healthy living » fitness

ANUSARA STUDIO & SPA

DYNAMIC ANATOMY WORKSHOP

SERIES with Deane Juhan
1 workshop a month • YK Berkeley

IMMERSION
with Katchie Ananda
Begins October 2 • YK Berkeley

TEACHER TRAININg
HOOPful Thinking
with Sianna Sherman and Noah Maze By Stefana Serafina
Begins October • YK Berkeley

A
n eccentric, colorful species is claiming an ever-larger section at urban parks and music
festivals with each passing season. Hula-hoop aficionados, commonly known as “hoopers,”
and their shiny circular toys are spreading hoop fever with the speed of an epidemic.
Hoopers aren’t exactly the new kids on the block. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians made hoops
from wood or grapevines, and American Indians used them in ritual dance and storytelling for
SEANE CORN millennia before toymaker Wham-O sold more than 100 million plastic ones during the craze
Detox Yoga Flow: Purification for
R of the ’50s. In this latest remarkable renaissance, the hula hoop hasn’t come a full 360. This time
around, the fad has taken off in a different direction, sparking a new dance form and giving birth to
Optimal Health and Wellness
a vast subculture with its own credo, forums, celebrities, vernacular, and gatherings. The master-
October 15 - 17 ful spinning of the hoop on the shoulders, neck, or knees that seemed revolutionary a few years
back has now evolved into an elaborate dance style in which the hoop changes planes, manipulates
space, bounces, gets tossed, and travels miraculous orbits in skillful hands. Off-body hooping, iso-
lations, isopops, and breaks are only some of the concepts that make up the complex language of
hooping. With their dizzying numbers and their novel ways to move with the hoop, modern-day
hoopers are causing heads to spin and worlds to shift.
Summer Discounts
$8 daytime classes in SF June - July Hooping it Up
First class free with this ad Much like being a graffiti artist or a skater, to be a hooper is more than being someone who likes to
rock the hoop. It is an identity, a belonging, a way of life.
California’s Premier Anusara Yoga Studios Film director Amy Goldstein has documented that way of life in a recently released feature-
length documentary called The Hooping Life. The film follows the adventures of several young
YK San Francisco YK Berkeley mavericks transformed by their passion for hooping and their struggle to make it a full-time job.
3030a 16th Street 1700 Shattuck Ave.
415.934.0000 510.486.0264 The film weaves the intimate real-life stories of its stars (modern hoop dance pioneer Anah “Hoo-
palicious” Reichenbach of LA, the Bay Area’s dazzling Christabel “HoopGirl” Zamor, and Baxter
2008 BEST YOgA STUDIO of North Carolina, among others) with top-quality hoop dance from the world’s club scene. The
- SF WEEKLY result, Goldstein says, is a “universal story of risking it all to dance to the beat of your own drum.”
www.YogaKula.com “When I started filming in 2004, hooping was mainly seen at music festivals and nightclubs,”

32  june 2010

she recalls. “There are now close to two mil-
lion results on Google for ‘hooping’ and ‘hula
hoop,’ hundreds of thousands of YouTube
videos about hoop moves and hoop making,
thousands of Facebook groups, and websites
from around the world.”
It’s difficult to say what kindled the contem-
porary obsession with hooping that has now
spread far beyond the U.S., conquering cities
like Sydney, Tokyo, and London. The Colora-
do-based band The String Cheese Incident is
widely credited for spurring the revival of the
hoop in the U.S. In the ’90s, band members be-
gan throwing hoops into the audience to bet-
ter engage fans during concerts. “People would
grab the hoops and start spinning. It just made
the experience so much more fun,” remem-
bers Shakti Sunfire, who admits she was one
of the band’s “biggest groupies.” Recognized
today as a topnotch hoop performer, Shakti
rediscovered the hoop in 2007 while working
as a brand consultant in Denver. Within six
months, Shakti (known at the time as Laura
Blakeman) quit her corporate gig to establish
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a small hoop business and turn up the volume

