World Hoop Day

Hoop-hoop and away: The hula hoop has taken on a new life

AnnieO — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:36:20 +0000

World Hoop Day mentioned in Bay Area Newspapers. Link here by Angela Hill

Hot hoop info:

To wrap yourself in the hoop community with articles, videos and photos, go to www.hooping.org.
For local hooping, go to www.bayareahoopers.org, www.lucashooping.com, www.theinfinitehoop.com.
To learn about Hoop Camp 2012, scheduled for September in Santa Cruz, go to www.hoopcampretreats.com.
For international hoop news, go to www.worldhoopday.org. World Hoop Day is a nonprofit group that holds a multicontinent hoop jam one day a year and raises money to donate hoops to kids around the globe.

What goes around ideally comes around and — with luck and vigorous hip gyration — keeps revolving and evolving until what was once a mere toy fad in the 1950s whirls its way to the center of a downright 21st-century institution.Behold the humble act of hula hooping — or at least hooping with a homemade PVC-flexible-irrigation-pipe version. The hooping surge that emerged in the mid-1990s as a form of self-expression in underground party scenes developed into an exercise phenomenon in the early 2000s. The hoop simply cannot be stopped; it continues to roll into new forms, from hooping “meditation” to a movie called “The Hooping Life,” which makes its California premiere at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda.”Hooping today really has nothing to do with the ’50s fad — the only parallel then and now is turning something that was nothing into a phenomenon,” says the film’s director, Amy Goldstein, of Span Productions in Southern California. She says it’s gone beyond fad and has become part of our culture,
“and it came about at a time when there wasn’t much real community going on — people on Facebook all the time, on a machine. Adults had kind of stopped physically playing. But then they picked up this crazy thing, this hoop, this circle, and discovered it’s inclusive. Anybody can do it and love it.”The feature-length documentary — with introduction and narration by hooper (of basketball and hula alike) Shaquille O’Neal — follows eight people over a period of six years who were inspired by hooping, including a young man who avoided suicide by “centering” himself in a meditative form of hooping, even wearing a blindfold to connect with his inner self as he let the hoop slowly revolve around his body. The film also features a woman from South Africa who found fire hooping — attaching flaming pegs to the outside of the ring — to be a centrifuge for the soul, spinning out impurities of past abuse and strife.Coming aroundIn today’s hooping circles you will find (take a deep breath to prepare for the following): hoop dance, Hoop Chi (tai chi using a hoop), street hooping, fire hooping, hooping for charities, hoop performance art at
Burning Man. There’s an annual Hoop Camp in Santa Cruz in September, an online hooping magazine, holistic hooping, hoop choreography, hoop tricks, songs and books about the hoop “revolution,” custom hoops and hoop-related businesses.There’s World Hoop Day (this year scheduled for Dec. 12, and put on by a group that donates hoops to kids around the globe). There are hoop dance competitions, the Hoopie Awards, the Hooper Hall of Fame, hoop troupes, hoop-centric communities and hooping for meditation.

And, yes, even plain-old, goofy, no-skill-required hoop jams — strictly for the fun of it, held in public parks or dance studios in the Bay Area and beyond.

You can’t be sad when you’re hooping. “It’s impossible,” says Crissy Gugler, 40, of Sunnyvale, who once taught hoop dance — performing dance moves with the hoop as a “partner” — but was so overwhelmed with requests for classes that she began steering people to other instructors. She now organizes hoop jams –
basically a bunch of people swirling hoops around their waists and/or various body parts, doing their own thing in different parks around the South Bay.

“We’ll find a spot, hope for nice weather, put on some music and jam together,” she says, calling her group The Infinite Hoopers. “Grandparents do it. Kids do it. We like to find really public-view parks where lots of people walk by and see us rocking out and having a great time, and we say ‘Come on in and try it!’ ”

Gugler also uses hooping for stress relief, and always keeps a hoop at her desk at her market research job. “If things get too frustrating, I’ll just step outside and hoop for a while,” she says.

