

I chose this video because it is a dance all about simplicity, one of the four tenants of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and because I made it for my Dad, without whom I would have never gone to the dog park and had this experience to write about.  Thank you Dad.  (If you can't not view the video please go to www.havenhoopdance.com to see the blog in full)

In the Fall of 1993 I began a journey that lasted three years and changed my life in profound, indescribable ways.  I had joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC).  The first year was spent volunteering as a counselor in a battered women's shelter, living simply in community with 6 other volunteers on a small stipend in a poor, precarious neighborhood in Kansas City, MO, all while sharing our various ideas about spirituality.  Needless to say, my mind was BLOWN!  I spent the next two years on the staff of the JVC in Houston, TX trying to help others obtain a similar experience by working as a volunteer coordinator and development director.  These years were formidable to so many of my ideas regarding social justice and spirituality, but what persisted the most was a longing for community to share these values and ideas.  My search began.

As I moved from Houston to Chapel Hill, NC I searched for this feeling of community for which my spirit longed, but found that in a transitional, college town great friends would come into my life, leave their lasting impression and often friendship, but their corporeal bodies would move on to the next stage of their lives.  I was not looking to live in intentional community again and had not found a spiritual community that resonated with my own spiritual searching.  I just needed a place to call "home" every once in awhile.

Then in the summer of 2002, I saw Vivian "Spiral" dancing with her hoop on the Weaver Street Market lawn.  I was entranced by every movement and the look of pure joy on her face.  As I watched, with every ounce of my being, I knew I must gather the courage to talk to her, because I had to learn this skill.  Within a month or so, I took a class on the Weaver St. Market lawn taught by Spiral and Julia Hartsell, and bought my first hoop that day.  In the beginning, I was a solo hooper, drilling endlessly to gain strength in the front yard of my house.  I would come out to Weaver St. for live music and hoop with the few others who were regulars back then, Beth Lavinder and her daughter Erica, Jonathan Baxter, Vivian, and Julia, but with age and having said so many goodbyes I had become more introverted.

Then with much prodding from Beth, about six months after having my first child I came to my first HoopPath class, taught by Jonathan Livingston Baxter (aka Bax/Baxter).  Beth had been telling me about them for about a year, but I had been pregnant (and hooping, but not quite up for a class), then on bed rest, and finally an all-consumed first time mom.  Of all the memories from that first class, my clearest and most defining, came as Baxter played the cool down song.  My dance slowed down to match my heart rate and my thoughts, and then came the flood of tears.  I was remembering who I was before I became a mom.  The dance elicited the feelings and ideas that I could be, I WAS, more than just a mom.  I was a WHOLE person.  Of course I was mortified to be crying in front of a group of "strangers", but most of them being mothers, or women, or seekers understood without words having to be spoken.  I left that Monday and rarely missed a class for the next several years.

The HoopPath became a community for me in unexpected, often boundless ways.  And the greater hooping community across the country and the world has surprised me countless times in their support for one another, the ability for the Internet to connect people and foster often deep friendships across seemingly finite borders and lines.  All because of the joy that a circle of variable weight, color and size, spun in a variety of fashions, brings to each of us.  I knew I had found it... "The Golden Ticket"... if you will. How many times had I really thought, "If everyone picked up a hoop, the world would be happier."  Oh my arrogance.  Thankfully, this life is full of bright, meaningful lessons tied in beautiful packages... not just hard lessons.

Last week my parents went out of town and left there pride and joy in my care, a beautiful, kooky yellow lab named "Rocky".  Rocky is still quite the pup and needs a good deal of exercise every day.  Each morning he jumps happily in the minivan for his daily jaunt to the dog park.  Rocky has many dog friends at the park, some he plays rough with, others he runs and tugs on sticks or ropes with, and some he just walks with as the owners take a "loop" around the extremely gorgeous, fenced in area.  My dad assured me that he would introduce me to the regulars before leaving, and that they would "take care of me", as Rocky can on occasion cause some mischief.

As the week progress and I quickly became absorbed with the routine at the dog park, I found myself in awe of these 5-7 regulars that joined up each morning at the same time to walk the perimeter of the dog park several times, lavish attention on each others dogs, listen attentively to one another, make gently sarcastic jokes with each other, and genuinely care about each person and their animal.  If someone was missing, it was noticed and concern was shown.  They all knew about each others lives and formed their own community around something they cared about deeply.  Now perhaps that is not what they would call it, but my time there brought to mind so clearly how I have felt when spending time with hooping friends.

Then yesterday, I took Rocky again to the dog park.  I was so excited to go, after missing a few days since my parents return.  One of my favorite regulars, Sue, a retired school teacher with the brightest disposition and two amazing dogs to match, was there, but her car was clearly damaged as she pulled into the park.  "Well," she said, nonchalant as ever, "I had a stroke over the weekend."  We were all stunned and immediately concerned.  "Its just my lesson to slow down and only do the important, non-stressful things.  Hey, that's why I'm here.  I mean what could be better than this place right? Isn't it a beautiful day?  What a great place to be."  And she started calling the dogs over one by one as she told us the story of her long weekend.  Then we walked the perimeter of the dog park.

Anyone who knows me, understands my deep love for hooping and the hoop community, but WOW have my blinders been BLOWN off.  I of course recognized that there were other communities out there: spiritual communities, intentional communities, sporting communities, gaming communities etc etc etc.  I  have to ask myself, "Did  I think there was only one community for me?  Am I that limited that I can not share myself amongst several groups."... of course not. But then what has held me back, ignorance, fear, introversion?  Pondering for another blog I suppose, but for now, I am so grateful for the lessons I have learned at the dog park.