Join Ann for the Hoop Path’s first-ever visit to Charlottesville, VA!  We will cover core fundamentals on Day 1, followed by off-body techniques on Day 2.  If you can waist hoop with an adult-sized hula-hoop (generally 40 to 50 inches in diameter) for the length of one song, you are ready for this workshop.  We will build on the fundamentals of hooping, enriching the practice of beginners and seasoned hoopers alike. 

 Ann has been studying the Hoop Path with Jonathan Baxter every day since the summer of 2006.  She has an exhaustive technical and philosophical grasp of the Hoop Path curriculum, and also brings her own extensive experience as a yoga practitioner and traditionally trained poet into the classroom.

 Pricing and discounts:  The price for both days (6 hours of instruction) is $120.  We have Bring-a-Friend discounts as well!  If you bring one friend, each ticket will be only $100.  If you bring 2 or more friends, the price goes down to $90 per ticket.

 You must buy all tickets in one transaction to receive the Bring-A-Friend discount.

To obtain the Bring-a-Friend discount for TWO tickets, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.  You can only receive the discount for two tickets.

To obtain the discount for THREE OR MORE tickets, select the “Bring-2-Friends” tickets and choose “3-10″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-2-Friends.” This will reduce the price of each ticket up to ten tickets.

 Click HERE to buy your tickets!

HoopPath: Montreal with guest Brecken Rivara

March 30th, 2010 (6-9pm) ***Sold Out***

March 31st, 2010 (6-9pm) ***Sold Out***

April 1st, 2010 (6-9pm) [Brecken]

Bonjour, Montreal!

 Beka Hoops, of IHOOPU, has invited the HoopPath and Brecken to Montreal to teach an intimate workshop series at the end of March.  We were super eager to accept the invitation.  I visited Montreal in high school and I was blown away by the city.  I can not wait to return as an adult.

I will be teaching the first two nights and Brecken will teach the third.  Though Brecken and I represent two different approaches to hoop dance, we believe the approaches complement each other.  My two nights will be an overview of the HoopPath approach and the techniques, concepts and images we use to create an open access to freedom of movement within the hoop.

 Brecken’s workshop will be an overview of her unique way of moving with the hoop, involving planes changes and transitions on and off the core.

Space for this workshop is SUPER limited.  We have already sold half of our numbers.  If you purchase all three workshops you will receive a discounted price.

 Please email, baxter@hooppath.com if you have any questions.

Buy Tickets here!

HoopPath: Toronto

Friday, March 26th, 2010 (6 - 9pm)

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 (11am-2pm)***Only 2 tickets left for this day!***

Sunday, March 28th, 2010 (10:30am-1:30pm)

“Bridging and Asserting Planes”with Brecken Rivara, Sunday (2-4pm)

OIP Dance Studio

190 Richmond Street East

Toronto, ON, Canada

Oh, Canada!  I am THRILLED to be coming back.  And, uh, did you know I’m bringing the “Female Hooper of the Year” with me?

 The Warrior Path:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping. This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes. The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance. We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice. This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves. The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before. If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One. Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops. If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’ Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests. Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

Brecken “The Tsunami” Rivara

There are so many wonderful and amazing hoopers within the Hoop Community.  The Community is growing so fast these days, that it is impossible for me to have seen all of them.  That being said, of the hoopers I know, Brecken is one of the most unique, most amazing hoopers to emerge into the scene since I started hooping.  I can not heap enough praise on her hoop dance.  She, like myself, is committed to keeping the ‘dance’ in hoopdance and her style makes that abundantly clear.  It is not so much the uniqueness of her moves or her techniques that set her apart (although no one hoops like her), but rather the Way in which her expression unfolds when she releases into her Flow that makes her so mind blowing and unforgettable.  If you haven’t seen Brecken hoop, then you are in for phenomenal surprise.  I might be the only one who calls her “The Tsunami” for now, but many amongst the Community who have witnessed her hooping understand the origin of my nickname for her.   Look out onto the ocean of Hooping, and the next big wave is Brecken Rivara.  I am honored to share teaching space with such a Channel.