Philo Hagen, who nine years ago cofounded the online magazine Hooping.org, now manages the site as his full-time job and says the humble act of hooping has changed lives, including his own. He also helped found Bay Area Hoopers, which is still going strong, holding hoop jams at different locations in San Francisco every Sunday.

Roundabout joy

“People are picking up a plastic ring and finding joy, especially in a time when there doesn’t seem to be a lot of that around,” he says. Hagen, 47, now based in Los Angeles, got hooked on the hoop when he lived
in the Oakland hills. “This guy at a party had these large adult-sized hoops. I got grooving to the music, and I literally realized my head had shut up and I was having the time of my life,” he says.

“Some people hoop for fitness — I’ve lost 40 pounds doing it myself. Some just to rock out. And for some, it’s a very centering experience. I’ve found it quite phenomenal for meditating, grounding myself and getting back in my own rotation. There are so many elements. You get people from the 40-year-old
housewife doing it for exercise, to the punk rock kid who wants to throw it down, to the hippie chick who wants to meditate to the groove. It crosses all walks of life.”

Hooping, specifically hoop dance, has a circuitous history with roots in Native American storytelling, then re-emerging as Wham-O’s Hula Hoop craze of the mid-20th century.

The modern hooping trend is said to have begun at underground shows and raves where bands would toss hoops into the crowd to get people moving, Goldstein said. It then took off in performance art and exercise, and even made it to the hips of first lady Michelle Obama, who was seen hooping away on the White House
lawn as part of her health and fitness campaign.

There were indeed some trademark tussles when folks first started talking about “hula” hooping, Hagen said, but those have since faded away as most hoopers began crafting their own hoops out of irrigation tubing. And they’re usually bigger than the kid’s version. Oddly enough, the bigger and heavier the
hoop, the slower it moves and the easier it is to keep it going. On a recent Monday night, hoop dance instructor Betty Lucas, of Alameda, twirls in and out of her custom hoop in a graceful perpetual motion, leading a hoop dance class in a studio at Rhythmix.

By Angela Hill of Oakland, Tribune, mercurynews.com, Posted: 03/14/2012 02:22:08 PM PDT, March 18, 2012 9:19 AM GMT, Updated: 03/18/2012 02:19:27 AM PDT

“OK, transition into the egg beater, then the butterfly,” she tells her dance class of several women as the voice of Sheryl Crow croons, “A change’ll do you good.”

“Now orbit, orbit, orbit,” Lucas says. “Then into elevator. Bring it down. Bring it back up. Feel that work out in your core. Feel that joy in your spirit.”

Now in her late 50s, Lucas said she discovered hoop dance several years ago when she was diagnosed with osteoporosis and had to stop long-distance running. She found the hoop to be a fun strengthening exercise. Then she turned it into her own worldwide business, not only teaching hoop dance and Hoop Chi (her
invention of a hooping form of tai chi with slow, meditative movements), but training Hoop Chi instructors as far away as the Indonesian island of Bali.

In Monday’s class, hoops wrapped with neon-colored strips swayed around students’ hips, and up over shoulders, swirling around necks, knees and the occasional foot — and sometimes smacking down to the floor and rolling across the room.

“Don’t worry about that,” Lucas announces with a grin. “Chasing them and picking them up is part of the exercise.”

Hoop Camp Presenter and tickets

AnnieO — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:17:06 +0000

Greetings Hoopers,
I have been chosen to present a workshop at Hoopcamp 2012- Movin & Groovin. This is the fifth year of Hoopcamp gatherings and we’re going to celebrate in a big way. When registering, please use my first name (Annie) as a Presenter Referral and this promo code: HOOPSFREE to be entered into a drawing for a free Camping Package companion ticket to Hoopcamp.

Bring a friend for free, or split the costs with them!

Drawing to be held on July 26th, 2012.
Come share your magic at Hoopcamp this year!

Buy your special tickets here. Enter Annie as your presenter name.

WHD Dance seeks Composer

AnnieO — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:07:30 +0000

World Hoop Day’s Dance choreographer is looking for musicians, bands, DJs, composers to create an original piece for the 2012 dance. We need to maintain licensing rights so You-know-who-Tube won’t remove our footage. Serious musicians send links only with songs to annie at worldhoopday dot com.

