I’ve been to a few different prop festivals over the years, but this was my first time attending Hoop Convergence, and I can say without any question that I will be going back year after year if I have any say in the matter. Within minutes of arriving at the retreat, I was hugging old friends I hadn’t seen in far too long, and new friends I’d only just met. It was almost overwhelming – the number of familiar “celebrity” faces from Youtube videos and Facebook, the warm weather, the beautiful retreat centre, and here and there the sight of hoopers doing ridiculous things with their hoops before the opening circle had even come together.

The only downside as I was going into Hoop Convergence was that I was supposed to be giving a HOOPtalk on the opening night of the retreat, and two days before we hit the road, I started to lose my voice, and by Wednesday morning, I had completely lost my voice and wasn’t able to speak in more than a whisper. While this was a remarkably valuable lesson in enjoying my own silence and embracing the experience of simply listening to others (which I’m sure Kacie quite enjoyed as I was her captive audience from Edmonton to Toronto to Raleigh), I was trying not to panic as I woke up on Thursday morning with still very little ability to speak clearly and only hours to go until my presentation. But, between hot tea and homeopathic throat spray and throat lozenges and the grounding reassurance of Kacie who was confident that I was going to be able to pull it off, I stayed calm and rehearsed my notes as silently as possible, and left it up to the universe to decide (more on that later).

At the opening circle, we were asked to introduce ourselves with our names, and three words to describe our intentions going into the weekend. “Community” was a no-brainer for me, as it’s my deepest passion beyond hooping itself, “confidence” is something that I have always struggled with when going into these large groups full of amazingly talented hoopers, and  I threw in “cough drops” for some fun and appropriate alliteration to round it out.

As it turns out, all three of those intention words stayed with me throughout the weekend, as it wasn’t just the workshops that left their mark on me, but also the interactions and deep thoughtful conversations I had with so many different hoopers and community builders from around the world. There is something so wonderful about finding out that the “celebrity” hooper you’ve more or less idolized online isn’t just a talented artist, but is also an incredibly down-to-earth, nice person to chat with. Or incredibly funny. Or maybe just a little bit crazy (but that’s ok, because so am I!).  And while I’ve known for years that I’m not alone in my deep, passionate love of the hoop and building a community around it – interacting with so many other passionate people in my tribe who speak the same language as me was exactly what I didn’t even know that I needed until I got it.

The event itself was 5 days long, with 3 of those days filled with workshops, jams, and showcases of talent, and on the last day, it felt very reminiscent of my days of attending summer camp as a kid. Sunglasses weren’t just being worn to keep the sun out of my eyes but to keep those pesky little tears from giving away just how soft my heart was after spending so much quality time with people who inspire me so greatly on so many levels.

As for my HOOPtalk? Well, I managed to muster up enough of a voice to get through it, and it all started out quite smoothly, until slide #3 came up on the screen and, well, it wasn’t the right slide according to the notes in my hand. With the audience staring at me and the clock ticking away on what was to be a to-the-10th-minute presentation, I had two choices, bail and fail, or just wing it the best that I could. I chose the second one, and regardless of how it was *supposed* to sound, I am quite happy with my recovery and levelled up improv skills, and the feedback I got over the course of the weekend was so affirming! (If you’re going to screw something up, do it in a roomful of hoopers. They’re the most supportive bunch of lovely souls I know.)

I still have a ton of decompressing to do over the next few weeks. From working my way through each of the summaries of the workshops I attended to recall and record all of the tricks and repertoire that was shared, to meditating on the future and where I see myself headed and the hopes I have for our beautiful vibrant hoop community here in Edmonton, I’ve got my work cut out for me. But I’m far too excited about it to see it as anything but a welcome challenge. 2013 really IS the year for clearing away the old to make way for the new, for achievement and greatness and change. If there was ever any doubt in my mind about that, I left it behind as the plane taking us home left the ground on Monday night.

Thank you Hoop Convergence. Thank you. See you next year.

Oak Cabin Family Photo

A little bit o’ trivia for you – Carrboro, NC happens to be the hometown of some of the originators of the hooping movement that we are so lucky to be a part of today, including Baxter of HoopPath, Spiral, and Jewels. I am so excited to travel to a place where I’ve never been, but I already feel an affectionate sense of attachment to.

As well, I’m more than a little bit nervous and excited to be presenting my thoughts to my peers at Hoop Con this year, as I’ll be making a presentation as part of the first ever HOOPTalks taking place on Thursday night. HUGE thanks to friend and hooper Lindsey for taking the time to put my thoughts into this presentation – massive air fives, my friend, I couldn’t have done it without you!

Of course, this means there will be no multilevel drop-in class or hoop jam this Saturday at the Bosco gym (sorry guys!) but if the weather is good, you know that the Edmonton Inclusive Art Jam is going to be hopping again on Sunday at the Alberta Legislature grounds. Last Sunday was astoundingly beautiful outside and the crowd that showed up was the biggest I think I’ve ever seen for early May. Get out there and mingle, or just go and see for yourself what all the fuss is about!

