Shake It Off

This brings streaming tears of pure hoop joy to my eyes and heart!
Just to be in the presence of such a beautifully graceful woman such as Ann at Hoop Camp later this year is going to bring me to my knees with awe struck gratitude.
I feel like I might possibly be the luckiest woman alive to be given such endless opportunities to fulfill my dreams!

Karis

I enjoyed pole dancing class but this ROCKs my socks more!!

That hoop slam down gives me shivers!! HOT
In case you were wondering this mind blowing performer is Karis, known for his sizzling performance in the Scissor Sisters Filthy Gorgeous film clip among other things.
(oh hey these vids may not be safe for work...guess it depends on where you work, but a heads up just in case, watch em at home they are fun)

Hooping to the Sounds of the Street

Thank you so much to all of the hot hoopers that had faith in the sun and came out to play in the park yesterday. You make my day, my month, my entire life more joy filled. Just watching you hoop it up with smiles on your faces and rhythm in your bodies is the ultimate hoop high.

Hello to all of the new friends we met yesterday. We are so happy that you stumbled into our lives. A big hug to all of my hoop buddies the circle is expanding thanks to you! Share the hoop love.

I was still filled with energy on the walk back to the station from Yoyogi Park last night, despite having hooped for about 6 hours, so I thought I would give the LED hoop a quick spin before getting onto the jam packed train. We picked a sweet little spot at the top of Omotesando Dori, Harajuku and I spun to the sounds of the passing people and traffic. A true Tokyo hoop up.


In other hoop news...I may have secured one of Tokyo's funkiest studio spaces so Hoop Dance for Beginners, Hoop Work It and Hoop Love classes will begin very soon! I am super excited! Check out HOOPLOVERS for more info.

Hoop Lovers

I am super excited to announce the launch of my new hoop dance site Hoop Lovers. As some of you may know I had a tricky time deciding on the site and business name for my new hoop dance instruction and performance adventure. I had chopped and changed from hoop glow to hoop fusion to all number of things hoopy but when I stumbled upon Hoop Lovers it just seemed right!

(Photo taken by foqas at ABM party @ JZ Brat Shibuya, Tokyo)
The site is a little bare at the moment but I have big plans and look forward to sharing the hoop love with you!

What a Weekend!

It is hard to know where to start I am still really trying to process the greatness and intensely of the weekend. Leila Chan as always has such a wonderful way with words and summed it up quite nicely here.

I have so much more to add but am finding it hard to put into words! The people, the action, the happenings, the connections that were made are really all just starting to sink in.

It is an unexplainable feeling to have dreams and thoughts manifest so succinctly. There were many dreams becoming reality for a lot of us this weekend.

As always I have so many people to extend unspeakable amounts of gratitude to...
Masao the man always cool, calm and overwhelmingly supportive. My ladies my beautiful ladies you know I love you and you never fail to surprise me, scare me and fill me with pure joy. New friends I need to sincerely thank all of the wonderful people who approached me this weekend both at Velours and in Yoyogi park at the Hoop Matsuri, for me hooping is all about togetherness and while I am often in my own little hoopy world I am very grateful to anyone who is free spirited enough to want to be a part of the spin so thank you to all of the gorgeous new friends who I met this weekend looking forward to sharing lots of greatness. My fabulously funky friends without a doubt I have the most amazing circle of open minded, fun loving, interesting friends I don't think there is much else a girl can ask for in life. I truly hope I offer you as much love and support as you give to me, it is an overwhelming task because the power you give to me it so very great! Thank you!

If this weekend was just the warm up to Summer then we are in for one insanely hot Summer session! Cannot wait!

Sunday Hoop Fest

(Photo taken on Bondi Beach by my Mama)

Date: Sunday, April 13, 2008
Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Location: Yoyogi Park
City/Town: Tokyo, Japan

I will be in Yoyogi park this Sunday afternoon for a fabulous afternoon of hooping and happiness. If you are interested in learning a few hoop dance tricks, getting into the groove or just hanging out in the park please get in touch.

I am back from Sydney and now a qualified Hoop Dance teacher so I am looking to share the hoop love with you all.

Sunday will be very relaxed, just some moving and grooving. I am happy to share some beginner moves and tips and of course it is FREE!! (This offer won't last! ha ha) ;)

I will bring about 10 hoops but if you have your own please bring them along.
If you don't have your own check these babies out.

Bring what you like, wear something funky and throw your iPod in your bag to groove to the tunes you love! All other play things welcomed too of course so bring along your Poi or devil sticks, puppies or cute boys!

IF IT IS RAINY OR TOO WINDY I WILL POSTPONE IT FOR ANOTHER DAY so pray to the sun gods!

Come have some good, clean hoopy fun!

I will hang at the Harajuku main gates for about 10 minutes and then head further into the park. You can call or email anytime!

The Making of a Hoop Star

Recently I have been asked by a tribe of amazing supporters how I began hooping. So I have decided to write a little post about my steps to becoming a hoop obsessed dancer.

A friend of mine Gala, creator of the must-read blog iCiNG (if you don't read her and love her by now you totally should!) held her 5th International Dress Up Day back in June 2007. The theme was alter ego. The pictures and stories sent in were glorious and the effort outstanding. One stood out for me and so I quickly jumped onto the link promising a "short video of my alter ego in action". What I saw was this...

A sideways video that would change my life!

