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| Hooposophy articles are written by Superhooper.org's Lara Eastburn All Rights Reserved |
All Hooposophy Articles
Don't miss a beat.
Hooposophy (Hoop-ah-seh-fee) is updated weekly with articles designed to help you expand and hone
your unique hooping style. Visit often for hard-hitting questions to ask yourself about your hooping,
outside-of-the-box hooping exercises, and reflections on our growing relationship, as individuals and as a
community, with the most ancient symbol known to humankind -- the circle.
Don't miss a beat.
Hooposophy (Hoop-ah-seh-fee) is updated weekly with articles designed to help you expand and hone
your unique hooping style. Visit often for hard-hitting questions to ask yourself about your hooping,
outside-of-the-box hooping exercises, and reflections on our growing relationship, as individuals and as a
community, with the most ancient symbol known to humankind -- the circle.
August 2010
Statues Can't Hoop and You Can't Hurt Jell-O: How Hoop Bruises Help Your Flow.
When we begin our hoop-journeys, it's natural to think that this giant ring of plastic requires a lot of effort on
our part to keep going. So we push. Hard. That hoop swings around and we think, "You're not falling this time,
sucka!" And thwack! We forcefully send up our hip to meet, greet, and propel that tricky devil around once more.
The Hooping Family Tree: Help Trace the Roots of Modern-Day Hooping What if we could
trace our own personal hoop family trees? Better yet, what if we could combine them into one large database,
cataloguing the spread of modern-day hooping for future generations? This week's blog entry is an invitation
to the hooping community to help me do just that.
Story-Crafting With Your Body: Weave A Tale With Your Hoop After breathing, eating, and
procreating, storytelling has since our making, held a primal position amongst our human activities. We tell
stories -- it's one of the things we humans do. And though your hooping already tells some kind of story, it is
quite another endeavor to purposefully and physically weave a tale. Join me in a Story-Crafting Challenge.
July 2010
Professor Hoop, Ph.D. How Do You Know If You're Ready to Teach? Have I been hooping
long enough? Am I good enough? Is it bad form to offer classes in the same city as a more established
teacher? Should I get certified? Have I paid my dues? While these are reasonable and important questions
to ask, they might not be the ones that get to the heart of what you're wanting to know. Here are some that do.
.
June 2010
Hooping the Other Way: Non-Dominant Direction Illusions and the Psychology of
Going Against the Grain. The vast majority of us feel that we have a dominant direction when hooping.
We picked up the hoop and our body instinctively made its preference known. Or did it? Here's why dominant
direction hooping may be the stuff of myth, legend, and illusion.
Live Blog from the 4th Hoop Path Retreat - Only on Hooposophy's Facebook page here.
Ever wondered what hoop gatherings are like? Or what it's like to take a class with a hoop star?
Here's my to-the-minute experience in Chapel Hill, NC.
A True History of the Hula Hoop. The extraordinary premise of hoop-diva Judith Lanigan's first novel
parallels the lives of two performing women whose stories, separated by 400 years, mirror and inform one
another as well as the history of feminine street performance.
May 2010
Overlapping Circles. An Invitation to Expand, Mash-Up, and Mingle Your Hoop As the
renaissance of movement arts picks up speed, we as hoopers are exposed to exciting opportunities to learn
from and collaborate with our brothers-, sisters-, and cousins-in-flow. Why not invite them into your circle or
wiggle your way into theirs!
Mother's Day Special: Hooping IS "Mothering" The upcoming weekend has got me thinking about
how to talk about hooping and "motherhood." Not just for those of us who have children or are about to have
them (Props to all our pregnant hoopers!), but also about our bodies' capacities to create ... movement, art
and Life itself.
Mad About Minis! What is it about Poi, or Mini, Hoops that has So Captured our Imaginations? In the
grand scheme of hoopy things, minis are new. They're fast. And there's two of them! Here's why I'm excited
about these new additions to our hoop toy-box and what they may change about our hooping.
April 2010
Next Stop -- The Hooping Heartland Separated by so much physical distance from the Coasts
where hooping has had years to take hold, spread, and evolve, hoopers in the Heartland have long occupied
a special place in my imagination.
Is Modern Hooping Entering A Golden Age? It's difficult to miss the excitement in the air.
Something in the hoop world is shifting, moving, and picking up incredible speed. Go ahead and dream your
biggest dreams. What do you see in our hooping future?
Where Did You Two Meet? The day you met the hoop, you began an intense and personal
relationship. The circumstances surrounding that day, and that moment, can provide you with meaningful
insight about the desires and emotions that -- just beneath the surface and whether you aware of them or not,
continue to fuel, motivate, and direct the course of your hooping.
