The All Powerful Community Hoop Mingle

Throughout time, communal dance has played an integral part in the growth of culture and society. According to Joan Cass, author of Dancing Through History">Dancing Through History, “Dance is a feature of every significant occasion and event crucial to tribal existence as part of ritual. The first thing to emphasize is that early dance exists as a ritual element. It does not stand alone as a separate activity or profession.” Think about it. Before dance was a profession or even a solitary pursuit, it existed as a means of communication, ritual, and cultural expression. So it’s no wonder that when we hoopers commune to dance together, we participate in a powerful and ancient tradition.

This comes to mind for me today because I have been bird watching, of all things. Spring and Summer reluctantly arrived in Michigan this year, pushing the cold dreariness of our long winter to the wayside, allowing the glory of rebirth to break through. My boys and I planted our first garden and they spend their afternoons checking with anxious excitement as the energy of these warm months push the tiny new plants through the topsoil. And, for my part, I have taken to watching the birds swimming and flying over the lake. It is their energy that fascinates me. The birds I covet mingle and share an energy that is mutual and interactive.

The two birds that have garnered my apt attention are a pair of elegant white swans. They appeared in early Spring and early on visited the lake every day. I marvel at their movements in the water and how they mirror each other. It is a dance. Two long, milky figures moving in a what seems a choreographed dance across the water. Swans generally mate for life, so it is no wonder that these two seemed to know the intricacies of the other, intuitively swimming in harmony. As with most things, I found my mind wandering back to hooping, drawing the similarities hoop dance can elicit in just the right circumstances.

It led me to reflect upon why the hooping community at large is so inspiring to me. Local hoop communities throughout the world take time to foster and grow their tribes. Those who cherish participating in them know how worthwhile it is to go through the steps of community development. Much like the swans I’ve been admiring, hoop communities not only dance in and out of relationships with each other, but quite literally dance WITH one other.

It’s not surprising, really. Given that the each hooper creates her own dance and energy, every hoop jam, every time is a different and new creation. Each one brings something new, invigorating, and

powerful to everyone there. Like the swans, when I hoop with others, I like to do so silently. I put myself out there and hold space for others. Others like to spend time sharing skills or catching up on the week’s events while they hoop. Often a silent impromptu mingle occurs among attendees, encouraging non-verbal communication but with clear and intentional physical interaction. “Mingles” – where we find ourselves mirroring one another, or hooping in couples or as groups – are often lighthearted. Other times, they reveal a deeper, more unexpected route to connecting with those hooping around you.

Perhaps this desire to be with others in the hoop has helped spur the multitude of hoop events around the globe as well. Of course the amazing instruction given at each happening is a great pull for attendees. But when I think about the intense longing I feel to hoop with others at an event, or the melancholy I feel when I must leave them, I mostly crave the connection I get with other people who share my passion.

The spirit of hoop gatherings is such a natural conduit for interludes of magical, impromptu hoop jams. Let me share an example. Recently I taught at Peace Love and Hoopiness in Nashville, Indiana, USA. My first class was after lunch and it was STEAMY outside. I was not sure how people were realistically going to make it through the hour-long class in that kind of heat. But then within minutes, the sky turned stormy, the temperature dropped, and the rain began to fall. Suddenly hoopers started filing in from everywhere and my class seemed to double, maybe even triple in size.  And we all danced our hearts out in the rain. I gave instruction through my microphone, but sometimes wondered if it was even necessary. We seemed to all be sharing the communal pulse and reveling in the cleansing downpour. There was a language being spoken there. But no one was speaking. The surprise shower released a language of joy and freedom of movement that had previously been suppressed by the unrelenting heat.

Quite recently only one swan has returned to the lake on my property. It swims for short times, still relentlessly beautiful, but somehow it saddens me. Perhaps it’s because it swims for such small increments, or because I miss the intricate dance it had with its partner. I wonder what its story is now.

This is not to say that we as dancers, as hoopers, should not spend time alone in the hoop. Of course we should! Many of us are solitary hoopers, after all, and each of us needs alone time to hone our skills in practice. However, the importance of our time together in the spin shouldn’t be overlooked or undervalued. According to James Hurd Nixon, “In ancient times and in traditional cultures, dance has functioned as the means by which people gathered and unified themselves in order to confront the challenges of their existence.” Dance has always existed as a uniting force, and it’s no different today. So my dear friends and hoopers, make sure you attend a hoop jam or event this Summer. Tune into those around you, engage in ritual dance, and feel the beating of our communal pulse just beneath your toes.