Brecken and I understand that 5 hours of workshops in one day may sound intimidating, but our intent is to structure Sunday so that  someone who is in reasonable shape should be able to endure it.  Sunday of the Warrior Path deals with many of the off-body, less physically demanding techniques of Warrior-style hooping.   Students who have attended both Brecken’s previous workshop and Day 3’s of past HP  workshops believe that Sunday is going to be an amazing and enlightening in its chemistry.  After utilizing this format in Florida, we were pleased how well the workshops went together and most, if not all, the students had enough energy to get through the whole weekend.

 Here is a word from Brecken describing her workshop called, “Bridging and Asserting Planes”:

If there’s one thing I’d like to impart on the hooping community, it’s a broader range of movement. There are a couple of planes we’re all comfortable with, and that’s fine because you need that point of origin. It’s home base. But the hoop can go ANYwhere, and it probably should: I think it’s the freedom to explore our impulses, with the hoop as a guide -or even security, that truly embodies that partnership, and it’s not that hard (honestly) to offer the same to more of your body. Then just knowing how to use that connection-letting it fall into new space and then owning it there; how to take the lead and let it go, and assert and release at will, on beat-that’ll really take it there. …aaand we’ll make it look good.

This class started a while ago as an answer to the question of horizontal/vertical transitions. (You’ll never be at a loss for that answer again, btw.) A year later, it serves as the basis for the majority of my hooping. Coupled with a variety of isolations, extensions, visual techniques and found pathways for being compelled into place… I’m pretty sure you’ll leave a better hooper with a stronger basis for exploration. Forget the planes; they’re always there when you need them. I’ll show you some stuff and we’ll have a blast. Fo shizzle.

Tickets:

So this may seem lengthy and tedious, but we are in a space large enough that we can accommodate many hoopers.  This means we get to be “cool” and offer lots of ticket options and discounts.  Please read the following carefully, to find the option (and maybe, the discount) you need.  [**if you have any questions or problems concerning tickets, please contact me at baxter@hooppath.com]

Basically, there are three categories of tickets:

1. My workshops + Brecken’s workshop on Sunday
2. My workshops only
3. Brecken’s workshop only

Within two of those three categories (#1 and #2) there are many options which include:

1. Days 1-3 (3 day package)
2. Days 1 & 2
3. Days 2 & 3

How The Discounts Work:

So all of the options have within them pricing discounts for multiple tickets purchased in one grouping. There are three ways to receive discounts:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.  You can only receive the discount for two tickets.

3) If you are coming with 2 or more friends, select the “Bring-2-Friends” tickets and choose “3-10″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-2-Friends.” This will reduce the price of each ticket up to ten tickets.

The Prices: 

Bring-A-Friend= 2 tickets purchased on one order for the same packages.

Bring-2-Friends= 3 or more tickets purchased on one order for the same packages.

Full Weekend (+ Brecken) = $210 [11 hours!], Bring-A-Friend = $380 (2 tickets), ***Bring-2-Friends option is no longer available  due to insufficient ticket supplies for Saturday.**

2 Days (+Brecken) = $165 [8 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $290 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = $405 (3 tickets).
3 Day package= $170 [9 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $300 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = $420 (3 tickets).
2 Day package= $120, Bring-A-Friend = $200 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends =$270 (3 tickets).
Single Day= $65 (1 ticket), Bring-A-Friend = $120 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = 165 (3 tickets)

Brecken Workshop = $50, Bring-A-Friend =$90 (2 tickets) , Bring-2-Friends $120 (3 tickets).

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices and three tickets to receive the “Bring-2-Friends” prices.

IF something doesn’t work, please let me know. I will correct it immediately. I. can. not. wait.

Now, I know it’s all lot, but be sure to look through the options carefully to get the one just right for you:

Buy your Tickets here! 

The HoopPath on Facebook

HoopPath Classes in Santa Barbara!

Two Nights Only!

March 1st, 2010 (7:30 - 9:00 pm) **Soldout**

March 2nd, 2010 (7:30-9:00 pm) ***Sold out***

$20 each class

 Studio E Health and Wellness Center

219 Gray Avenue

Santa Barbara, CA  93101

805-560-3704

I had some time between workshops in San Diego and Ojai to swing by Santa Barbara and I was stoked when Veronika Petra asked me to teach some HP classes while I was in town.  I have been teaching weekly hoop classes for five years (in April) and as much as I love the big workshops, I feel very at home in small classrooms exploring the finer points and nuances of the Hoop Practice experience.

