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!