This is a volunteer opportunity for your music to heard by and danced to by thousands of hoopers around the world. The video featuring your track will also be submitted to One Day On Earth documentary and put in their next movie for 2013 release. No emails with mp3s or attachments will be opened. Thanks.

First event for 12/12/12 WHD

AnnieO — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:19:20 +0000

Jaguar Mary contacted me recently to tell me about her plans for this year’s World Hoop Day event. In Sedona, Arizona from December 10-15, 2012, Sacred Circularities will be hosting a hoop retreat. $25 from every ticket purchased will be donated to World Hoop Day. In addition, there will be scholarship tickets available and we will auction one ticket at Hoop Camp.

The theme for this event is Creation and will bring you the following amazing teachers: Beth Lavinder, Jocelyn Gordon, Julia Hartsell, KaRa Maria Ananda, Khan Wong, Malcolm Stuart, Rainbow Michael, Revolva, Jaguar Mary and more.

U of Georgia students bring hoops to campus

AnnieO — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 19:57:32 +0000

Rebecca Lindner is a senior at The University of Georgia. She has taken it upon herself with some friends to bring hoops to the campus at the Tate Center. Her plan is to raise funds and awareness about World Hoop Day. Everyone who comes are informed of our mission. They also bring hoops so that other people can try them out. In addition, the UGA hoopers are making hoops to sell and up to 50% of the profits are being donated to World Hoop Day.

Bay Area Hooping Life Screening

AnnieO — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:53:47 +0000

The city of Alameda will be the first city in the state of California to premier this film!
THE HOOPING LIFE MOVIE COMES TO ALAMEDA PREMIERES AT RHYTHMIX CULTURAL WORKS – 2513 BLANDING AVE ON MARCH 24, at 7pm (doors open at 6:30pm)

Brought to you by LUCASHOOPING at RHYTHMIX

“You will see masters of the hula-hoop like you’ve never seen before. The sensation is back!” – Shaquille O’Neal

Alameda, CA: THE HOOPING LIFE, a one-hour documentary that invites you into the making of a cultural phenomenon that unabashedly loves something dopey, will be premiering March 24, 2012 at 6:30 pm at Rhythmix Cultural Works, sponsored by LucasHooping with additional support from Rhythmix and CherryHoops. There will be live performances, the movie screening and a hoop jam.

Much like break dancing and skateboarding, the modern-day hula-hooping subculture brings people together. “Hoopers” i.e. someone who lives to hula-hoop, have brought hooping to rough neighborhoods giving kids a chance at being kids; they practice hoop meditation to lift depression; and fire-hoop to heal trauma.

The film follows eight individuals over eight years, from Johannesburg to South Central California who create a hooping movement that’s vibrant, edgy and infectious. Hooper Shaquille O’Neal and 50s hoop-maker Art Linkletter introduce these interconnected stories.

“In THE HOOPING LIFE, real life is more fantastic than anything I could have scripted,” says veteran Producer-Director Amy Goldstein. “If something invigorates your soul, you’ve got to give it your all. Many hoopers are surviving these times as hopeful entrepreneurs, teachers and performers with a more colorful life that they ever imagined. THE HOOPING LIFE is an entrepreneur’s guide to happiness.”

THE HOOPING LIFE is being released worldwide via community-organized screenings only starting January 2012. Alameda’s Rhythmix Cultural Works is the first city in California to premier this movie, sponsored by local hoop dance instructor, Betty Lucas, of LUCASHOOPING.

Live Performance, Film, Hoop Jam:
6:30pm, Doors open, concessions available
7:00pm, Live Hoop performance by featured artist Tisha Marina
7:30pm, Film The Hooping Life
8:40pm, Hoop Jam & Hoop Electric Slide fun (until 10pm)

Ongoing Events at Rhythmix: LucasHooping Hoop Classes, every Monday Night, 6:30pm.