 I hope that those of you who are curious about the HoopPath and myself will be able to join us for one or two intimate and focused classes on either or both Monday and Tuesday.

 On Monday, March 1st, I will teach a class called, “Finding Center.”  This class will utilize one of the HoopPath’s most noted techniques of “hooping Blind.”  We will use the blindfold as a tool to connect our cores with our hoops in a way as to heighten our sense of movement and touch.  We will not spend the whole class blindfolded, but it will be a big part of the evening.

 On Tuesday, March 2nd, I will teach a class called “Collected Awareness and the Core.”  This class is designed to help hoopers of all skill levels develop smoother and more graceful movement inside the hoop while core hooping.  (in HP land, the core is the expanse of the body from the top of the head to the bottoms’ of the feet.)  This will be a guided class and will definitely make you sweat!

 These classes do not require a super high skill set, but one should definitely be comfortable hooping for a sustained durations (50+ minutes).

I hope you will join us.  I apologize for the late notice, but this was late (because of me) in developing.

Please visit ‘Our Store’ on the homepage to buy tickets!

The space is limited to only 11 students, so if you are interested, I would not wait too long to buy tickets.

 HoopPath: Los Angeles with Special Guest: Brecken Rivara

Friday, March 5th (6-9 pm)

Saturday, March 6th (3:30-6:30)

Sunday, March 7th (3:30-6:30)

Brecken Rivara’s “Bridging and Asserting Planes” (7-9pm)

The Groove Spot (3rd Floor)

1110 N. Beachwood Drive

*** Single day tickets are now on sale!  If you can not make Day one, don’t let that keep you from coming!!***

 I love you, Los Angeles.  If I wasn’t here, I would be there!

 The Warrior Path:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping. This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes. The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance. We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice. This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves. The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before. If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One. Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops. If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’ Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests. Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

Brecken “The Tsunami” Rivara

There are so many wonderful and amazing hoopers within the Hoop Community.  The Community is growing so fast these days, that it is impossible for me to have seen all of them.  That being said, of the hoopers I know, Brecken is one of the most unique, most amazing hoopers to emerge into the scene since I started hooping.  I can not heap enough praise on her hoop dance.  She, like myself, is committed to keeping the ‘dance’ in hoopdance and her style makes that abundantly clear.  It is not so much the uniqueness of her moves or her techniques that set her apart (although no one hoops like her), but rather the Way in which her expression unfolds when she releases into her Flow that makes her so mind blowing and unforgettable.  If you haven’t seen Brecken hoop, then you are in for phenomenal surprise.  I might be the only one who calls her “The Tsunami” for now, but many amongst the Community who have witnessed her hooping understand the origin of my nickname for her.   Look out onto the ocean of Hooping, and the next big wave is Brecken Rivara.  I am honored to share teaching space with such a Channel.

Brecken and I understand that 5 hours of workshops in one day may sound intimidating, but our intent is to structure Sunday so that  someone who is in reasonable shape should be able to endure it.  Sunday of the Warrior Path deals with many of the off-body, less physically demanding techniques of Warrior-style hooping.   Students who have attended both Brecken’s previous workshop and Day 3’s of past HP  workshops believe that Sunday is going to be an amazing and enlightening in its chemistry.  After utilizing this format in Florida, we were pleased how well the workshops went together and most, if not all, the students had enough energy to get through the whole weekend.

 Here is a word from Brecken describing her workshop called, “Bridging and Asserting Planes”:

If there’s one thing I’d like to impart on the hooping community, it’s a broader range of movement. There are a couple of planes we’re all comfortable with, and that’s fine because you need that point of origin. It’s home base. But the hoop can go ANYwhere, and it probably should: I think it’s the freedom to explore our impulses, with the hoop as a guide -or even security, that truly embodies that partnership, and it’s not that hard (honestly) to offer the same to more of your body. Then just knowing how to use that connection-letting it fall into new space and then owning it there; how to take the lead and let it go, and assert and release at will, on beat-that’ll really take it there. …aaand we’ll make it look good.