on the “community hoop buzz.” For more information please visit www.vedikaglobal.org
“Hooping has given us the opportunity for Join our online Sangha on for up to date event notifications.
unique self-expression, but also for radical
Vedika Global, Inc. 5950 Doyle St, Studio 2, Emeryville, California 94608 | tel. 1-877-708-3342 ext.14 | info@vedikaglobal.org
self-acceptance. It has been our unique way Vedika Global Inc. is a 501(c)(3), not-for-profit organization
of embracing the evolution of our surround-
ings, a way of saying we’re sick of the corporate
structure, the retirement plans, the processed
food, and fear-based society. It is a tool for our
empowerment against all of that.”
Shakti recently moved to San Francisco,
joining a wave of popular hoop dancers who
have relocated to the Bay Area. An established
international hooping hub, the bay is home to
one of the largest hooper communities, doz-
ens of hoop businesses and instructors, and
nonprofits like World Hoop Day, which brings
hoops to children in inner cities and poor coun-
tries around the world. The Bay Area Hoopers,
a group that throws weekly hoop jams in urban www.genatural.com | 1966 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Fairfax | 415-454-0123
parks, turned seven this spring, with a soaring
membership of more than 600.
As hooping claims new ground as an ex-
pressive art form, there comes a deepening in
its exploration. Kandice Kower-Kaus, “holis-
tic hoopologist,” also studies and teaches the
hoop’s potential as a tool for personal trans- B al a n ce d R o ck . o rg
formation.
“I noticed how I would pick up my hoop
whenever I was sad or felt stressed, and sud-
denly I felt well again,” she says. Her previous
studies in psychology and philosophy came in
handy when researching the “profound and
lasting physical and spiritual benefits” of hoop
dance. “Once you begin to understand the
hoop’s movements and become one with its Hiking Yoga Meditation Custom Retreats in Yosemite National Park

COMMOnGROunDMAG.COM  33
 flow, your hoop practice uplifts your spirit, it
raises your vibration so your aura shifts, and
you become more ‘in tune’ with your inner
rhythms. The hoop operates as a portal, a cata-
lyst for transforming energy.”

An Expanding Circle
Having multiplied exponentially in the last
couple of years, hoopers now have their own
version of the Oscars, the annual “Hoopies,”
awarded virtually by voters on Hooping.org.
A platform for everything hoop, the online
community is an enormous endeavor, drawing
thousands of visitors daily.
“I think hooping is expanding to the degree
that the glamour is wearing off and we’re look-
ing at innovation,” says Brecken Rivara, voted
Female Hooper of 2010. One of the bravest in-
novators in hoop dance, Rivara, also a recent
transplant to the Bay Area, is stunned by the
speedy expansion of the community. “I think
all of us are sort of scratching our heads, won-
dering how we landed on this little blip. There’s
urgency there, as well as excitement. So we’re
all sort of grappling with something both eter-
nal and socially significant.”
Rich Porter, the 2010 winner of the Male
Hooper prize, also emphasizes community
when pondering his success.
“People instinctively feel whether someone
is being open, and I’ve tried hard to remain
completely transparent,” he says. “I’m sharing
my influences openly and, through that, I have
an influence on the direction of hooping as a
whole. It’s different than running a company,
where profit is a necessity and a sense of pro-
tection is required. I don’t have ‘secret weapon’
moves or hoops. If I find something that I val-
ue, I immediately share it with the community,
with as little sense of ownership as I can.”
At the brink of summer, with music festi-
vals opening long-awaited dance grounds, the
hooping life proves particularly alluring, and
more newbie enthusiasts are tempted by the
hoop. “Community” seems to be the magic
word in the lives of hoopers.
“It’s simple,” says teacher and performer Miss
Rosie. “More people join with hoops every day
because they want to move and experience
their bodies in a new way. Hooping initiates
conversation — everybody has a story about
hoops and hooping. And through movement
and conversation, people find community.”
How to Join the Hoop Mania
The Bay Area Hoopers is an all-inclusive group
of hoop enthusiasts who gather every Sunday
in locations announced weekly to “crank up the
tunes and hoop it up.”
To join the crew, visit groups.yahoo.com/
group/bah/ or find the group on Facebook:
facebook.com/group.php?gid=62075620452.
Learn unexpected ways to flow with the hoop
or buy hoops at one of the many Bay Area hot
spots.
SAN FRANCISCO
Hero Hoops: High-energy hoop dance classes
and teacher trainings. HeroHoops.com
Hoop the Flow: Affordable hoop dance classes
focusing on conscious movement and self-
expression. HoopTheFlow.com
MARIN
HoopGirl: Helping millions of people discover
hoop dance as a path to fitness, joy, and well-
being. Also offering classes in San Francisco.
HoopGirl.com
EAST BAY
Cherry Hoops: Berkeley/Emeryville. Fun hoop
dance classes. CherryHoops.com
Starlight Hoops: Livermore. Basic hooping
techniques. StarlightHoops.com
SANTA ROSA
Holistic Hooping: Classes and hoops for health
and happiness. HolisticHooping.com
NATIONWIDE
Hoop Technique: A cutting-edge hoop dance
instructional project by Spiral and Rich Porter.
HoopTechnique.com

Stefana Serafina is a San Franciso–based writ-
er and the founder of Hoop the Flow, a com-
munity hoop dance school teaching hoop dance
as a way of deepening the relationship between
conscious body movement, physical fitness, and
mind wellness.
Want To Make Your Own Hoop?
Easy to follow, step-by-step instructions.
JasonUnbound.com/hoops.html
Watch The Hooping Life trailer.
TheHoopingLife.com

34  june 2010