March 2010
A Second Hoop-Honeymoon: It Turns Out Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks.
If you're a new hooper, you may not know what hooper burn-out is. It's the time that can come after what I call
the hoop-honeymoon, the time when you may find yourself sitting across from your hoop like an old married
couple, with not much to say to one another anymore.
Ding, Dong. The "Fat" Girl's Dead: This One's for the Plus-Size Hoopers and It Ain't
About Losing Weight. I'm a plus-size hooper. There it is. Whew, that wasn't hard to write as I thought it
might be. Why would it be? Because the hooping community wrestles with the image and goal of an ideal
body no less than the rest of our culture. Read the separate page of reader-comments here.
You're So Vain...You Probably Think This Blog Is About You. Forget the hoop makeover, this
week we're making over the hooper! Every once in a while dolling up the outside can go along way towards
expressing the changing hooper on the inside. It's time to shed your inhibitions and put on the glitz - you've
never indulged yourself so deliciously!
February 2010
The Dervish at the Center of Your Whirl While some might be hesitant to call our preoccupation
with what we do an obsession, only a very few of us would call our dedicated hoop-love a "hobby." In this
week's two-part series, we take a cue from the Order of the Whirling Dervishes to explore just what exactly
keeps many hoopers coming back for more. A series: Click here for Part Two!
Labyrinth Hooping: How to Hoop Your Way to a Solution In its more recent resurgence in our
culture, modern labyrinth makers have put a great deal of focus on labyrinth walking as an effective tool for
intuitive problem-solving. My own intense interest in these ancient patterns has brought me to think about how
we might borrow this idea and turn our hoops into powerful problem-solving tools
When All the World's Asleep ... A Gift You Can Give Your Hooping Tonight. My eyes lifted
from the computer screen and looked about. The street was asleep. I had a glass of wine, a pile of hoops,
and the night all to myself.
January 2010
Three Full Minutes of Hoop Bliss With Parts One and Two of this series under your belt, put what
you've learned from yourself into action by creating a narrative that is uniquely your own. Part Three of a series.
Dance Hoopless!: Putting your hoop down may change the way you pick it up next
time If you've read Part One of this series and have already put it to work, you're moving faster and thinking
less. You're beginning to understand how some hooping moves fit together and which combinations make
sense and feel good for you. Part two of a series.
One Beat Wonders: Work Smarter, Not Harder Every once in a while, does your hooping start to
feel like just an endless loop of "what trick next?" Part one of a series.
Taking Stock: Two Revealing Hoop Exercises Did you know that your "hooping body" is
inextricably linked to your "hooping mind?" Try on these parallel exercises for size and your hoopdance will
reap the rewards.
December 2009
The Path of Least Resistance: Sustained Spinning in Hooping For me, hooping on-body
while standing still feels odd and uncomfortable. It feels as if I'm fighting the hoop, providing it with an
opposite and competing force, an obstacle. In short, I'm a believer in sustained spinning. Discover what
constant turning can do for you.
A Word About "Tricks" and "Trick Hooping" The modern hooping community, it seems,
universally refers to the things we do with a hoop as "tricks." And for good reason, it would appear. Some of
the things we do can certainly be "tricky," taking multiple bruises and hours, if not months, to accomplish with
some relative ease. And frankly, it's always kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
November 2009
Who Do You Hoop For? Turning Inward Do you hoop to impress? Because if you do, it could be
the biggest obstacle there is between you and the hooping you know is in you somewhere, the obstacle
between you and the hooping that will make someone else, someday sit in awe asking themselves, "Why
can't I do that?"
Statues Can't Hoop and You Can't Hurt Jell-O: How Hoop Bruises Help Your Flow.
When we begin our hoop-journeys, it's natural to think that this giant ring of plastic requires a lot of effort on
our part to keep going. So we push. Hard. That hoop swings around and we think, "You're not falling this time,
sucka!" And thwack! We forcefully send up our hip to meet, greet, and propel that tricky devil around once more.
The Hooping Family Tree: Help Trace the Roots of Modern-Day Hooping What if we could
trace our own personal hoop family trees? Better yet, what if we could combine them into one large database,
cataloguing the spread of modern-day hooping for future generations? This week's blog entry is an invitation
to the hooping community to help me do just that.
Story-Crafting With Your Body: Weave A Tale With Your Hoop After breathing, eating, and
procreating, storytelling has since our making, held a primal position amongst our human activities. We tell
stories -- it's one of the things we humans do. And though your hooping already tells some kind of story, it is
quite another endeavor to purposefully and physically weave a tale. Join me in a Story-Crafting Challenge.
