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.

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.

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.

…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.

so. I was going to make the next post about all the amazing LED hoops I built over the holiday break. But then Rayna (formerly of Hoopnotica and current guest writer for hooping.org) posted a fun little kind-of New Years resolution/challenge yesterday: The Hooping.org 30/30 Hooping Challenge. So starting January 8 and ending (hopefully continuing even after) February 6th, I’m going to try to hoop 30 minutes every single day. Even if I have to do ten minutes at at a time at work on my breaks, on those 15-hour show days, I’m going to try to get 30 minutes in. The idea is to really develop a “hoop practice,” the way yogis and meditators do, where it’s not so much about what you accomplish as it is about just getting in there and letting your body feel that consistency.

I’ve been feeling a bit blah since the holidays, since my birthday this year is a milestone and these last couple of years I’ve actually been able to feel and see the effects of slowing metabolism, aging joints and all the rest of it. I don’t regret indulging over the holidays – I have really been enjoying the mulled wine, and all the rich food and dessert really are a rarity for the hubs and I, but it IS easy to let that become the norm instead of a once-in-awhile indulgence. Rayna has been one of my hooping idols since Jennifer and I started – and she seems to be in a really good place for herself right now, which is even more inspirational for the rest of us.

So the funny part is: being the gung-ho gal I am, I mis-read the start date and thought it was today! So I got a head-start on all the goodness! It’s just as well though – I hate starting things on the weekend. Since I normally work weekends, they tend to get crowded, so starting on a random Thursday works for me

Anyway, I’ll be checking in over the month, but my ultimate goal is to get some of that choreography out of my brain and into my body. I can feel it ALL THE TIME now when I listen to music: my body is trying to hoop to it, even when I’m in the car or at work, so by golly, it’s about friggin time to put all those ideas together!

Wish me luck!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Ok, so I haven’t had a lot of time for hooping since I moved (a couple of hours per week is about it), but I made the effort and braved the traffic to go to the DC World Hoop Day. What a great community! A bunch of the major DC-metro-area hoopers were there, plus I got to meet Ann Humphreys of the HoopPath in NC, and Tisha Marina, who was featured in the Hooping Life documentary!

The names were cool, but probably the coolest part was seeing so many hoopers all in the same place! Our little community in Vegas seems to be doing well, and hopefully my Fairfax meetup will pick up some new hoopers, but WOW – to see 30-40 hoopers all in the same place was really cool. Everyone was really friendly, there was hoop-making and food, and I even taught some passersby the basics of waist-hooping.

The whole thing really made me miss Jennifer – we would have rocked it out for hours, and she would have loved the poi hoops I saw that had tinsel all over them! My hubby accompanied and was very patient while I did my thing, but nothing like having a hooping buddy along…

Anyway, I am renewed and inspired to continue working on some new choreography, as well as keep this Fairfax meetup going through the winter!

This entry was posted on Monday, October 11th, 2010 at 9:09 am and is filed under Colleen. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.