Hooping Communities, Conflict and Growth

Ahhhh, the sweet bliss. You’ve discovered the pure joy of the plastic circle. The gentle rhythms as it sweeps around your body in meditative movement, all the while working out your body by doing something you enjoy! But then… hold on… you’ve discovered that there is even more. How could it get any better? You have found a few other local people who not only hoop, but want to share some hoop space together, regularly!

 At first you gather informally to share the hoop love, take in some new moves, and in time learn more about one another. The circle gradually becomes larger though as others see you hooping and want some of the natural joy that you have found. Now you’re having regular Hoop Jams and maybe even a Facebook page for your hoop group. You can feel a cohesiveness happening. The connections feel deep, meaningful and true. This group truly understands a part of you that others just don’t! They grasp the hooper in you, which is now becoming a defining factor in how you see yourself. You’ve found a place where you all belong.

 With the passage of time, however, some members may come and go. While the core group remains solid, at some point in this process the language starts to change. And then one day it happens.

 What is “it”? Well, that I can’t tell you because it is different for every hoop community. It might start out as simple as minor bickering over music played at the weekly hoop jam and grow into more than that. Or, a newer member within the community decides they want to start a business or begin teaching or creating a community of their own. Or, crash, two leaders within the tribe have a major falling out, leaving everyone else wondering where to pick up the pieces without getting glass in their hands. While it’s inevitable that conflict will come because we are human and it seems to be in our nature, often this change in our community is misperceived. What some might view as a problem is often an unavoidable growing pain. In communities “it” is the first stage of community growth.

Twenty years ago when I read M. Scott Peck’s book “The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace”, the first line in the Introduction had me sold. “In and through community lies the salvation of the world.” Big stuff right? Peck spells out four stages of community growth, while other experts (generally stemming from Peck’s original work) tend to spread them into five. Let’s see how they all work together.

Stage One: Pseudocommunity/The Waiting Place The group has reached the end of it’s blissed out stage, but people aren’t quite ready to tell each other what’s what either. There may even be a feeling that things aren’t quite right, but members can’t readily put their finger on what the issue is yet. Matters that were once clear now seem muddied. People are often looking for someone to make the decisions for them. Divisiveness can be high. The big dynamic keeping this stage alive is conflict avoidance. Individual differences start to surface also stirring the pot. Once these differences are not just acknowledged, but encouraged, then the group will naturally move into the next stage. We are reminded often that, a true community is conflict-resolving, not avoiding.

Stage Two: Chaos As chaos enters frustrations, annoyance and differences are finally being vented. It becomes literally chaotic as people try to heal and persuade through their own personal experiences. It’s the classic, “Well that happened to me one time and this is what worked…”, only hearing it from each person with equal fierce conviction that their way is THE way tends to only make things worse. Once the negative emotions flood and eventually fall away, the differences can be better sorted out. There is no more facade that things are “perfect” as in stage one. Guards are let down, people can see the real you, deep into your beautiful dirty, roots. And that is where the healthy growth truly begins.

Stage Three: Emptiness This is probably the most difficult step in building community. In order to leave and rise above all that is Chaos, members must be willing to look at themselves deeply and leave behind that which prevents real communication. Biases, prejudices, the need for power and control, ego, the need for self-validation, superiority, all the major hang-ups that we have in life need to be discarded in order to embrace empathy, openness to vulnerability, attention, and deep trust. This does not mean that we do not have an opinion or share it. But when we do, we do it with thought and regard for others in the group. Our opinions are well thought out and versed, rather than just thrown in on a whim of emotion. This step is not only a step of transcendence for the community, but a huge place of self-growth for the individual.

Stage Four: True Community I’ll repeat here what I said in the first stage: A true community is conflict-resolving, not conflict avoiding. Being a true community does not mean it’s all wine and roses from here on out. What it does mean is that all the hard work you’ve put in getting here makes it worth that much more. Through learning how to trust, communicate openly and authentically, express empathy, and let go of hinderances people are more able to relate to each other. There is understanding where there was once just difference. When communications get heated (and they will), they don’t turn sour, motives aren’t questioned, they are just worked thorough in time.

