The Happy Hoop

Golden Hoops

We’re currently living in Golden, Colorado and I was thrilled to find out that there is a lot of hoop love happenin’ around here. I’m guessing that is partly due to the fact that String Cheese Incident got their start in Colorado, and some might say they are responsible for the rise of modern hooping (throwing hoops into the crowds at their shows). Speaking of SCI, they are playing just a few minutes down the road from us all weekend (at Red Rocks). Apparently there are hoopers coming in from all around the country for that event! I might have to sneak down there for a bit.

Anywhoo…this week we took some classes from Golden’s hoopin’ girl, Danielle Odette. She holds a kids class on Tuesday nights at the Golden Community Center and an adult class downtown at Buffalo Rose on Wednesdays. She also teaches in Denver…check out her website for more info. If you’re in the area, be sure to take her classes! She is an EXCELLENT teacher and an amazing hoopdancer…Bella came home from class SO excited about all her new moves and has been practicing since. Danielle inspired me in many ways as well and I can’t wait until the next class because we’ll be working on a lot of things that I want to learn! Yipppeee!

Lucy was enthralled with the girls…she’ll be hooping before we know it! 🙂

After the adult class was over, I asked Danielle to do just a short, 1-minute video clip for me to show you…and she happily obliged. I *love* watching her…she flows so effortlessly and has great “presence”! Enjoy! (click here to see it bigger on the Vimeo site)

Tags: danielle odette, hoop horizon

Comments 9 Comments
Categories Always Learning, Fellow Hoopers, Hooping Classes / Meetups, Inspiration, Videos

Hoopenanigans

23 Jul

I want to introduce you to one of my dearest friends, Rebecca. She has recently fallen in love with the hoop and has started her own little hoop blog to document her journey.

Her blog, “Hoopenanigans” is fabulous and inspiring and I’m always SO EXCITED whenever I see that she has a new post up. She is spreadin’ the hoop love all OVER her little town in South Carolina…check out this sweet sign she painted for her hoop party:

I am looking forward to hooping with Becky…hopefully next year as we travel East. It’s been WAY too long since we’ve seen each other and I just can’t WAIT! And someday…we will share a bunk bed at Hoop Camp or Hoop Convergence or better yet, let’s go to Costa Rica! Hoop on sister…now everyone go and show her some *love*!!

Comments 4 Comments
Categories Fellow Hoopers, Inspiration

Electro Circus

16 Jul

I love Austin, Texas…but after watching this video, I love it even more! 🙂 I learned how to “hoop for real” in Austin…so it will always have a special place in my heart. Although, when we were there this spring, I had barely tapped into the hooping community there.

This video is from an event called Electro Circus….acroyoga, poi, hooping, and much more! It appears that they meet every Sunday evening in Zilker Park…check out their Facebook page for more info, photos, and videos. It makes me a little crazy to know this was happening while we were there and I didn’t know about it…but I will be there next spring! Anyone want to join me? 🙂

Tags: austin, Electro Circus, Zilker Park

Comments 16 Comments
Categories Community, Inspiration, Videos

Hoop Storage Solutions

13 Jul

Hoops are big…and can be quite awkward to carry/transport/store. Here is one storage solution that we used while traveling in our Minnie Winnie. We currently store them inside our truck topper…strapped to the roof. When we are settled somewhere, they usually live under the RV in a big pile or tucked in one of the storage bays underneath.

I will occasionally hang them over our mirrors like my friend Tracy. I like to keep them in sight, because I am much more likely to just grab it and hoop when I have a few minutes. If they are difficult to reach or out of sight, I just forget to get them down!

And this brings me to the topic of travel hoops…because the travel hoops “fold” down! I would love to be able to just fold down my hoop and take it with me easily on my bike or in my bag. I have yet to make a true infinity hoop with 2 connectors, but I’ve been told it’s super easy. Has anyone tried BodyHoop’s or Hoopnotica’s travel hoops? I would love to hear some reviews. (As a side note…I am planning on doing a post in the future that is dedicated to the topic of traveling with hoops (in airplanes and such).

So…my question for you is:

Where do you store your hoops?

Post links to photos!! 🙂 You know I love photos.

Comments 26 Comments
Categories Hoop Storage, Traveling

Harmony in Duality

26 Jun

This week we headed down to Denver for the “Discovering Harmony in Duality” workshop with Sam Salwei and Adelaide Marcus. Sam is one of the co-founders of YogaSlackers and Adelaide is an awesome dancer/hooper/performer and is part of the duo “The Shimmy Sisters” based out of San Diego. Sam and Adelaide are on a whirlwind summer tour, teaching slackline yoga, acroyoga, hooping, and more!

We didn’t know anything about slacklining before we got there, but we’re hooked! It was so much fun trying to balance…I can see how it could be addicting. It’s great for all ages and is an incredible workout! We had fun watching Sam and his amazing skills. It turns out Sam attended the University of North Dakota at the same time I did…such a small world!

Adelaide taught a great class…she demonstrated movements that were new to me…so that was exciting! Including a couple that I’ve been having trouble with. I love learning from new hoop teachers…each one offers a little something in their teaching style that is different from anyone else. I left there challenged and inspired to try new things in my own practice.

It was also very physically challenging for me…I had gotten up early that morning to do hot yoga, and then did the slacklining and hooping from 4:30-7pm. Whew! Let’s just say I slept VERY well that night.

