Bustin' A New Move
I'm not the greatest dancer, but my hoop is a spectacular dance partner. I don't think I ever really understood expressive movement until I started hooping. The presentation can still elude me from time to time, but these days it seems pretty on point. I feel as if skilled expressive movement comes in plateaus. I'll have long bouts of stagnation where I feel as if I'll never learn anything new, then suddenly I'll learn sevarel new tricks or combos in a row.
A man dancing with a hula hoop was the first plateau for me. It didn't take much though; theres something about hooping that is inherently fun. I watched my then roommate Lara hoop to her favorite music and decided that it was something I would try. However in a typical male fashion I decide that if I am going to play with something as "girly" as a hoop, I'd better at least try to make it look masculine. My first attempts at hooping never actually involved me hooping around the waist. Always off the body movements incorporating lots of arm work and throws. It took me a while to get comfortable with hooping on my body.
Then I found that I couldn't just let go and hoop. I had a bit of a techy, or really trick based style. Flow was not one of the most important things to me. Learning and becoming comfortable with each "trick" was all I could focus on. I felt proficient at many tricks but could not link them well or really flow.
Realizing that I needed something diffrent I began to hoop around my body more and dance around. After a while I found my flow was improving and I was able to smoothly incorporate diffrent tricks into my dance. Recently though I have been climbing out of a period of stagnation. Inspired mostly by my new color changing hoop, I have been working on a new (to me) style of hooping incoorporating very slowly isolated hoop movements and large dramatic body movements. Its been fun trying to find new ways for my body to move and interact with the hoop.
I keep growing with the hoop and it keeps growing on me. More people need to experience the joy of hooping. I encourage you to gift at least three people this season with a little time with your hoop. Let them experience the joy of hooping. You'll be rewarded with the smiles on thier faces.