July 2010
Professor Hoop, Ph.D. How Do You Know If You're Ready to Teach? Have I been hooping
long enough? Am I good enough? Is it bad form to offer classes in the same city as a more established
teacher? Should I get certified? Have I paid my dues? While these are reasonable and important questions
to ask, they might not be the ones that get to the heart of what you're wanting to know. Here are some that do.
.
June 2010
Hooping the Other Way: Non-Dominant Direction Illusions and the Psychology of
Going Against the Grain. The vast majority of us feel that we have a dominant direction when hooping.
We picked up the hoop and our body instinctively made its preference known. Or did it? Here's why dominant
direction hooping may be the stuff of myth, legend, and illusion.
Live Blog from the 4th Hoop Path Retreat - Only on Hooposophy's Facebook page here.
Ever wondered what hoop gatherings are like? Or what it's like to take a class with a hoop star?
Here's my to-the-minute experience in Chapel Hill, NC.
A True History of the Hula Hoop. The extraordinary premise of hoop-diva Judith Lanigan's first novel
parallels the lives of two performing women whose stories, separated by 400 years, mirror and inform one
another as well as the history of feminine street performance.
May 2010
Overlapping Circles. An Invitation to Expand, Mash-Up, and Mingle Your Hoop As the
renaissance of movement arts picks up speed, we as hoopers are exposed to exciting opportunities to learn
from and collaborate with our brothers-, sisters-, and cousins-in-flow. Why not invite them into your circle or
wiggle your way into theirs!
Mother's Day Special: Hooping IS "Mothering" The upcoming weekend has got me thinking about
how to talk about hooping and "motherhood." Not just for those of us who have children or are about to have
them (Props to all our pregnant hoopers!), but also about our bodies' capacities to create ... movement, art
and Life itself.
Mad About Minis! What is it about Poi, or Mini, Hoops that has So Captured our Imaginations? In the
grand scheme of hoopy things, minis are new. They're fast. And there's two of them! Here's why I'm excited
about these new additions to our hoop toy-box and what they may change about our hooping.
April 2010
Next Stop -- The Hooping Heartland Separated by so much physical distance from the Coasts
where hooping has had years to take hold, spread, and evolve, hoopers in the Heartland have long occupied
a special place in my imagination.
Is Modern Hooping Entering A Golden Age? It's difficult to miss the excitement in the air.
Something in the hoop world is shifting, moving, and picking up incredible speed. Go ahead and dream your
biggest dreams. What do you see in our hooping future?
Where Did You Two Meet? The day you met the hoop, you began an intense and personal
relationship. The circumstances surrounding that day, and that moment, can provide you with meaningful
insight about the desires and emotions that -- just beneath the surface and whether you aware of them or not,
continue to fuel, motivate, and direct the course of your hooping.
March 2010
A Second Hoop-Honeymoon: It Turns Out Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks.
If you're a new hooper, you may not know what hooper burn-out is. It's the time that can come after what I call
the hoop-honeymoon, the time when you may find yourself sitting across from your hoop like an old married
couple, with not much to say to one another anymore.
Ding, Dong. The "Fat" Girl's Dead: This One's for the Plus-Size Hoopers and It Ain't
About Losing Weight. I'm a plus-size hooper. There it is. Whew, that wasn't hard to write as I thought it
might be. Why would it be? Because the hooping community wrestles with the image and goal of an ideal
body no less than the rest of our culture. Read the separate page of reader-comments here.
You're So Vain...You Probably Think This Blog Is About You. Forget the hoop makeover, this
week we're making over the hooper! Every once in a while dolling up the outside can go along way towards
expressing the changing hooper on the inside. It's time to shed your inhibitions and put on the glitz - you've
never indulged yourself so deliciously!
February 2010
The Dervish at the Center of Your Whirl While some might be hesitant to call our preoccupation
with what we do an obsession, only a very few of us would call our dedicated hoop-love a "hobby." In this
week's two-part series, we take a cue from the Order of the Whirling Dervishes to explore just what exactly
keeps many hoopers coming back for more. A series: Click here for Part Two!
Labyrinth Hooping: How to Hoop Your Way to a Solution In its more recent resurgence in our
culture, modern labyrinth makers have put a great deal of focus on labyrinth walking as an effective tool for
intuitive problem-solving. My own intense interest in these ancient patterns has brought me to think about how
we might borrow this idea and turn our hoops into powerful problem-solving tools
When All the World's Asleep ... A Gift You Can Give Your Hooping Tonight. My eyes lifted
from the computer screen and looked about. The street was asleep. I had a glass of wine, a pile of hoops,
and the night all to myself.