This class started a while ago as an answer to the question of horizontal/vertical transitions. (You’ll never be at a loss for that answer again, btw.) A year later, it serves as the basis for the majority of my hooping. Coupled with a variety of isolations, extensions, visual techniques and found pathways for being compelled into place… I’m pretty sure you’ll leave a better hooper with a stronger basis for exploration. Forget the planes; they’re always there when you need them. I’ll show you some stuff and we’ll have a blast. Fo shizzle.

Tickets:

So this may seem lengthy and tedious, but we are in a space large enough that we can accommodate many hoopers.  This means we get to be “cool” and offer lots of ticket options and discounts.  Please read the following carefully, to find the option (and maybe, the discount) you need.  [**if you have any questions or problems concerning tickets, please contact me at baxter@hooppath.com]

Basically, there are three categories of tickets:

1. My workshops + Brecken’s workshop on Sunday
2. My workshops only
3. Brecken’s workshop only

Within two of those three categories (#1 and #2) there are many options which include:

1. Days 1-3 (3 day package)
2. Days 1 & 2
3. Days 2 & 3

How The Discounts Work:

So all of the options have within them pricing discounts for multiple tickets purchased in one grouping. There are three ways to receive discounts:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.  You can only receive the discount for two tickets.

3) If you are coming with 2 or more friends, select the “Bring-2-Friends” tickets and choose “3-10″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-2-Friends.” This will reduce the price of each ticket up to ten tickets.

The Prices: 

Bring-A-Friend= 2 tickets purchased on one order for the same packages.

Bring-2-Friends= 3 or more tickets purchased on one order for the same packages.

Full Weekend (+ Brecken) = $210 [11 hours!], Bring-A-Friend = $380 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = $540 (3 or more tickets).

2 Days (+Brecken) = $165 [8 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $290 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = $405 (3 tickets).
3 Day package= $170 [9 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $300 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = $420 (3 tickets).
2 Day package= $120, Bring-A-Friend = $200 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends =$270 (3 tickets).
Single Day= $65 (1 ticket), Bring-A-Friend = $120 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = 165 (3 tickets)

Brecken Workshop = $50, Bring-A-Friend =$90 (2 tickets) , Bring-2-Friends $120 (3 tickets).

The last time we came to LA, we sold out, so no pressure, but you know…

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices and three tickets to receive the “Bring-2-Friends” prices.

IF something doesn’t work, please let me know. I will correct it immediately. I. can. not. wait.

Now, I know it’s all lot, but be sure to look through the options carefully to get the one just right for you:

Buy your Tickets here! 

The HoopPath on Facebook

My first profound hoop experience did not even take place inside my hoop.  In the Hoop Path, when the hoop is spinning around our core, we talk of “being Within”:  a protected place, surrounded by the hoop’s lulling, circular rhythm.  Within the hoop’s motion, a column of energy opens up, leading us—if we are patient and fortunate—through a portal into a new field of experience. 

However, the mere exposure to this phenomenon can also begin to open up life outside the hoop.  Gaining access to this portal wakes you up to the fact that such portals exist—and if they exist in one place, who’s to say they do not exist everywhere, anywhere you might imagine or be?

Such was my first life-altering experience with the hoop.  In retelling it I notice the actual facts of the tale at times can seem outrageous, fantastical. This does not bother me. My life with the hoop has become something I never could have imagined, and because of this all things now seem more possible, or at least less impossible.  My Ivy League education pointed the concerns of my intellect squarely away from parallel universes and phenomena of the imagination.  But when experience opens the world to you in a particular way, sometimes the only thing to do is to listen.

It was September of 2006.  I had been hooping in a serious, applied way for about two and a half months.   Baxter, Kimowan, & I had just begun our year of daily shared hoop practice.  We were just getting into our groove.  Kimowan had been one of my closest friends for several years, Kimowan & Baxter had known each other through the art department and had a growing and deepening friendship, and Baxter & I were in the first days of falling in love.  It was a magical time, full of possibility. Our daily post-practice hoop talks were exhaustively articulated and uniquely contextualized by our collective understanding of fine art, literature, music, dance, and a wide range of intellectual traditions, including the academy, rave counterculture, the street, and thousands of years of Cree Indian life.  How I wish we had somehow recorded those conversations.

