Are You A Hooping Super Hero?

You’ve probably heard the expression “kid’s say the darndest things”, coined and mainstreamed by hula hoop entrepreneur Art Linkletter and further popularized by Bill Cosby on his TV show of the same name? Well, it is no exception at my house.

Take this recent conversation on our car ride to school for example. The boys were talking about super heroes and decided that my oldest would be Ironman, my youngest would be The Incredible Hulk and that I would be a Super Hooper (and they weren’t referring to Lara and Droo). I was surprised that they had included me in their fabulous club of world saving crusaders, but I was even more curious as to what they considered to be my super powers. To them it was obvious – I would create tornado force winds with my hoop and tunnels while spinning that would knock villains off their feet and into another dimension. Not only that, but I also had Ninja skills with my hoops that could defeat any foe. I was floored by their well thought out plans for me in their mission to save the world. The conversation later transitioned into a great teaching moment for them, and everyone, to explore how we could all be super heroes through our actions. And as we talked more about what qualities a super hero exhibits, I began to see that all over the planet we hoopers are indeed saving the world!

One thing I love hoopers for is their ability to gift hoops generously. I can’t count how many times I have seen someone just hand over a hoop to a newbie, a friend, or a child, just because they knew how much joy that plastic circle would bring. And let’s not forget about the annual and largest hoop give-a-away to date, World Hoop Day. Talk about Super Heroes!! The picture engrained in my mind is of the children in Gaza holding their handmade hoops high with smiles wide. Gifting hula hoops changes lives.

Hoopers across the globe have instinctively formed communities to share skills, have jams, and sometimes form deeper relationships. It’s not only the individuals who have the leadership and perseverance to start these groups who are the champions in my book, but those who welcome new members. Coming to a jam of an established hooping community can be intimidating. Just one hooper introducing themselves and showing someone the ropes can make all the difference in the world. Communities of all kinds are vital to our planet and as M. Scott Peck, MD, an expert on community development, once said, “In and through community lies the salvation of the world.” Think you aren’t a hooper super hero? Think again!

If you pick up the newspaper and start reading, it doesn’t take long to see that there’s a lot of unhappiness in this world. Hooping, however, is a super hero portal bringing others out of the villainous dark world and back into their happy place. It’s no secret that hooping is fun. Heck – it is really hard not to smile while hooping. The feeling of peace that can come from hooping is profound! If you’re helping others step inside a plastic circle, you’re changing the world! A regular hooping practice has even been reported to relieve depression and anxiety.

Today there is also an epidemic of obesity, even among children. If you’re getting people hooping you’re getting people exercising, reducing heart disease, battling diabetes and a myriad of other physical problems that are a major threat to our well-being. Everywhere we look we can see hoopers who have lost ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred pounds as a result of hooping it up regularly. These people in turn have inspired others to give it a spin. Thanks to hooping super heroes like you the world is also become a healthier place.

When you share hooping with someone or encourage a hooper to keep up with their regular practice, it can have a monumental effect upon their life. Perhaps you’ll never know the difference made, but let’s face it – a true Super Hero Hooper isn’t in it for the glory. Whether you change one life, many or simply your own – I can pretty much guarantee you are a Hooper Super Hero. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for saving the world and making it a better place to live in.

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.

Gabrielle Roth: A Hoop Dance Tribute

 Time after time we read incredible stories, hear personal anecdotes, and have possibly even experienced our own healing and transformation inside the magic circle that is our hoop. Let's be honest though, dear hoopers. We haven't entirely discovered something new. When it comes to the healing power of movement and dance we've actually discovered something very, very old. Last week the world lost Gabrielle Roth, one of the great leaders in meditative dance and healing through movement. Following a battle with lung cancer, the world lost the founder of the 5Rhythms dance movement, an amazing spirit, an incredible pioneer that not only touched my life personally, but whose beliefs, ideas and practices have parallelled the recoveries and discoveries in our hooping lives long before the modern hooping movement began. Who was Gabrielle Roth? What are the 5Rhythms and how can they play a role in our hoop dance healing? What were some of the contributions she made to the world that I will continue to think about for years to come? Let me tell you what I know.

In the 1960's, Roth created a way of finding consciousness through dance. According to her, "Physical movement is key to unlocking the spirit." Perhaps this is one of the reasons many hoopers find such a deep connection to Roth and her philosophies. As hoopers we often talk about "hoop bliss", freedom through our movement, getting lost inside of our hoops, and other occurrences within our dance that are often seen as spiritual, meditative and/or healing. Roth found these experiences years before our still relatively new wave of hoop dance had manifested. And more than that, Roth invited us to look even further back, that we needed to defer to our feet and move back to our roots. In the mind of Roth, these roots are made of light that connect us to 75,000 years of ecstatic dance tradition, to all who have danced to transport themselves out of their heads and into the wilderness of their own psyches, to experience in poetic patterns the shape and wonder of their souls. Though she was the founder of Ecstatic Dance and of the 5Rhythms dance movement, Roth generally spoke of dance less specifically when speaking of the power it holds.
 5Rhythms is a movement meditation practice Roth devised that she drew from indigenous and world traditions using tenets of shamanistic, ecstatic, mystical and eastern philosophy. The practice also draws from Gestalt therapy, the human potential movement and transpersonal psychology as well. Fundamental to the practice is the idea that everything is energy, and that energy moves in waves, patterns and rhythms. Roth described it as a soul journey, saying that by moving the body, releasing the heart, and freeing the mind, one can connect to the essence of the soul, the source of inspiration in which an individual has unlimited possibility and potential.

5Rhythms allows the participant to become deeply engaged in their own path, to find their own way in movement. And while teachers of 5Rhythms participate in a long training process, well over 300 hours, in order to teach others to find their own flow through the Rhythms - Flowing, Staccato, Chaos, Lyrical and Stillness - one can not help but think of hooping teachers and community members who consistently reiterate the idea that each dancer has their own flow and expression within the hoop. So many of Roth's ideas translate fluently into the world of hoop dance. Hoopers lucky enough to have experience in 5Rhythms or ecstatic dance will also tell you that it opened up their hooping, often in the most glorious ways.

Gabrielle Roth once said, "Dance is the fastest, most direct route to the truth -- not some big truth that belongs to everybody, but the get down and personal kind, the what's-happening-in-me-right-now kind of truth. We dance to reclaim our brilliant ability to disappear in something bigger, something safe, a space without a critic or a judge or an analyst." Wow, did you hear that? I mean really, say it out loud to yourself several times. Her words and philosophy on the power of dance have influenced me deeply. Understanding that my own experience in the hoop is validated by an elder with profound knowledge and understanding of movement, healing and meditation has helped create a safe space for me to explore my own truth within my spin.

The loss of Gabrielle Roth is profound. Roth worked at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health and at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. She also founded an experimental theatre company in New York, wrote three books, created over twenty albums of trance dance music with her band The Mirrors (on iTunes), and directed or has been the subject of ten videos.  I know we all are incredibly grateful for all that she brought to the world, to dance, to movement meditation, to healing through movement and ultimately to helping us better understand the healing power of the hoop in our own lives. Rest in Peace Gabrielle and thank you for having been here.
           
 Composer and musician Nicholas Caputo plays piano while Erin Sparrow hoops in this beautiful tribute to Gabrielle Roth.