This is the first in a multi-part series examining the environmental and global impact of making and selling hoops. Over the series I will examine our current practices and what we can do to make our community not only strong in people, but strong in our ideals for truly making the world a better place.

This year Hyperbola has been working hard to develop and improve the hoops we sell. As I’ve been ordering supplies such as tubing, tape, wire, LEDs, batteries and the like, it got me thinking about where all these materials come from, and where they go after we’ve sold them. I just can’t shake the thought that no matter how much care we take, there’s only so much we can do about where our materials are sourced, and then what people do with the hoops they buy from us.

So let’s start at the beginning (for us): ordering supplies. Even U.S. and Canadian companies have moved most of their manufacturing overseas, so it is very difficult to find plastics and electronic components that are guaranteed to be produced in environmentally-friendly ways and under humane working conditions. We buy LEDs, wire, tubing, tape, etc from U.S. or Canadian companies, and in some cases, these suppliers even specify that their wares are produced or manufactured “locally,” or at least on this continent. But of course it’s still imperfect because even if you buy LEDs or tubing made in the a first-world country, maybe the parts for the LEDs, or the chemicals for extruding the plastic were shipped from a place that doesn’t pay a reasonable wage or provide humane working conditions. (Heck, many manufacturing jobs in the USA don’t pay a living wage anymore, but that’s another story.)

I’ll admit that when I first found a “good deal” on a certain type of LED from a “US” company, I jumped at the chance to save a little money on materials. About a month later, I received a package from Hong Kong. As I soon found out, one of the reasons I had saved so much money was because the shipment was labelled a “gift” and was therefore not subject to international taxes. My post office was the one to educate me about the process, and I was lucky because I could have gotten in trouble for it. I took the necessary steps to make sure I was in compliance, and of course I didn’t order from them again. I consider myself a fairly “aware” consumer, but this really opened my eyes anew to the little ways we might be “saving money,” but really aren’t saving anything at all.

On the other end of the chain, we offer trade-ins, re-tapes and upgrades for a nominal fee (usually just the cost of materials), but it doesn’t change the fact that they are made from materials that, in some cases, can’t be recycled or composted when they, inevitably, wear out. For instance, we began making hoops before the information about exactly what type of tubing and connectors to use was readily available and we went through a bunch of R&D with connectors and tubing that didn’t work. We still have a stack of those hoops in storage because they are bowing at the connector so we can’t bring them out at festivals (lest people think that is what our current design will do), but we can’t find anywhere to recycle the materials.

And what about that waxed paper backing on the decorative tapes? It can’t be composted because the wax won’t disintegrate, and recycling centers are pretty specific about what kind of paper products can be recycled. So that adds up to miles and miles of 1″ paper backing that just goes into landfills. The list goes on and on…

I know this may be a depressing topic, but as our little subculture gains popularity, these are the things we need to consider. We may only have a small footprint now, but as we grow this kind of waste can add up. In my next segment, I will try to track down the true origins of the supplies we use to make our hoops.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 27th, 2011 at 6:32 pm and is filed under blog, Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

So yes, I know we haven’t been blogging since the spring, but we promise all that free time went into making some awesome hoops! Anyway, we are going to start doing some in-depth posts about various aspects of the hoop world that interest us, so stay tuned!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 26th, 2011 at 4:50 pm and is filed under blog. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

I wish I could say all the content on our site was cleaned out and gone due to a mad case of spring cleaning but I can’t. Unfortunately we lost our database and are unable to retrieve it.

Luckily, though, it is spring and we were due for a good de-cluttering anyway. I just wish we still had our blog posts over the last 2 years.

Onward and upward and here’s to an even better site now that we will be redoing everything!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 at 2:20 am and is filed under blog. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

First of all, I am pretty excited about the meetup hosted by Drex at the drum circle in Meridian Hill Park (D.C) on Sundays. I met some truly stunning hoopers, including Noelle Powers and Raven, both of whom completely wowed me with their style, and they kind of highlighted something I’ve noticed about my own practice lately.

When we started hooping, Jennifer and I used the Hoopnotica DVDs to learn the basics, and then began learning tricks from online tutorials. Jennifer is an amazing choreographer, so she was able to put a lot of those moves together into a cohesive dance that looked good, and I mostly followed her lead on that, since I don’t really have a good idea of how to put a dance together. Occasionally, I would be struck by something in my practice and turn that into a combo move, but for the most part, I’ve felt like my hooping has been a series of moves that I saw, learned and practiced, then tried to put together in different ways.

Recently, I began to hoop differently, due mostly to my finding some consistent time and space to practice, and a change in my attitude toward my hoop. I have pretty much learned all the common moves there are tutorials for, and with consistent practice, I found I was getting bored with just combining those moves in different ways. Because this happened over the winter, I was also limited in my practice space, and spent a lot of days hooping inside, which forced me to slow down a lot to avoid wrecking our rented house. As I slowed down, and started to spend some days just re-exploring waist hooping in both directions, or chest hooping, or whatever, I noticed that I began to interact with the hoop differently. I noticed that I no longer pushed in only two or four places to keep the hoop going, but I pushed whenever it was needed, which sometimes was once every two or three revolutions, and sometimes it didn’t feel like a push or pull at all, but like the hoop and I were just following one another.