It was the evening after a hard day’s hoop practice.  Baxter had the night off from bartending.  We decided to have a fire, just the three of us.  The larger Hoop Path group had been holding ceremonial fires each change of season for the last year, but I had not yet attended.  This fire was to be an extension of the rhythm the three of us had just started together—pleasantly unhurried, occasionally tightened by debate, ranging ever wider around our shared dance. 

Easy to start a fire in the early fall in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.  There is rarely much rain in September, and the wood is nice and dry from the long days of hot summer sun.  Our fire crackled to life and Baxter and Kimo picked up their hoops.  I was tired from the afternoon’s hooping, and sat for a while, staring at Baxter.  I was still very much in awe of his handling of the hoop.  It looked like magic to me.  I couldn’t tell him from the hoop, the hoop from him.  It was all one amazingly complicated and beautiful knot. 

However mesmerized I was, though, by this beauty, I was also suffused with love’s first flush and, by definition, a random but sometimes immobilizing self-consciousness.  I had been building a stronger connection to my own hoop over the last couple of weeks and hadn’t noticed Baxter quite as much, or compared my skill level to his.  This night, though, I was simply stunned by the distance that still remained between where I was and where he was in our respective hoop journeys.  How could I even think that he could be with me?  I could barely hoop!  I couldn’t hoop on the shoulders, really, not for an extended time—the hoop knocked around me as though it were a perfect square instead of a circle.  I definitely couldn’t hoop on my legs–at all–and I despaired of ever being able to. 

These thoughts began to pull on my guts as I sat watching.  I felt as though I were surrounded by thousands of impossibly light and swarming insects.  “I’ll never be as good as he is.  Never.”  These thoughts were pointless and pointlessly tortuous, I knew, yet I could not seem to stop them.  With every passing second I felt more and more sickened.  Baxter could never be with me.  I was pathetic, ridiculous.  A hooping joke.  There was no way…no way…

A diligent Hoop Path student from the very first, I already knew that the one thing I could do to deal with this wave of feelings was to pick up my hoop.  Yes.  Perfect.  I’ll get my hoop.  I’ll start that protective circle going and I will find my center again.   I’ll get in my rhythm and these bad feelings will go away, and I’ll feel good again, the way I always do when I go Within.

Except, that wasn’t what happened.  I did pick up my hoop, and I started a gentle core rhythm.  Except that with literally every revolution the hoop made, I felt one thousand times worse.  Whatever wave of feeling was coming over me had no intention of pausing, stopping, or going away.  It was on me like a tsunami.  It was everywhere.  “It’s everywhere…” I could not stop it.  “I can’t stop it.”  I wanted, needed to, had to make it stop.  “I’ve got to get away from this.”  Swish, swish, swish, the hoop went around me.  Crash, crash, crash, went the waves of awfulness against me, over me, through me—until I jerked the hoop to a stop and it fell to the ground.  Without saying a word to Baxter or Kimo, I ran to the back door of the house and inside. 

My vision was like the camera in a horror movie.  As I lurched through the little labyrinth of doors and hallways in Baxter’s dilapidated rental house, I could not seem to stay on keel.  I was aware of terrible feelings that seemed to be actually, physically pursuing me through the house.  What the hell?!?  I couldn’t grasp what was happening.  I was being chased by…by what?  By this thing, this horrible, horrible feeling.  I was being swallowed by dread.  But, why? 

 I staggered into the living room and collapsed, trembling, onto a couch.  What was happening?  This was completely bizarre.  I still felt certain that something—some thing was pursuing me through the house, even though I knew that nothing of the sort was true.  I was keenly aware of a violent, menacing, malevolent presence that somehow had no form at all.  For those few moments I had the sincere feeling that I would rather die than feel this terror.  I felt like I might die of it, itself.  Even though I knew this thought was utterly unreasonable. 

Somewhere within this maelstrom I became aware that I needed to formulate a plan to deal with the experience I was having.  Even though I felt mortal terror in every corner of my body for no reason whatsoever, I felt I had to make a decision to acknowledge it or meet it, somehow—simply because I became aware of it.  The miniscule amount of perspective that squeaked through the edges of this outlandish experience afforded me the chance to see that I had perspective; I had some small amount of distance between my own conscious mind and whatever was overtaking me.  In the same moments I realized that, in the face of no real danger, the most reasonable choice available to me was to open myself to the terror I was feeling.