The next day, we were walking on Pearl St. in Boulder and saw a guy laying on his back on the sidewalk, holding someone up with his feet, while she was hooping with her foot in the air. Who else could it be? 🙂 Sam and Adelaide of course! It was fun to see them again. They were in Boulder for their class at Prana that day and then were hanging out with a photographer friend that night. Coincidentally, I follow the #hooping hash tag on Twitter, and I randomly saw their friend’s photos come through the next day. And THEY. ARE. AMAZING. Be sure to check them out!

They are headed to the Pacific NW next… check out the rest of their tour schedule and go see them if they are in your town! Check out more photos of the day here.

Comments 9 Comments
Categories Always Learning, Community, Hooping Classes / Meetups, Inspiration

Love Swirl Winner

18 Jun

And the winner of the Love Swirl print is…

PAULA from Random Chaos and Clutter!

Congratulations Paula…thanks to everyone who commented. Click on over to Catina’s site to enjoy FREE SHIPPING through Monday, June 21. Just put “thehappyhoop” in the comment section and Catina will refund the shipping amount.

Have a great evening!

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Giveaway

Catina Jane Arts Giveaway – Love Swirl Print

14 Jun

I love Catina Jane for MANY reasons…and one of those reasons is that she creates amazing mixed media art. We were chatting back and forth last week and I asked her if she would create a piece of art that reflected our mutual love of hooping. Just a few days later, she had this piece done for me and I am in LOVE with it! The original is being shipped to me at this very moment…but there are prints of it available to YOU right now. *woooooo!*

AND…we are going to give away one print to a lucky reader as well!

There are FOUR ways to enter the giveaway. You can do one or all of the following (each one is a separate entry, so please create a new comment for each one):

Check out Catina Jane’s website and Etsy store and then leave a comment below with your favorite piece.
Post to Facebook for an additional entry.
Post to Twitter for an additional entry.
Blog the giveaway on your own blog for yet another entry.

Entries will be taken through Friday, June 18 at 12:00 p.m. CST and the winner will be announced shortly after that.

Catina is also offering FREE SHIPPING for Happy Hoop blog readers. Just enter the discount code “thehappyhoop” in the comments section on your Etsy order, and she will refund the shipping fees through Paypal. Be sure to check out the rest of her work…each piece is unique and her jewelry is super fun too! This discount will only be valid through Monday, June 21, so don’t delay.

*read Catina’s guest blog post about hooping here*

Comments 37 Comments
Categories Giveaway

Music Makes It All Better

10 Jun

The first 3 days of my hooping addiction were somehow devoid of music. It didn’t even occur to me that it would be easier to hoop WHILE listening to music. Which is ridiculous because who hoop DANCES without music?! I know that those of you who discovered hooping at festivals/concerts will think this is crazy, but I was just so focused on getting the tricks that I forgot it was about dancing. Needless to say, I figured it out and got the tunes rollin’. And it was SO much easier to get that hoop moving with the music helping me along.

It is possible to hoop to ANY music…but, there are some songs that are meant to be hooped to! I tried to explain this to my brother as he tried to put on HIS playlist right in the middle of some family reunion hoop time. I know! Can you believe that? 😉

I have NEVER been a fan of electronic/techno music…until now. I seriously cannot get enough. Good stuff. Bella demands that I put on Verbing The Noun first every time we hoop. Several of you have asked what music we are hooping to, so here is the list. I scoured Hoop City and Tribe for recommendations and came up with my very own playlist of tunes. I made an iMix as well. so you can just click here to go directly to iTunes and get the songs you want. Yes, I like Miley Cyrus. Don’t judge me. My favorites right at this moment are Beats Antique, Owl City, and Michael Franti. I want to start making “themed” playlists now.

So the next question is “how do you play the music”!? Hooping is done outside most of the time, so playing it from your computer or stereo isn’t always possible. When we are near a source of electricity, we use our Bose Sounddock and iPhone. I love it because it’s REALLY loud and it thumps that bass. When we don’t have somewhere to plug in, we’ve been using this little speaker system. It’s compact and easy to use…but it really only works well for groups of 2-4. I would love to hear your suggestions for a powerful battery powered compact speaker system for the iPhone. I’m trying to talk Matt into installing a giant sound system on top of the RV 😉 He seems to think we have other improvements that are more important. What!?

Here are some threads and resources for music ideas:
Hoop Music Tribe
Hoop City Hooping Music
This is an awesome page of hooping iMixes
Best Hooping Songs of 2009 – hooping.org
Top 10 Songs to Hoop To

What music are you currently hooping to? Leave me a big ‘ol list or even just your ONE favorite song at the moment. (If you have your playlist on iTunes, leave a link to your iMix. Here are instructions if you don’t know how.)

*Photo Credit: Phil Hilfiker | Flickr Creative Commons License

Comments 43 Comments
Categories Music

Hoop Pretty Giveaway Winners!

10 Jun

And the winners are…

Hoop Dance Freak Flow T-shirt: Jessica H. (Comment #33)
Hoop Dance Love Sticker: Dagny (Comment #40)

Congratulations!! If you didn’t win, be sure to click on over to Hoop Pretty and take advantage of the 10% discount through Saturday (discount code “thehappyhoop”)! Barbra and Rachel are always innovating and making new stuff…like this awesome iPhone wallpaper. Keep an eye on their site for fun hooping gear! Thanks to all who entered…and stay tuned for another fun giveaway soon!