Hooping Basics and Beyond the Basics will run as scheduled on Tuesday night, and you can bet that Kacie and I will have all sorts of new moves and inspiration to share.  The gym has been pretty full lately (is our community getting bigger or what?!) but we can always make room for more, so if there was ever a night to drop in and check things out, next Tuesday would definitely be a great time to do so.

Massive love goes out to Megan and Nicole for stepping up and subbing my other classes so I can get out of town, and ESPECIALLY to Kacie for arranging pretty much this entire trip while I was preoccupied with the planning of SpinMilk. Without the help of my community, I wouldn’t be headed down there this weekend, and I am incredibly grateful for the network of support that is making this all happen.

And now, MAYBE I SHOULD FINISH PACKING.

(Bring ALL the hoops?!)

Three years ago, Nina Infinity and I teamed up to throw the first SpinMilk, with the vision of creating a weekend packed with a variety of workshops for prop and movement enthusiasts. This year, as I looked around the opening circle on Saturday morning and realized it was at least double the size of our first SpinMilk, I was speechless with gratitude (and grateful that first name/prop-of-choice introductions took their time to wind around the circle, while I gathered my thoughts about what I wanted to say). While hoops will remain my first love, what I was looking forward to the most this year was the comforting, creative, and inspirational vibe that comes from our community. And that’s exactly what we all got. Old friends and new friends alike shared space, ideas, and skills over the two days, and I’m still buzzing from it a week later.

Day 1 was a flurry of activity and I’m still trying to process it all. I was so busy running around in the morning that I had no time to get nervous about my Attention Horse workshop later that afternoon. I knew I was going to be teaching to a wide variety of skill levels, and I was excited for the challenge. Everyone who attended was so pumped and ready to learn anything I could throw at them! I’ll be offering the same workshop again at Astral Harvest later this summer, with the addition of some new material (because there are new moves and variations coming out of the woodwork seemingly every day!).

This year, Day 1 of SpinMilk shared a date with Nina’s birthday, so there was plenty of conspiring behind the scenes to surprise her at the Cabaret that night – as Lindsay-Marie of The Lindsays ambushed her with an impromptu Marilyn Monroe-inspired birthday serenade and a giant ice cream cake. The jam that night was extra festive, and as we do every year, despite our intentions to shut things down at a reasonable time so that we can be up early for Day 2, Nina and I were two of the last stragglers still dancing when we should have tucking ourselves into our beds.

So it was definitely no surprise that on Day 2, as seems to be tradition now, we all dragged ourselves out of bed, feeling the activities of the day before in our aching muscles, and entered the hall definitely moving a little slower than the day before. However, that feeling didn’t last long for those taking Kacie’s Morning Movement Meditation workshop, and by noon the energy level had jumped right back up to awesome.

When one of our instructors was unable to make his workshop due to illness, I volunteered to run an extra hoop workshop, and despite having zero material planned for this and throwing it together on the spot, it was definitely a highlight of the weekend for me. I suddenly found myself teaching a series of moves that we had only just discovered the night before while geeking out at the jam. Being able to break these brand new movements into understandable pieces on the fly felt like a level up in my teaching ability.

But most importantly, I am deeply honoured by the number of hoopers who chose to attend both of my hoop workshops, as well as my clothing reconstruction workshop (which was a hit for the second year in a row!).  To everyone who came out to play and learn and connect at SpinMilk 3 – Prop, Performance & Flow Festival, thank you. To every instructor who shared their knowledge with the community, to our DJs Tripnotic and Zach Cyr and Todd Oaken Coverdale for keeping us moving past our bedtimes at the jam and to our official volunteers,and our unofficial volunteers for helping to make everything run so smoothly, thank you! And, an enormous thank you from the bottom of my heart to Nina Infinity. It is such a joy to work, play and dance with you.

You can find photos of the event online at our Facebook page. Check them out, and if you were a part of this magical weekend, tag yourselves, tag your friends, and share, so that we can continue to see this amazing event grow every year.

See you all next year at SpinMilk 4!

There is now an updated schedule on the website to keep hoopers up to speed on dates for future hoop jams at the Bosco gym – check it out here. This past Saturday was hopping (Easter pun totally intended)!

There is NO hoop jam next Saturday, because Babz Robinson will be in town for a special event workshop, “An Afternoon With Babz Robinson”. Tickets are still available for the opportunity to learn from Alberta’s original hoop momma, so get yourself over to the Facebook page for details and sign up to join us for four hours of flail-tastic hoopdance with one of the best!

Her energy is infectious and her instructional technique is awesome, and that’s why we’re so excited to have her coming up to Edmonton on April 6th for “An Afternoon With Babz Robinson“. During the 4-hour PLAYshop, you’ll be treated to a variety of Babz’ signature moves and you’ll have the opportunity for some “troubleshooting” on some of those tutorial moves that may be giving you trouble.

Babz’ personal message to attendees:

“Come prepared to flail! Leave your inner wimp at home and pack a little extra drama in your hoop bag. This is going to be AWESOME.”

For more information, check out the Facebook event page or contact me.

This week’s Music Monday tune is a track called “Blurry” by SLG. You might recognize it from the opening of Zak Attack’s See The Future Bass Mix from a few weeks ago, and it’s just that good that I have to post it again on its own.

