Hi, hoopers! I want to tell you a little bit about something that I’m REALLY excited about. Mark your calendars for August 21st, because four local DFW teachers (including me!) are putting on a local Dallas hooping event.
This is a BEGINNER FRIENDLY event! We’re welcoming students of all skill levels. Me and Jen from Hip Hazel Hoops are each doing a workshop on the “beginner” track, and Julia from Sassy Hoops and Paula from Hoopie Chick are doing workshops on the “advanced” track.
This event should be a LOT of fun. A full day of hooping, a chance to work with four experienced local teachers, an opportunity to meet and mingle with local hoopers, and many other goodies interspersed throughout the day. Check out the links below for the full schedule and information on how to register.
I ended up leaving Carrboro much earlier than planned. Big bout of homesickness I didn’t expect! But I had an absolute blast while there. HoopPath 4 was incredible, life-changing as always. If you EVER have a chance to experience a HoopPath workshop or event, DO IT.
Just a quick update: I am looking for a new place to teach classes, but I am available for private lessons and still making hoops.
EXCITING NEWS: Mark your calendars! August 21st shall be the premier event for Spin Cycle Hoop School, a group of local teachers dedicated to growing the DFW hoop community. The August 21st event will be a day of hooping, including workshops and a big jam, and an opportunity to mingle with locals and get to know some of us. I’m really excited about this event, I will be teaching a workshop there along with three other local teachers (Paula Stambaugh of Hoopie Chick, Julia McPherson of Sassy Hoops, and Jen Rose of Hip Hazel Hoops).
More info on that as it becomes available! In the meantime, join the Ning to start getting connected with local hoopers!
This weekend marked the fourth annual Hoop Path Retreat in Carrboro, NC, which I attended and thoroughly enjoyed. I will be staying here in Carrboro until mid-October, when I am taking a teacher certification and will come back to Texas an Official Teacher!
If you have any questions about hooping or what I do, feel free to e-mail me while I’m gone at jess@torushoops.com.
I will see you all when I return, and I will continue to update this site with blogs about my experiences here.
The studio I was teaching my beginner classes out of, Wild Bohemian, has unexpectedly had to close. However, if you’ve been considering taking lessons from me, I’m offering private lessons at a DISCOUNTED rate!
I normally charge $30 for a one hour private lesson at the studio. However, for the next two weeks (through June 12th), I will be charging only $20 for an hour private lesson!
HOOP PACKAGE – If you purchase a hoop in addition to your private lesson, I will take $5 off the cost of the hoop. You can get a new, beginner’s sized hoop, normally $30, for only $25! That’s a $60 value – a $30 lesson and a $30 hoop – for only $45!
GROUP RATES – If you and your friends would like a lesson together, lessons are only $15 an hour for groups of five or more!
These rates only apply for through June 12th, so e-mail me at jess@torushoops.com to schedule your lesson now!
I will be performing FRIDAY, MAY 14th at the Celebration of the Arts Preview Party in Midland, TX! The event runs from 7 PM to 10 PM.
Then on SATURDAY, MAY 15TH, I will be back in Ft. Worth performing at The Gallery at Lander’s Machine Shop as part of Ft. Worth ArtsGoggle! This event is FREE and is sure to be a lot of fun, featuring tons of local artists and musicians! The event runs from 4 PM to 10 PM.
If you are looking for something fun and different to do this Saturday, come out to Wild Bohemian Studios in Pantego from 3 PM until dark and join me and Creative Motion for SpinWest!
If you are interested in classes and want to check out what I do as well as the studio I teach at, this is a fantastic opportunity to do both. SpinWest is a Creative Motion event hosted on the first Saturday of every month in an effort to promote the public to pick up their toys and PLAY! We encourage everyone who comes out to try something. There will not only be hoops there, but poi, juggling sticks, staff, and any number of crazy toys that our crew has the inclination to spin around.
I’ve got two new Beginner series classes coming up at Wild Bohemian Studios, a Thursday class starting May 13th, and a Friday class starting May 28th. Check out the classes page for more information!
One of my goals with this site is to make it beginner-friendly. There is a lot of information out there on hooping, it can be overwhelming to someone just dipping their toes in. It’s somewhat startling to discover just how large and varied the hoop community really is!
One of the best places to start is hooping.org, quite possibly THE number one resource on all things hoopy. There’s videos, photos, and articles posted daily. Run by Philo Hagen, hooping.org hosts the annual “Hoopie” awards, kind of like the Oscars for hoopers.
When I first started hooping, I could not fill my brain with enough information on my new passion. I devoured everything on hooping.org, scouring the archives, watching all of the tutorial videos, reading up on featured hoopers, everything was like manna from heaven for me. If you’d like to get a good hoop overdose, head on over and start clicking.
If you can’t get enough and want up-to-the-minute hoop info delivered to your Twitter feed, follow hooping.org on Twitter!
I’ve created a resources page where I will be adding links to essential hooping websites and short bios on influential hoopers as I continue to build this site. You can see the new page here, although for the time being the only link is to hooping.org.
One of the big buzz words in the hooping community is “flow”. We’re always trying to find our flow, improve our flow, get lost in our flow. I’ve been blessed to recently find myself surrounded with people who also seek out that flow goal.
Flow isn’t just something the hoop provides, however. Flow is something that can be applied to anything. Most recently, I’ve been attempting to apply it to life in general. When things are clicking, you’re connecting, you’re staying present, then you are in flow.
The problem with flow is that it’s pretty easy to get knocked out. The simplest thing can throw off your rhythm. When I’m hooping, things that can kick me out of flow include the song ending, someone trying to get my attention, someone knocking into me, accidentally flinging my hoop across the room (we’ve all done it), and so on.
Hooping is just one small aspect of life. If so many things can knock you out of flow in one small area, multiply that to the power of real life and you get the never ending barrage of daily flow busters that knock at our doors: Working at a job that doesn’t match you. Poor eating habits. Demands from friends and family. Bills, budgets, finances. An irregular sleep schedule. Disagreements. Getting a piece of bad news. A sudden change in plans. Clutter. Mosquitos. Paper cuts. Stubbed toes.
It’s pretty easy to get caught up in all this. It’s easy to pick one of these things and let it take over your thoughts for the day, maybe even for the week. It’s when you let go of these things and surrender yourself to the present moment, the things you have control over in this immediate time, that you begin to find flow.
Flow in hooping can be described as floating seamlessly from one motion to the next with little thought. But to get there takes practice. If you never practice, you never find flow. Likewise, life flow takes effort. A daily intention. Deciding that today, you are going to focus on positivity, clearing your head, clearing your space, being present and letting life happen as it may. It’s a one day at a time sort of thing.
This is my current major goal. I’ve seen enough to know that when I trust things to work out, they do, and when I expend a lot of energy worrying, I end up drained and disappointed. Letting life flow is not always easy, but that’s because it is a practice, and one that I’m not going to let fall by the wayside anymore.
