About Us
The HoopPath is a hoopdance curriculum founded and taught by master hooper and hoop teacher Jonathan Baxter. Baxter’s teaching stands out in this new, dynamic fitness practice as a unique blend of rigorous technique and deep introspection. Through years of daily, solo, blindfolded Practice, Baxter discovered innumerable technical nuances in the art of hoopdance, as well as descriptive names and vivid metaphors that make his insights readily available to even the beginning hoop student. Through these same years of Practice he also discovered the extraordinary power of the Hoop to heal not only the weakened Body or the overworked Mind, but also the depressed, darkened, and depleted Spirit.
Bax was no stranger to depression when he first picked up the Hoop, intending only to use it to rehabilitate some injured shoulder muscles. He never dreamed it would develop into a daily meditation that totally transformed him, inside and out. Over the years he has logged literally thousands of hooping hours—-what we on the Hoop Path call “flight time.” Baxter’s commitment to his Practice has brought him in touch with a staggering range of hoop techniques, as well as the multiple layers of subtle energy to be found in this ecstatic movement form. This extensive and direct involvement with the hoop itself, coupled with Baxter’s unparalleled gifts as a storyteller and guide, make him an extraordinary teacher.
Baxter’s longtime student, apprentice, and partner in the HoopPath, Ann Humphreys, attended her first HoopPath class in the summer of 2005, becoming a committed hooper a year later. Since then, she has attended and assisted in hundreds of hours of workshops and classes with Baxter, learning the core HoopPath curriculum exhaustively, as well as developing the expert range of hoop skill necessary to teach all its techniques. Bringing 8 years of yoga experience plus an infectious enthusiasm and love for hoopdance into the classroom, she now teaches HoopPath classes and workshops on her own, occasionally joining Baxter for special events.
The HoopPath curriculum, which is extensive and has not yet been transcribed into text, was written over years of uninterrupted, daily focus. The depth and breadth of Baxter’s “hoopgnosis,” and his ability to convey the encyclopedic range of his knowledge, is utterly unique in the world of hoop instruction. Whether you get your start with our DVD, “HoopPath: The First Steps,” or take a class or workshop with one of us, you will receive patient and seasoned guidance on how you can begin to turn your focus Inward, and find the richness and wisdom available to you there. You will learn how to move from your Center, where your truest rhythm lies. You will reconnect with the richest part of you — a part that has never been lost, but might have been hidden for a long, long while.