As I started to explore that concept, and extrapolate it to the different planes, hooping became less about something I had to master, and I stopped feeling so frustrated when I couldn’t immediately execute a new trick. In fact, my mistakes lately have often been serendipitous, leading me to moves that no one could have taught me, but have helped me to find a more personal style. This, of course, is an improvisational concept I am familiar with from being a longtime musician and avid cook, but I had somehow missed that spark in my hooping for nearly two years! And believe me, I looked HARD for it at times which may have been the problem!

I’m finding now that the dance comes more naturally, and lately has not at all been the kind of hoop-dancing I set out to do three years ago, after watching all those amazing guys and gals on YouTube and Vimeo. Often, it’s slower, even to fast beats; sometimes it’s funky, and it almost always puts my blissful dancer grin on my face. And this may sound crazy, but I find myself listening to my hoop, or at least to the body part it’s touching, and seeing where IT wants to go, rather than manipulating it to my (very stubborn) will.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 at 5:43 am and is filed under Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

I’ve been in kind of a funk lately. While I want to attribute it to the cold February weather, I think there is a lot more to it than that.

I have always gone through phases where I can’t get enough hooping. Then it switches to poi, then juggling, then back to hooping again. I am a former dancer so anything that gets me moving usually makes me happy. But lately I don’t feel like doing any of that stuff and it’s making me sad.

I think it might be loneliness that’s bringing this on. I miss Colleen, my hooping partner in crime. That’s for sure. But I’ve also been missing the groups I’ve worked with in the past that introduced me to how fun and exciting the flow arts can be. My old juggling club had a festival a couple of weeks ago and I was stuck 600 miles away looking at pictures of how much fun everyone was having. My old fire troupe is going strong and making beautiful performance pieces. All this while I sit here in Vegas waiting for the wind to die down. Hmph!

What’s funny is I have recently started working with a group of wonderful people who I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with. They make me want to get up there and move. I guess I’ve just been nostalgic for the good old days when this was new and mysterious to me.

Well, there will always be new experiences to be had and mysterious fun to discover so maybe it is just the weather after all.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2011 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Jennifer. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Last day of the 30/30 Challenge and it was a gorgeous one! Warmish and sunny all day, and I took advantage of it! My neighbors, who had previously only begun to suspect that I am crazy, are now positive I am so. I had fun just dancing around for awhile, then I worked a couple of combos that I’m still trying to smooth out, and they actually got worse as I was working on them, so I just went back to dancing and feeling the flow.

Something I noticed about myself: Some people always feel great in their hoop, but I didn’t always have glorious days hooping – some days I came away angry and frustrated, but that also helped me explore what was motivating me that day, and give myself a reality check. Namely, that it’s not about mastering that new trick; the only thing that matters is that I’m exploring and continually seeking. As a perfectionist, that can be hard to accept, but I have to admit, I feel pretty silly getting angry at a hoop, and that’s usually followed by me laughing at myself. And picking up the hoop again.

I feel like I’ve definitely accomplished my goals – I’ve got half of a new song choreographed, but more generally, I have a better physical understanding of my place in the hoop and where I want to go with that. I got my “outflow” polished, and really started exploring the different elements of what starting to be my style. I think I will probably keep this up, though not always daily – with my job, sometimes my body doesn’t need pressure or another thing on my to-do list; it just needs sleep. But I’m glad I challenged myself to stick with it, even on those days. A few times, when I honestly thought I was going to collapse from exhaustion, hooping kind of finished off my day and allowed to me sleep peacefully without the “buzzing” from my brain being overworked and overtired. Other days like that, I just felt like a zombie. But I do think giving it ten minutes, no matter how crappy I feel, is worth a try. A lot of times, ten minutes was all it took for me to feel better (or establish that, yes, this 30 minute session was not going to yield anything mind-bending)

So cheers to finishing the challenge! I’m going to go enjoy some mulled wine now.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 6th, 2011 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

I hate hooping with fire. There, I said it. I know I’m in the minority of hoopers and other connoisseurs of the spinning arts. I’m prepared to give up my hooping street cred if I must but I really hate hooping with fire.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s quite a rush and makes for some stunning performances. The sound of the flame and heat of the fire as the hoop spins around is quite intoxicating. It is definitely an exhilarating experience and audiences love to watch it.

But those pros, in my opinion, are outweighed by some hefty cons.

I’ll get the most obvious reason out of the way right off the bat: It can be dangerous! Where do you think the phrase “if you play with fire, prepare to get burned” came from? Granted, with proper safety precautions, the risks are minimal. But I cannot begin to count how many times I’ve lit up with people who thought even minor safety precautions were for the over-cautious, paranoid types who sit at home with foil hats on their heads.

