hula-hoopers spinning to james brown in center camp

[olivia]

you were amazing! do you teach classes in the bay area? i picked up hula-hoops all over the playa after i saw you but not being able to do what you do is totally frustrating. teach me to be as awesome as you are!

[pearlorchid]

Hi Olivia,

My name is KJ and I was one of the hoopers you saw! A friend saw your post and I had to join eplaya just to reply to you.

Thanks for the props. What you were actually seeing was the tail end of a big day for the hoopers...that day was Thursday, the day when Mars was closest to the Earth, and there were about 12 hoopers who came together in a Unification ceremony out at the Temple of Honor, with the intention of harnessing Mars' energy and our collective energies to forward our intentions as performers and a family. It was amazing! The hooper boys were our attendants. Afterwards, we went to center camp for our "reception", and that is what you saw!

Most of us are based in LA, but there are hoopers everywhere and I have spoken to several in the Bay area. I would recommend checking out http://hooping.org/ to connect with other hoopers up there. There are also a few hoop groups on yahoo (I recommend thehooploop and hoopitup) that provide good resources.

And don't get frustrated! Everyone one of us you saw throwing down was once a newbie hooper who could barely keep the hoop from falling. For all of us, it is a continuous journey of learning, no matter which part of the journey you are in. My great friend and hoop mentor Anah once said to me, "the hoop will teach you", and I thought to myself, "suuuure...enough with this new-age hippie crap!" But she was right. The more time you spend with it, the more your body learns to move with the hoop as an extension of yourself...it's very meditative and profound. Once you get that, the badass tricks come in no time. Have fun!!!

[Anthony Bondi]

I think it was in '96 when your loyal crew from Vegas realized that the scope of the bad-Hoopers problem needed addressing, which we did with the Hula-Hoop Training Center, that was presented in conjunction with Monk Magazine in Center Camp. The heart of the installation was a suspended Hula-Hoop, allowing students to wriggle freely within a hoop without confronting the possible trauma of repeatedly dropping a Hula Hoop during the training process. We passed out about a hundred Hula Hoops to graduates of the program. Perhaps a revival of this installation is in order.