Yaaaaaaay! Would be my first and natural response, coupled with a huge smile and a tugging at your arm to come play with me in the park!
I have been trying to make you lovelies a video for a long time, a really long time. The process of which resulted in a serious number of takes, a rude awakening to the crazy facial expressions I make and not as much hooping as I would like. However this is just a tiny taste test, an introduction, a sampler if you will. There WILL be more, you just wait and see!
Once I got to thinking about some of the most important things a new hoop lover should know I realized there was no way I could pack it all into one vid. So I have decided to make a series for you. I present you with the first volume of Rock Your Hoops. Lots of link love follows! Enjoy!
This one is dedicated to my favorite new hoop loving sister, Gala. I have got so much more hoop love to share with you girl!
Online tutorials
A good place to start is youtube. There are some great tutorials available for beginners, intermediate and advanced hoopers.
My recommendations are SaFire, Caroleena, Hoopalicious, the Fire Groove girls on Expert Village
. Although simply doing a search for hoop dance, should put you in a spin for quite some time.
A new project by a community of amazing hoop dancers has been formed called Hooping University (woah!) this looks to be a powerful source for hoop lessons online.
I also recommend buying hoop dance DVDs. My favorites are from Hoop Girl, Hoop Path and Hoopnotica.
Buying Hoops
I buy all of my hoops from Hoop Empire. Searching for hoops in other parts of the world is fairly easy too, Hooping.org has an awesome range of links to hoop shops.
I also recommend making your own if you can get your hands on the goodies needed.
Other sites that provide me with endless inspiration…
Isopop – Rich Porter and his smooth moves
Hero Hoops – Miss Rosie rocks the hoops
Hoop Pain – coz bruises are sexy!
Spiral - words do not do justice
Hoop Drum – Beauty and the beats
Tribe has a range of hoop related groups and threads. If you are interested in what is happening in the Tokyo hoop community you can come on over to the HOOPLOVERS hang out or the HOOPLOVERS site.
My number one tip beyond all others is to embrace your own style. Bust your own moves, explore, create. In the very beginning you will no doubt look for inspiration from other, more experienced hoopers, this is wonderful and part of what makes hoop dance so shared. However try, if you can to hold onto your own spirit, enhance the moves you are learning with your own vibe. Music, costumes, movements, posture even facial expressions all add to your own style. Move it, shake it and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, we all do, time and time again – cool new tricks and flow often come from those mistakes. Have a blast, relax into it and rock your own show whether you have an audience or not (chances are you will!)
Oh and send me your pics and videos! I can never get enough of the hoop love!!
d
xx
Filed under: hoop dance, hoop dance tokyo, hoop path, hoopdance, hooper, hoopers, hooping, hooping tokyo, hooplovers, hooplovers tokyo, hoops
Your video was wonderful! I loved your tips, especially about having multiple partners
Thank you so much for the link love– for a new enthusiast, the more resources the better!
Thanks! It was a bit of fun, I hope to give some more helpful tips next time, this was just a warm up!
Yay! I love it! Can’t wait to see the rest of the Rock Your Hoops series… I have a feeling they are going to rock.
Deanne I LOVED the video.
That was funny. Looking forward to the next in the series!
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH.
God you’re adorable!
Oh my goodness, this is such perfect timing. I just ordered a hoop from Bunny and it arrived in the post on Tuesday. Yay!
yay!!! you are so cute!! i was looking at baxter’s website and one of his students said something about hooping that really resonated with me so i thought i’d share it here: “It’s not about how good you can get, it’s about how good you can feel.”
xo melichan
You could not be more adorable!
Ah I love this and it makes me so jazzed to hoop tonight!
Thankyou! This is so helpful. I know what you mean about seeing yourself on video and realising you make weird faces, lol. Been there!
You look great though, don’t worry. I can’t wait to get a hoop and go through your article again!
I love it- can`t wait for the rest of the series…
You look so cute on camera.
Can`t wait to see you & hoop with you when you are in Brisbane!
Deanne, just discovered your hooping dance skillz and I am intranced!! I wish I live din tokyo to take a class from you! I’m near San Jose California…
But I can at least get a hoop and start trying!!
I’ve got a DVD on order, and a hoop. I’m set!
[...] There has been so much going on about hooping lately, especially from the lovely Gala. Anyway, this post seems like a great place to start if you are interested in this sort of thing. I need a new [...]
Size is all that matters & multiple partners are good .. Hmmmm
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I totally love the video, GOSH it looks so easy when you do it!
I wish it was that easy in reality
Thank you for this video!
Much love xxx
reading your blog ( i love Tokyo) got me started on the hoop – the journey was begun late last year. Big thanks! and then some more for your continuing inspirations.
check out some photo’s of me and hooping at rainbow serpent at http://www.bournehooping.blogspot.com
Hey are you in Tokyo at the moment? I am until the 1st of March. Maybe we could meet up? Cheers, Hayley x