It was the perfect accompaniment to some sunny afternoon hooping with Maya and I this past Saturday at the Bosco gym. I’m Maya’s “hoop momma”, and our friendship is another awesome byproduct of the power of hoopdance. I’ve made so many wonderful connections through hooping, and I love it when friendships are sparked or strengthened out of the experience of coming to class or hanging out at jams. Another thumbs-up for community, and kudos to all the hoop mommas out there who are nurturing its growth.<3

Community has been a big buzz word for me this year, as I have watched the Edmonton hoop community explode in size while simultaneously becoming stronger through the interpersonal connections made at classes, jams, festivals, and at the Ledge grounds on summer Sunday afternoons. Our circle (heh!) continues to expand and while new faces continue to appear in our hoop world, so does the feeling of comfortable familiarity and warm, loving support. Hoopers really are an overall friendly bunch, and the love and inspiration and acceptance that we share with one another is something we should all be so proud of and continue to nurture as individuals and as a collective whole.

In Calgary a couple of weeks ago, I was in a room with 49 other hoopers and even though I only see some of those faces on an annual basis, and many faces were unfamiliar to me – I felt like I was in the company of my tribe, my “other” family, my people. It isn’t just the friendly warmth coming from everyone, but as Shannon Loucks wrote in her hooping.org article, “It’s knowing from the inside out that you are not alone in your passion. There is both the space to skill share, and step silently back into your personal journey held by the energy of others.” I love that I can go and hoop with any group of likeminded people anywhere around the world, and that I can find a sense of familiarity even in a roomful of strangers. Sometimes to be a hooper in a roomful of non-hooping people can be the ultimate way to feel like the ultimate weirdo, but to be in the company of other spin-minded creative souls creates a container where I feel safe enough to let go and express my authentic hoopdancing self.

This is exactly why our Saturday hoop jams have become something I look forward to every week. The number of people stopping by to play ebbs and flows with weekend commitments and weather, but we have definitely seen an increase in the number of people appreciating the value of sharing their hoop space with other hoopers (ok, and perhaps they’re also really digging the high gym ceiling and lack of things that can be broken the way they can be in your living room or other home hoop-space) and coming out to be a part of the space we’re creating every Saturday afternoon. The music plays and the creativity flows, and you’ll witness skill-sharing amongst hoopers, solo concentration for others, and blissed out dance meditation for most.

We’ll be jamming tomorrow from 1-3pm at the Bosco gym, and again next Saturday (March 30). There won’t be a jam on Saturday, April 6, but that’s because Babz Robinson will be spinning into town with all kinds of hoop badassery to share with us. (If you haven’t signed up for the upcoming Afternoon With Babz workshop yet, I highly recommend you get on it!)

If you haven’t been to a jam at the Bosco gym before, all levels of hooper are welcome and we would love to have you join us!  If you have questions about the jam, or the multilevel drop-in class that runs right before it at noon, or about any of our classes, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d be happy to give you any info that you might need to take the plunge and share some flight time with your Edmonton hoop family!

Whether you’re the look-at-me!-type looking for some flashy new tricks, or a wallflower craving more confidence, we’ll be spending this workshop working on a variety of sass-building drills and playful, flashy combos. We’ll be exploring ideas such as the energy you’re sharing with your audience whether it’s a stage performance or just you and your grandma in the backyard, and we’ll discuss how to facilitate a positive reputation for hoopers and hooping alike through our real world interactions outside of our regular hoop jam environments.

Check out the rest of the workshops including at least 5 other hoop-specific offerings!

This was recorded last Tuesday night hoop dance after class, after two weekends of back to back HoopPath workshops in Edmonton and Calgary, with a heart full of gratitude for everything the hoop has brought into my life. As one friend put it, ” I was there, the joy was palpable!” – because it really was. I can’t bottle it, but I can find it everytime I step inside the circle.

I definitely never thought, as a child, or an adolescent, or even an “adult” fumbling my way through life, that this is where I would be today. Or that this is something I would be doing, let alone doing with any modicum of grace. The quality of this video is terrible, as I recorded it with Photobooth on the Mac on the spur of the moment, but the letting go, embracing the music and my body’s desire to move with the hoop are as authentic as can be. My best dance move used to be “the lawnmower”. I’d say things have definitely changed.

On Saturday, hoopers at the Multilevel class were treated to a surprise visit from SaFire, who was in town to show off her new Cirquelle hoop-worthy clothing designs. She shared tons of knowledge with us, and left me with a bag of new tricks and variations that I can’t wait to share with folks in Beyond the Basics tomorrow night.

After a weekend packed with tons of movement and dancing, I’m in a bit of a slow jamz mood today, and this little gem popped up on Soundcloud this morning and will definitely be on ye olde playlist for tomorrow night’s classes.

It was great to see equal numbers of “old school” hoopers and new hoopers alike, sharing space and skills and the gorgeous dancefloor of the Sugarfoot Ballroom (we *must* have another event there, no question!). And congratulations goes out to Katelin King, winner of the weekend pass to SpinMilk 3!