I couldn't get the image of the funky hooper out of my head and I knew I had to get my hands on a hoop. I remembered that a year or two before during a totally spontaneous shopping spree at a sports store (??) in Tokyo Masao had bought me a hoop in a box that had to be assembled, made up of about 12 pieces. I dug in out of storage, put all the pieces together, realised it was quite small but took turns with Masao until one of us could keep it revolving around our hips for more than two or three rotations. Masao was the pioneer. His hips pumping at warp speed he was able to keep the tiny hoop spinning for quite some time. This crazy hip pumping went on for days. I was completely entranced by the motion, the sweat, the centrifugal force. At the same time I began to collect a growing number of hoop videos on youtube and information about hooping. I learned that I needed a large hoop, measuring about 95cm in diameter, if I hoped to do anything more than a hip pumping, body shaking dance.

I searched and pestered Masao to find me a hoop in Tokyo. It seemed near impossible, no one we contacted knew anything about the hoop thing. I persevered with my mini hoop and mimicked the motions and moves I had been watching over and over on youtube, spending up to two hours a days spinning, twirling, jumping and dropping the hoop. Finally Masao stumbled upon Hoopstore Tokyo. I could barely contain myself and sent an email to the Hoop Girl trained, Justin and Mario immediately. They wrote back with such a friendly response and I booked the next class that was available.

My mum was in Tokyo at the time, possibly confused by my obsession but obviously seeing my delight with the plastic pipe she came along with Masao and I to our first hoop class in Shinjuku. By this time I had mastered the hip pumping but was unprepared for how much of a workout the new, big hoops were about to put me through. Sweat poured, muscles burned and I felt completely alive from head to toe.

A few days later Masao set out on one of his city adventures to "meet a friend" leaving mum and I to relax, shop and cook up a storm. It was getting late and I still had not heard from Masao, he had been out all day and I had tried calling his phone several times to see if he wanted to have dinner with us. Mum appeared to be just as worried as me that he was not returning my calls, little did I know that she was in on the whole scam. Masao returned hours later with a perfectly wrapped, sparkling pink hoop. My mum had sent Masao off to buy one from Justin and Mario at Hoopstore Tokyo and the trio had spent the day talking hoops, business and boy stuff.

I now had everything I needed to start on the road to hoop stardom. We hit the park everyday. I feel like I ate, slept and dreamed hooping. It was the first thing I thought about in the mornings and I would go to bed each night in a spin from watching so many hoop videos on youtube.

I continued to go to a few classes at the Hoopstore Tokyo but as other parts of our lives got busier it became impossible to get to classes. We would go to the park and hoop late at night sometimes well after midnight. That is one of the most amazing things about living in Tokyo, it is so safe.

Still needing instruction but unable to make it to classes I invested in the Hoop Girl DVD and the Hoopnotica Teaching Training Package Level 1 & 2. I would watch them every morning before work and as soon as I got home from work preparing for my after dinner park hoop jam. Masao had his own hoop by this stage and we would teach, encourage and remind each other of things we had learned in class and on the DVDs. I definitely recommend both of these DVDs for mastering a range of hoop moves. Each has it's strengths. The Hoop Girl DVD offers inspiring dance combinations while the Hoopnotics DVD is fantastic for trouble shooting and tips on how to work through the learning process.

From there I basically took hooping into my own hands. Taking inspiration from Hoopers all over the world thanks to youtube, hooping.org and tribe.net I was able to connect with an intense and welcoming global community.



In January I was nominated by hooping.org as one of 5 Newbie Hoopers for 2007. This was an amazing reward and opened up so many opportunities for me. I was invited to perform my first Hoop Dance in a Tokyo club, fulfilling part of one of my goals for 2008. I received my first LED hoop and twin hoops to begin my journey into the world of circus hooping.

Friday night at Velours in Tokyo marked my first Hoop Dance performance in a Tokyo club. It was just the beginning, I hope to see you out and about I plan to take this city by storm and whip the club scene into a flashing, rainbow swirl of wild hoopla! Be sure to come and say hi!

One of the most exciting things to happen in my world of hooping recently is the connection I have made with Bunny Hoopstar. Bunny is a Sydney-based hooper, performer and trainer. She has long been a powerful inspiration to me. In fact one of my goals for 2008 read "Meet Bunny Hoopstar". That dream is coming true very soon as I get prepared to jetset off to Sydney in March to complete teach training with Bunny at her Darlinghurst hoop camp. I had contemplated teacher training via a few other teachers but Bunny rocks the style, strength, individuality and hoop skills that I admire and aspire to the most. I couldn't be happier to have her as my mentor.


So what does the future of hooping hold for me?

I really look forward to sharing my adoration for this mind blowing, body changing, life transforming form of self expression with friends and students in Japan and the rest of the world. I am a life long learner of the hoop path so I also look forward to learning from students, friends and other hoopers.

Everyday I learn something new about my body, it's motion and connectedness with the colorful rings. I look forward to strengthening my practice with each dance.

My LED hoop is far too gorgeous to be locked up at home so I will be spinning it at clubs and events around Tokyo and in Australia.

I am open and ready for all of the exhilarating hoop opportunities that are heading my way.

So there you have it, my short but powerful journey into the world of hooping thus far. I feel it has only just begun and yet has given me so much more than I could ever have thought possible. I have an endless number of friends and hoopers to thank.

Anytime you feel like starting a revolution be sure to get in contact with me! Sure to put you in a spin in the funkiest possible way.