A Confession of Hoop Love from a Student of Flow

Photo by Kevin Stoll.

Woah! I have a blog! Actually, this one never went anywhere, and I've at this point probably had about 100 different ones I've manages, but we won't go into my day job....
I found through a rather helpful website, Brownielocks.com that this week is Yoyo and Skill Toys Week! While my yo-yoing days are behind me for the moment, anyone who knows me is aware of my new love for the hula hoop. To some I'm even known as "The Hula Hoop Girl," which is incredibly funny because I'm nowhere near as good as my other hooping friends or my hooping sensei, Rebecca DeShon!

Still, if there is enough room and music to dance to, I'll have my hoop in tow! It's been great learning even up to the level I am now and I don't plan on leaving it behind anytime soon. I have about 5 hoops currently hanging up in the entryway of my apartment and I don't plan to stop the collection there! I think what makes hula hooping an activity I can remember to do is the fact that there are always those hoops hanging right within sight. Unlike drill team or belly dancing, there's no colorful prop to scream "Hey! Let's play!" while I'm sitting on the couch munching on french fries. Thank goodness my living room has just enough space for me to practice in, because without music and a couple of friends I still have not built up enough confidence to head outside of my apartment with my toys.

All of my hoops, except for my newest LED hoop, were handmade by Rebecca's HoopEssence. She's also who I've learned almost all of my skills from! My LED hoop was made by Cosmic Hooper's Emporium of Bliss in North Carolina. I found him through a work buddy who, surprising, also is a hooper! She's taught me a bit too, like the very basics of leg hooping and a few isolations pointers. After that, it's me in my living room flinging the hoop around, trying to remember all I've been taught, scuffing up walls, knocking over glasses of sweet tea, and destroying my window blinds. It's going to be hard explaining a lot of that damage to my landlords when I move out in a week, but I never expected to get my deposit back anyway!

Like a yo-yo, the idea of "flow" is something you'll hear a lot of hoopers, aerialists, poi performers, and other dancers talk about. Of course you have to grasp the basic skill of keeping hoop on your waist, then you move to your hands, and before you know it you can reproduce that circular rhythm with almost any part of your body. I can remember getting excited about doing an Around the World with my yo-yo in high school and college, but I could never dodge the feeling of smacking myself or someone else in the face if I wasn't careful.

Now I'm not saying that the hula hoop is safer than the yo-yo because I've definitely smacked a girl in the face during practice with my hoop. (Super sorry about that!) But with yo-yos the look is about skill more than that feeling of flow. I couldn't dance with a yo-yo and draw in astonishing looks of a crowd with it like I can with my hooping. Sure, it's not the most amazing skill display, but the overall look of hooping is more than just up, down, around the world. Not to mention, that string on a yo-yo is almost invisible when its moving fast enough, making it hard for anyone to get close without the inevitable clock in the face.

Photo by Kevin Stoll.

With a hoop, unless you're seriously not paying attention or rolling really hard (which, to be honest, is definitely a possibility depending on where you're hooping), you'll see a hoop and will probably avoid it for fear of either breaking the flow. (By the way, if you knock someone's hoop over after you HAVE seen it and can easily avoid it, you're just rude. No one knocks books out of YOUR hands when your reading or cigarettes out of YOUR mouth while you're smoking. Just saying.)

The best part about hoop flow is that you're whole body is moving. I mention belly dancing again because, even though I can't break out in an enchanting tribal routine, I can use what I've learned of isolating parts of the body, arm placements, and hip movements to put on at least a semi-entertaining show. Even if I only do the same 5 moves over and over again, I'm still maybe 4 moves ahead of the girl twerking on some stranger across the room. Believe me, I can grind, and thinks it's great when the mood and music call for it, but it's about as restricting as dancing with an airplane seat compared to the freedom of hooping.

Since I've never really had the chance to express how I much I love hula hooping before now I got a bit out of control with the word count. Still, now was as good a time as ever to mention it given this obscure, albeit appropriate observance this week. In the midst of a million things I need to get done this week, I'll try even harder to pick up and play with my hoop for at least 30 minutes of my day. And with a few new hoop isolation videos I've found, I have a lot of learning to do!

Don't let go of your skills! Whether you like to hoop, yo-yo, jump rope, sword fight, breath fire, belly dance, pole dance, pole-vault, whatever! Fall back in love with it this week or give something new a chance!