First Saturday of October from 2013 to Infinity

AnnieO — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:53:39 +0000

You hoopers are amazing! We had quite a few requests for warm weather in the northern hemisphere. I wish I could control the weather, but I can’t. One hooper wanted 10/10 because it is her birthday, but all in all, majority rules and we all want to hoop on Saturday. October is a perfect month. Here’s why:

1. It’s after Labor Day and Burning Man and Hoop Camp, which all take place in September.

2. It’s after school has begun and people are ready to learn again.

3. It’s on a Saturday, in the lovely autumn when you can make hoops the colors of the changing leaves.

4. It’s before any major international holidays.

5. October is a 10 – a person and a hoop. If you look at things like many of us do.

So here are the dates for 2012 through 2020. Love to you all.

Wed 12/12/12

The first Saturday of October:

10/5/13

10/4/14

10/3/15

10/1/16

10/7/17

10/6/18

10/5/19

10/3/20

World Hoop Dates 2013 – Vote!

Pixie — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:56:32 +0000

2013, 2014, 20l15… 3013, 3014, 3015… World Hoop Day until the end of time. We have no idea how the seasons will shift with planetary changes, if they do. We also do not know what major events will happen that will take away from or add to World Hoop Day. What I do know is that the world needs us as long as we are giving back, loving, providing joy, healing lives and paying it forward.

So here are the top suggestions for the date. Please respect the whole planet. You never know if you will be moving to South America, South Africa or New South Wales. Also, consider the January dates very carefully, since 12/12/12 is the next one, do we really want a WHD one month later and indoors unless you live south of the equator? March 14 is Pi Day, and also Albert Einstein’s birthday. Coincidence? Well, it’s also cold in most of the northern hemisphere. 8/8 is when all of Europe goes on vacation and people aren’t really planning big events. October is autumn and spring. People are returning to school, ready to learn to tricks, skills, work-outs and though, in 2016, if 10/10 wins, we will have to share that date with Canada’s Thanksgiving. We could always make it the first Saturday of October and the date will change, but it will always be a Saturday in nice weather and well, it has 2 hoops next to 2 people.

So vote. Please vote for your favorite choice once and one time only. We have powers that block you from multiple voting anyway. The polls end on 12/10 and I will announce the future dates of World Hoop Day on 12/12/11. Thank you for your time.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

2013 Dates

AnnieO — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:45:34 +0000

Thank you all for the influx of great dates. You have sent Equinoxes, intl Peace day, Ides of March, your birthday, lots of 1/3 and 1/4 and 1/5— and 10/10 and 8/8. There is such diversity.

I truly appreciate the time and thoughts put into this! I’m so grateful that you are giving WHD 2013 some deep thought. A splendid soul even gave ne dates through 2049.

Keep ‘em coming and I’m going to Spreadsheet tally them and let the world vote very soon. Mean time Happy Thanksgiving Prep. Love ya, Annie O

Let’s Choose a 2013 WHDate

AnnieO — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:47:24 +0000

For 5 years we have celebrated World Hoop Day on very special tri-numeral dates. Starting with 7/7/7 and continuing through to 12/12/12, the magic of numbers has spun a portal to another world. A real world, made possible by every one of you. Since the beginning, people have come up to me and asked me what about 2013? You have also been getting that question and don’t know what to say. Well, it’s time to decide together.

For the next week, I am asking you to submit your ideal date choice for 2013 and beyond. Think globally. Spring and Fall are equally pleasant seasons and opposite on either side of the globe. While summer may be a great time to hoop outside, it’s only fabulous in one hemisphere. Some suggestions I have already been given are 3.14 for Pi. Also, I’ve been asked to make it 1/3/13 and 1/4/14 and so on. Others have suggested two WHDays a year, summer for both sides of the planet. Still more suggestions are the 2nd Saturday of one month and 1/13/13 and then 2/14/14.

Think about it, but don’t think too much and send me your ideas. By 11/21/12, we will tally the top five suggestions and have a vote. The final dates will be revealed on 12/12/11. Yes I love numbers and there is a reason a circle is infinitely 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288….

UPDATE:
Thank you all for your thoughtful submissions!
We are preparing for the final voting process and will keep you posted.