Hooping can just be hooping. It does not have to include a group or a community. Hey, some of us like to hoop alone and there is nothing wrong with some solitude! For many hoopers out there, however, hooping is also a place that community naturally falls into place. It can be reassuring to know that hoop community growing pains are just part of the process, and rather than getting too caught up in them, to remind ourselves of what we can do. We can love ourselves and love our community even through its awkward stage. We can be authentically ourselves and share our truth while empathically loving those around us. We can step up to the plate and be a part of the solution, rather than the problem. And we can keep right on spinning.

Hooping Through Life

 If you’re anything like me your mind is a virtual hooping vortex sometimes, constantly spinning all things into a hooping metaphor, example, or way of being. I can be in the most mundane setting and find a way to turn my thoughts about the situation into a hooping scenario. Do you find driving boring or a space full of endless frustration? My alone time in the car is inevitably spent becoming fully immersed in the music playing through my iPod and imagining myself hooping to the rhythms. I literally feel my adrenal rush as the music changes, knowing how I would fly my arms and hands during that moment in the song, feeling my legs want to bend and groove with each beat, all the while fully engaged with my ever spinning dance partner. And then whoosh, the song ends. Where there once was just a deep love of music, now is an enhanced, deeper fuller appreciation of movement, of dance, even if it is sometimes just in my mind. Are you hooping your way through life as well? One friend says she does the same thing. Another thinks I've fallen off the proverbial "hoop" rocker. Just wait until I tell you more.

Now my hoop roots are grounded deeply in the HoopPath, a teaching model created by Jonathan Baxter using mythological methodology to teach skills such as Touch or Samurai style hooping. While Baxter's myths stay close to my heart, the method of hooping comes out in, well, odd ways at times. For example, I’m out shopping - a task I abhor. Sometimes I imagine myself as a Warrior Hooper in the store, fiercely battling my way through the isles, dodging carts, hopping with magnificence across cans or clothes that have fallen in my path, my hoop always my partner in an epic war to get out quickly, with thrift, all the while maintaining quality. Despite the looks from other customers, it gets me through and I really think I am a better hooper for it.

Still don't believe me? Last summer while I trained for my second triathlon, hooping was still on my brain even as I moved through each sequence of events. While running I often found my arms inadvertently practicing breaks, paddles and reverses with an imaginary hoop. I'm sure I looked more like a dancer than a biker during my rides, and as a life long swimmer, the refuge in the water also became a place to find circles in each movement that I made.

In my every day life (aka, the most important part) I am a single mother of two energetic, astounding boys. Their creativity and thirst for life inspires me. At our last dwelling we had regular "dance parties" in the evenings, usually including hoops. The dancing was always a source of never ending laughter as we would attempt to see which of us could be the absolute silliest, causing belly flops and chortling from the others. Hooping was a lesson in patience, humor, fine and gross motor skills, and ultimately fun.

While we are now in a new setting, the antics continue, the form has just varied. My love for hooping and dance influences how I move around the house and interact with it and with them. Yesterday my youngest son, still in preschool, began telling a story in a whacky voice and my body moved wildly to his intonation. In my mind, I was flying my hands and dipping my legs as if in my hoop. To them I just was being their crazy mom. To all of us, it was hysterical fun. Whether we all know it or not my hooping bonds us in so many ways.

Yet it is even more deep-seated than simple musings in the car, wild dashings through a store or the beloved time with my children. What hooping has taught me, and what I still have to learn in its spinning lull, relate to most of my core beliefs about life. The hoop itself provides a natural physical boundary. It represents safety in the world. When I hoop, my thoughts, my dance, create a sacred space for me within that boundary. Represented in the hoop is wholeness, unity, a place to step in and begin to look for peace, internal and external. In my conversations with those not in the flow know I find myself holding back sometimes in conversation, from commenting in ways like, "Yes, the presidential election is just like hooping..." I know they will not always understand while my clothing choices alone usually let people know that I am a bit different from the mainstream. They know this without my going off on a philosophical tangent on the sacredness of circles.

For me hooping is engrained in almost every aspect of my life. Even when I am not in an active practice, hooping is actively in my life. Since my journey in the spin my hooping passion has helped me think outside the box, making every day life more interesting, making learning easier and making my teaching more efficient. It may not be normal for the rest of the world, but I wouldn't have it any other way.