Tilted Torch presents Bipolar Show at the POW FRIDAY

I have spent most of today working on my routines for the inaugural Tilted Torch show at the Palace of Wonders on Friday evening. I am honored to be sharing the stage with DC legends of burlesque and fire dance. Mwah hahahahaha tee hee

Synchronized Hoop Dance

Hoop Wear

I am excited to announce that I have teamed up with a local artist and hoop enthusiast, Joel Traylor III to create some fun hoop related t-shirts and I wanted to give you an advanced preview of the designs. I have just placed an order and they should be ready to rock by the Hoop Convergence (May 8-10). If you are interested in one, I am giving $5 off if ordered before the Hoop Covergence. I have a special vision of a mass of DC hoopers showing off our pride by rocking out the DC themed shirt.

Design 1: DC Hoopin' ($35 or $30 before the Convergence) available in S, M, L on long camisole style tank in eggplant. I am currently only creating a womens version of this shirt unless there is significant male interest.

I'm still trying to decide what color to print lime green, white, gray, blue, decisions decisions. Any ideas?

Design #2 Hoop Zen ($25 or $20 before Hoop Convergence) Available in womens style tank S,M,L or as mens shirt L

Hooping with kids. . .

A few weeks ago I was asked by Left Noodle Right Noodle to teach hooping to 50 kindergarten and first graders during spring break. I have to admit that i was a little terrified because I hadn't really worked with kids since my adventures in baby sitting in high school.

I loosely planned out about an hours worth of instruction and games, but I planned to just roll with whatever happened since I had been told that kids have very short attention spans. The kids were a true delight to work with. Some of the kids really wanted to learn how to hoop and were like sponges, picking up and retaining the tricks very quickly! Other kids didn't pick it up quite as fast, but they all seemed to have a lot of fun.

In trying to find the right audience for my classes at Contradiction Dance, we recently decide to make my Monday night class a mixed ages class. Tonight was the first test, I had a mother, daughter duo come to class. The daughter was probably in her teens so it felt way more like teaching an adult than teaching first graders. She was actually quite impressive, she picked up the tricks very easily, while her Mom attempted the moves with great cheer. Both of them had great attitudes and were fun to teach. In typical teen fashion, the teen did most of her hooping with her arms crossed in front of her. She rolled her eyes when I suggested that she bring her arms into it and we all had a good laugh! I am feeling great about bringing new ages into the class and who knows maybe this will be a fun bonding experience for parents and kids.

The Film Shoot

I recently filmed a Hoop Class for Arlington Independent Media with my friends Max and Jocelyn. It was a bit of a grueling afternoon, with several retakes. I kept fumbling a little bit with the lines, but everyone was so patient and kind to me! I can't believe that the whole operation was run by volunteers. The camera operators were so sweet and helpful. One of the camera operators, Dan Rosenstein even took some great pictures so that I could add them to my blog and website.

I am not sure yet what the air date will be, hopefully we can have a viewing party.

The Business of Hoopin'

In November the universe surprised me with a test of the "When one door closes, another opens" phenomena. On Wednesday, I found out that I was being laid off from my "real" job and on Thursday I got a call from a dance studio looking for a hoop teacher. Since November, I have been teaching classes and workshops at Contradiction Dance in Takoma Park and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am still trying to figure out how to earn a real living from it, but the reward has truly been a shift within myself as I've gained confidence as a teacher, and the pleasure derived from watching students go from doubting themselves to becoming beautiful hoop dancers.

The biggest block to a students learning seems to be in their own views of themselves. That is, trying to get students to set aside the "I can't hoop" mentality that they enter the first class with. I know that I struggled with this as well and reading through these old posts on the blog is a hard reminder of the process that I went through to teach myself how to think more positively about myself, my talents and my progress. (Sometimes I still struggle with this).

The skill of conscious and positive thinking is something that I am getting better and better at as I have been practicing it for more than two years now!! And now with the development of my new business it is being put to new tests. But so far I am seeing huge rewards! New ideas, opportunities, performances, and business offers are coming to me nearly every day. My confidence is growing exponentially as I continually see the turn of investment of my thoughts and dreams becoming realities!