Experienced fire performers know what they are doing and know the risks going into it. If they choose to slack on a safety precaution here or there, they are making an informed decision about it. What about the audience member who may want to get close to the action for a better view while wearing synthetic fabrics and lots of hairspray, and has a wandering toddler on their hip? What about the total beginner who is trying to look good in front of all the “cool kids”? They may not know the risks and are more likely to make a dangerous error because they don’t want to look silly by asking too many questions. I’ve seen each of these scenarios happen many times.

Along the lines of safety is making sure all the necessary safety precautions are in place. You need to make sure the place you are lighting up has a large area clear of flammable objects. If you are performing, you need to make sure all the proper permits have been obtained and all the necessary insurance requirements are met. When you are performing without fire, you show up, clear an area large enough to do your thing, and hoop to your heart’s content. The amount of preparation for a non-fire performance is minimal compared to a fire performance.

Then, that fire performance may not even happen because the fire department won’t even grant you the necessary permits. Spinning fire is great when the audience is excited for you. It can be a huge downer when authority figures are standing there with crossed arms and shaking heads.

All those reasons aren’t even the biggest reasons I hate fire. The biggest reason, for me, is how limiting it can be to hoop with a fire hoop. If chest hooping and isolations are your thing, great, you can put on a kick-ass fire performance. If chest rolls and shoulder hooping are your specialty then too bad for you. Did you want to wear a spectacular costume with fur and fringe? Better make sure it’s all made out of natural fibers or it’s been treated to withstand fire and is held securely in place. Wanna put on a small show in your backyard for your friends? No can do with the confined space and dry shrubs all around.

For me, hooping with fire can be a magical, breath-taking experience under the right circumstances. Unfortunately, those circumstances only show up about 10% of the time.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 3:14 am and is filed under Jennifer. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

…has been, so far, challenging. My work schedule has been so insane that hooping was really the last thing I wanted to do at the end of every day. But I powered through, went to another class with Tina B on Friday, and even hooped last night, after working 15 hours on only 5 hours’ sleep.

And y’know what? I think the hooping has helped me keep a little perspective on my workdays. Normally when I work that much, my brain just stays in work mode until I get a day off. Which means I don’t think about anything else, including myself, much less my dear hubs. The nightly hooping has helped me mentally detach from work and relax for the couple of hours I AM actually home and awake, and I remember that I’m not just some weird machine that sleeps, drinks coffee and does sound.

The other part of it is that I’m finding a really creative space within the hoop. Since I’m practicing every day, I’m pushing myself to try new tricks I wouldn’t otherwise have time to learn, and those practice sessions (and the inevitable mistakes with the hoop) are making me think about new ways to move WITH the hoop. For instance, I was practicing the two-shoulder duck out tonight, slipped up, and ended up with the hoop in my hand. So then I decided to try to duck out with the hoop spinning a little faster and catch it in my hand. It was hard to do on purpose, but was a new way to move that I wouldn’t have found had I not already been pushing my limits.

All in all, I’m glad to be sticking with it. More later!

This entry was posted on Monday, January 24th, 2011 at 11:38 pm and is filed under Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Week One of the 30/30 challenge has been good – had trouble getting started a couple of days, but once I got in there each day, things really flowed! I haven’t been as bothered by the limited practice space as I thought I might be. I spent a lot of time this week smoothing out my chest and shoulder hooping on my bad side, and starting to work on moving my arms in and out during those moves. I also started work on my duck-outs on that side, which has been mildly painful but rewarding. But what has been surprising is, due to my tiny living room and it being winter outside, it’s really amazing how much detail work one can do just on WAIST hooping in both directions. I mean, once waist hooping is smooth standing still, there’s walking, then dancing, then keeping a beat, then moving the hoop up and down from the waist, then all the different stalls, etc etc… And not once was I in danger of bashing my poor husband in the head. Of course, at the hoopjam I took advantage of the high ceilings and did a lot of vertical hooping: tosses, step-throughs and flowing between vertical moves.

Since I spent a little free time surfing around, I decided to see if anyone else had written about hooping practice in small spaces, and sure enough: Martyna had some great, very specific suggestions for really challenging yourself in a small space. So I think maybe I’ll try some of those this week.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 13th, 2011 at 6:35 pm and is filed under Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

I had some down time while I was visiting family over the Christmas holidays. I had had enough “family togetherness” and needed something to get my mind off of the close confines I found myself in and the dreary weather outside. Luckily for me I found some old video footage I shot of Colleen and me since we began hooping. Particularly, I found some footage of Colleen and I hooping at Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas during the summer of 2009. Wow, did that ever bring back memories.

It was towards the beginning of summer in Las Vegas so it was hot. There was a free outdoor concert by the pool and Colleen and I thought it would be fun to bring our hoops and jam to the music. It was a little weird walking through the casino carrying our hoops over our shoulders in order to get to the pool area but the fun we had with our hoops during the concert that evening was worth any weirdness.

So, since I had time to kill and memories to relive, I edited this video of Colleen from that night. It’s been a year and a half since that video was taken. Time sure flies!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 11th, 2011 at 12:14 am and is filed under Jennifer. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.