January 2010
Three Full Minutes of Hoop Bliss With Parts One and Two of this series under your belt, put what
you've learned from yourself into action by creating a narrative that is uniquely your own. Part Three of a series.
Dance Hoopless!: Putting your hoop down may change the way you pick it up next
time If you've read Part One of this series and have already put it to work, you're moving faster and thinking
less. You're beginning to understand how some hooping moves fit together and which combinations make
sense and feel good for you. Part two of a series.
One Beat Wonders: Work Smarter, Not Harder Every once in a while, does your hooping start to
feel like just an endless loop of "what trick next?" Part one of a series.
Taking Stock: Two Revealing Hoop Exercises Did you know that your "hooping body" is
inextricably linked to your "hooping mind?" Try on these parallel exercises for size and your hoopdance will
reap the rewards.
December 2009
The Path of Least Resistance: Sustained Spinning in Hooping For me, hooping on-body
while standing still feels odd and uncomfortable. It feels as if I'm fighting the hoop, providing it with an
opposite and competing force, an obstacle. In short, I'm a believer in sustained spinning. Discover what
constant turning can do for you.
A Word About "Tricks" and "Trick Hooping" The modern hooping community, it seems,
universally refers to the things we do with a hoop as "tricks." And for good reason, it would appear. Some of
the things we do can certainly be "tricky," taking multiple bruises and hours, if not months, to accomplish with
some relative ease. And frankly, it's always kind of rubbed me the wrong way.
November 2009
Who Do You Hoop For? Turning Inward Do you hoop to impress? Because if you do, it could be
the biggest obstacle there is between you and the hooping you know is in you somewhere, the obstacle
between you and the hooping that will make someone else, someday sit in awe asking themselves, "Why
can't I do that?"
| Get Updated When We Publish A New Article Click here to put Hooposophy in your Facebook feed Click here to Join the Discussion on our Hooping.org Forums! |
| Looking for more serious writing about Hooping? |
| Yearn for other hooping blogs that offer more than an event calendar and the last trick they learned? Here are our picks. |
isopop Rich Porter authors this
frequently-updated blog. He is
always thinking about hooping
and, lucky for us, he shares those
thoughts with us!
frequently-updated blog. He is
always thinking about hooping
and, lucky for us, he shares those
thoughts with us!
Hoop Path You will have to scroll
through details of Hoop Path
events, but there are real gems to
be found here. Look for Ann
Humphrey's story and an exquisite
narrative about hoops and religion
from an anonymous Hoop Pather.
through details of Hoop Path
events, but there are real gems to
be found here. Look for Ann
Humphrey's story and an exquisite
narrative about hoops and religion
from an anonymous Hoop Pather.
The Happy Hoop Join Sara
Janssen, traveler and mistress
blogger as she records the ins and
outs of her hoop journey from the
beginning.
Janssen, traveler and mistress
blogger as she records the ins and
outs of her hoop journey from the
beginning.
hooping.org Define "blog" as
you will, but if it's going on in
hooping, you'll find it daily at
hooping's online news
headquarters. Philo keeps us all in
the know about where we're
headed as a hooping community.
you will, but if it's going on in
hooping, you'll find it daily at
hooping's online news
headquarters. Philo keeps us all in
the know about where we're
headed as a hooping community.
| Got hoop thoughts? Send us the link to your blog. |
an extraordinary blog for hoopdancers
hooping tips, hooping blog
hooping tips, hooping blog
Hooposophy on Facebook
September 2010
THIS WEEK: Who Am I Without My Hoop?: Our Identities as Hoopers
I felt a familiar twinge in my stomach, brought on by the sudden awareness that I
had come to emotionally depend upon my hoop. Was my predicament that
different from my four-year-old's attachment to her treasured stuffed bunny?
THIS WEEK: Who Am I Without My Hoop?: Our Identities as Hoopers
I felt a familiar twinge in my stomach, brought on by the sudden awareness that I
had come to emotionally depend upon my hoop. Was my predicament that
different from my four-year-old's attachment to her treasured stuffed bunny?
Hoop Pretty The sisters that run
this site of hoop-lovers' tees and
gear also post some pretty great
tips for the wise.
this site of hoop-lovers' tees and
gear also post some pretty great
tips for the wise.
Loopdihoops Leah Troiano
authors this wonderful blog. Look
for interviews with hoopstars and
fascinating articles about how
hooping affects your mind and body.
authors this wonderful blog. Look
for interviews with hoopstars and
fascinating articles about how
hooping affects your mind and body.
Hoop Drum Jewel's blog is a
real treat! She invites us into her
hoop thoughts and regales us with
swirling poetry and prose.
real treat! She invites us into her
hoop thoughts and regales us with
swirling poetry and prose.
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