New Class Session Starting June 30!

Starting Tuesday, June 30 6:30-7:30pm I will be offering the Hoopgirl Beginner Workout at Contradiction Dance. This class is suitable for all ages! The class will be 8 weeks long and will cost $104. You can register here: http://summeradult.eventbrite.com/

WHAT IS THE HOOPGIRL® WORKOUT?
The HoopGirl® Workout is feel-good fitness! Learn to hoop on your torso, arms, legs, and off body in elaborate arcs, spins and jumps. Hoopdance can help you feel full of confidence, inner radiance, power and poise. Explore pleasure as your primary motivation for movement. You learn how to navigate using feeling instead of sight or thought -- becoming responsive, breathing deeply, and creating fluid transitions. Special attention is given to micromovements of the body, working with the downbeat, freeing the head, unleashing your own style. Guidance for performance given throughout class. Free yourself in ecstatic undulation, experiment with vocal release, and express attitude and spunk! Team-building activities build a sense of community and create laughter. Performance opportunities allow us each to shine and feel appreciation and joy. A variety of music -- from electronic house music, R&B to classical and world music will provide a rich tapestry of sound for your dance.

What is covered in the HoopGirl® Workout for Beginners?
No experience neccessary! The extended class time in this series allows for lots of one-on-one attention and detailed instruction. You will explore dancing while hooping, with ample time to master moves. Each day is devoted to increasing awareness in a different part of the body while working with a specific principle of hoopdance.

Bring your Hoop Day at Artomatic!

I just received some bad news about our planned fire performance at Artomatic. . . the powers that be have deemed that there will be no fire at Artomatic tonight. While this is disappointing, it does not derail our plans for an awesome performance, especially since the cornerstone of the act tonight involved a 10-person hoop routine featuring many awesome people from our community (including a few that may surprise you). We had also planned to pepper the fire performances with LED and regular hoop performance anyway. To fill the other time in our two hour performance slot, I am declaring tonight BRING your HOOP to Artomatic day. After our planned performances we can have a good ol' fashioned hoop jam in front of Artomatic.

We will be hooping from 9-11. Hope to see you there!

PS If you are dying for fire dance, I would go to the Tilted Torch at the Palace of Wonders tonight. Awesome performers lined up!
PPS I will post tomorrow an update about fire for tomorrow. But you shouldn't miss Artomatic tomorrow. . . Flush Gordon vs. The Criminal Union of Nefarious Treachery at 10:30 and more hoops and hopefully fire from 8-10.
PPS Final hoop classes at Contradiction Dance until June 29 Sunday at 3:30pm and a special class on Tuesday at 6:30pm

Final Weirdo Show at the Palace of Wonders

(Photo from May 2 Tilted Torch Show at Palace)

It is a great honor to be sharing the stage at the Palace of Wonders tomorrow with so many amazing DC performers, including the amazing Malibu (who I will be doing a fun choreographed number with). I also participate with something of a heavy heart since I am sad that the Weirdo Show will be ending. Professor Sprocket has been hugely supportive of my performance endeavors since I arrived in DC and I look forward to seeing his new projects develop.

So come one and all to the FINAL Weirdo Show and check out Malibu and Surprise! with our special show closer number.

Demo a Success!

At noon today I taught a Demo at Thomas Circle Sports Club and it was really fun. The students all picked up the moves really easily and had wonderful attitudes about picking up the hoop. There was even an experienced hooper in the room! It was fun for me to see that my classes really do translate well into the fitness setting. It was also awesome to see that a few people would venture out on their lunch hour to take a class. I would like to teach more classes during the week days since my evenings and weekend days fill-up so quickly. I can really see the benefit of taking a break during the day to get moving and hooping. When I think of how great hooping feels, it is clear that a mid-day session could have the power to transform the entire rest of your day!

I would love ideas about other gyms or locations that might work well for lunchtime classes.

I wanted to share this fantastic picture from the Tilted Torch at the Palace of Wonders on May 2, 2009. The theme was "Bipolar" so during the first set we were sweet and during the second we were evil. This is from the evil set.

Converging at the Hoop Convergence

Wow, what an awesome weekend! It is very rare where I can go to a movement class and learn something new in every single class. I can't wait to share tons of new tricks. Also, I have a new obsession. . . MINI HOOPS.

Connecting with hoopers from all over the place was amazing, but connecting more deeply with our local hoop crew was a definite highlight for me. My friends Michele and Brecken are quickly turning into international hoop celebrities. It has been a true honor to watch them progress and grow into their mind blowing and unique hoop styles and recieve the recognition that they deserve. It was also a pleasure to see local hoop teacher Jocelyn Gordon play a key role in grounding out the conference with her peaceful and loving meditation and yoga, I deeply admire her energy and have deep gratitude towards this energy (it recently got me through a successful film shooting). It was also awesome to share space with local hoopstars Noelle, Shanna, Beth, Max, Jaguer Mary, and Tina B. were just plain fun to hang out with and hoop with and I was so proud to know such an amazing crew and consider them my peeps.

The best part is that we all left the Convergence, with a renewed excitement to hoop more together and to collaborate more deeply.

This weekend there are two fun opportunities to hoop together. On Saturday a group is meeting at the Tidal Basin at 5:00pm and on Sunday a group is meeting at Malcolm X Park at 5ish to rock out the drum circle. I will be at Malcolm X and I hope to see you there!

T-shirts have arrived!!

Yay! I picked up the t-shirts yesterday and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! I am offering $5 off through the Hoop Convergence. Email me if you want one: info@surprisehoops.com

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE A BIGGER VIEW.

Design 1 DC Hoopin'

Medium Camo Tank $25 (feels more like a Small)















DC Hoopin' Eggplant Style Dress Tank in either PINK or LIME GREEN available in Small, Medium, Large $35















DESIGN 2: Hoop Zen Dancing with the Cosmic Flow of the Universe
Available in Women Black Tank Small, Medium, Large or Men's Large T-shirt $25

Going blind

Yesterday morning I listened to a Dharma Talk Podcast by Tara Brach, a Buddhist meditation teacher here in DC that I have recently been turned on to. In the talk she was discussing how frequently our intentions are narrowly focused and self serving and the importance of being more expansive in our intention setting. I started thinking about how this applied to the practice of hooping, so frequently in class we are focused on learning new tricks and we are also very concerned about how we look and how we are performing.

Hoopdance can be an incredible connective and performance oriented experience, but it can also be an internal and meditative experience.

I am mentally gearing up for the Hoop Convergence a meet-up of some of the most incredible hoopers from across the country this weekend. In this setting, it is easy to be awed by the grace and talents of others. And I must admit that surrounded by such gorgeous and talented beings, sometimes I struggle with insecurities about my own skill, or appearance, or grace.

Reflecting on this, I decided that it was a good class to explore blindfolded hooping in my class to encourage my students to deepen their internal practice. Blindfolded hooping was first introduced to me by my hooping "guru" Jonathan Baxter.

Whenever I go blind, at first I feel a little tentative, but then slowly the world starts to dissolve and I am left with the sensation of the hoop making contact with my body and the feeling of the motion, velocity and gravity of the dance. I no longer care how I look, I get lost in the motion and the feeling of sincerely experiencing the NOW.

In my class, I took extra time to set intention for the practice and then I provided a safe space for students to go blind and then served as a guide to facilitate stretching, breathing, and releasing into the flow of the hoop. It was beautiful to watch as the dance went from tentative to full on release into the darkness and the moving meditation. The whole experience was beautiful and I am going to work on integrating this approach even more into my teaching style.