Last weekend I spent 3 full days in Chapel Hill, NC for the second Hoop Path Retreat. I went to the first one last year and had such a wonderful time. The main teacher is a man named Jonathan Baxter and he’s been hooping for ~7 years. He has amazing hooping skills, but it’s his words that are so potent. It’s like going to a meditation retreat and using the hoop to focus your mind and get past your issues instead of just sitting. Here’s a video from some of the classes and jams. At the end of all the classes, there is always a “hooper’s ball” where we get dressed up and hoop our hearts out! I didn’t take many pictures this time of classes or hooping, but I did get lots of the outfits for the ball!
These are my hosts from last year and this year, Erica and Beth. They are both amazing hoopers. Beth has one of the most beautiful, graceful hooping styles I have ever seen.
This is Martine getting ready for the ball. She’s originally from Canada (and has a cute little french accent:-) ) but is living in MD now with her new hubby.
This is me and Geof. We didn’t get to hoop together too much, but he’s amazing… and I like his tiger outfit :-0
Here are Jessica and Victoria, beautiful hoopers from Alabama. Man, I need to whiten my teeth!!
And here are Natasha (san.fran.), Nicki (milwaukee), Khan (san.fran.), and I getting ready to hoop at the ball. (I know, my outfit isn’t as daring or sparkly as most… maybe next year:-)
What fun! I saw a video the other day about hooping- a learning video. I envy your skill. If I can keep it around my hips for more then 30 seconds, I’m doing good. Even then its those wide hip circles…LOL. Now I gotta make me a hoop to play with. May be something I could do with Panda since she sems to enjoy playing with the hoops I buy her- and her little brother promptly destroys with his rolling down the hill…
OHhh, it’s so much fun! You should definitely make some! It’s much easier to hoop with the bigger hoops. They are really easy to make. Here are the directions:
http://www.jasonunbound.com/hoops.html
You can make a bunch and have extras for friends to try!
i was at a music festival recently and found myself completely mesmerized by the hoopers. i would love to try it, but found when trying my daughters dinky little hoola hoop, i couldn’t keep it going for more than a few rounds! is it something you can pick up, or do you have to be a particularly skilled dancer beforehand? it seems like it would be excellent for the abdominal muscles. . .
Absolutely no skill necessary!! I can’t hoop either with the little plastic flimsy things, but it’s SOOOO easy with the big ones! You have to try it at the next festival, or make some! So much fun!
Another hooper! I just started last year and love it! How neat that you got to go to a retreat and enjoy the hooping with other people. Looks like a lot of fun!