I have absolutely no idea why this seemed like the best plan to me in that moment.  Looking back, I see I could have just as easily decided that the only thing to do was to talk myself out of it, or deny it, force it away somehow.  But something was telling me that what I needed to do was to stop resisting it.   In the tiny cracks that had opened between my Self—the center of experience, the knowing that sits at the heart of our memories, our understandings, our feelings—and this event that had overtaken me, just enough rays of essential light shone through to illuminate the fact that I had choice in that moment.  The thing overtaking me was not me.  It could not harm me.  It was real—it was important to acknowledge this—it was real, but it could not harm me.  And so, I inhaled deeply, relaxed every muscle, and let it come over me completely.

The sensation of true, raw, unadulterated fear is something so terrible, so unbearable, that reason loses its coveted place in the mind.  I did feel that I might die.  For those moments when I allowed fear to possess me entirely, there were no internal arguments, no rationales, no stories, and no comfort.  I was just a mute witness to the heart-stopping Power of emotion coursing through the human form.

And then…peace.  The analogy of the storm is the cliché for which there is no better point of comparison.  Exactly as a wild tropical storm passes, leaving nothing but a whisper as the echoes of thunder still pulse in the pit of the stomach, the Fear simply moved on.  I suddenly noticed a silence.  But…had there been any sound?  It was over.  I had allowed the Fear in.  Immediately I recognized that the feeling I was accustomed to calling “fear” was actually the sensation of resisting fear.  This resistance is unpleasant, to be sure, no walk in the park, but compared to fear, it was like a scrape or a bruise next to open-heart surgery.  Suddenly I understood my own role in the perpetuation of anxiety, stress, fidgety discomfort, rumination, obsessing—these were all simply techniques for resisting fear.  Not allowing the magnificently awful sensation of raw, real fear to pass through me.  It was all resistance.  And this was the kind of knowledge I could use.

I got up, shaky on my feet.  How long had it been?  Baxter walked in, having just realized that I’d been gone maybe a little bit longer than I should have.  I could hardly walk and felt drunk and giddy, almost like I wanted to explode with laughter.  The relief.  The simplicity.  My people, here with me.  Everything we resist and try to pretend isn’t there.  How silly we are.  And yet…my heart full of compassion, finally understanding how massive, how ghastly and terrifying, real Fear actually is.  Laughter, and compassion, and my beloved companions, wrapped around me like a blanket, and I rested, finally, on a still, small island of safety within the harrowing ride of being embodied on this earth.

HoopPath: Ojai, CA

Wednesday, March 3rd (5:30-7:30 pm)

Thursday, March 4th (5:30-7:30 pm)

Ojai Recreation Center at Sarzotti Park

510 Park Rd

Ojai, Ca 93023

65 Dollars

Please join us for this special survey of Warrior Path techniques and concepts intended to re-inspire and rejuvenate your Hoop Practice.  Ojai is a special place and Community and I’m honored to be headed your way.  I realize that the notice is super short on this.  We tried to get the word out unofficially, but now it’s REAL!

There is only one ticket option for this workshop and that is for both nights.  Unlike my bigger workshops, this workshop is only 2 hours each night.  This workshop will be unique in that I will move across several techniques faster than I usually would because several of you in Ojai are familiar with my Work.

 This venue is not very large and with the notice coming so late, I anticipate an intimate gather of hoop folk.

 We will explore advanced core concepts and Touch techniques.

 Thank you, Ojai, for your interest.

 Buy Tickets here!

The HoopPath on Facebook

  HoopPath: San Diego

Friday, February 26th, 2010 (6-9pm)

Saturday, February 27th, 2010 (2-5pm)

Sunday, February 28th, 2010 (2-5pm)

Zirk Ubu Circus Center

2191 Main Street, San Diego CA 92113

*** Single Day tickets are now on sale!!  If you can not make Day one, come anyway! Walk-ins are welcome.**

What’s up, San Diego?  I apologize for the super late notice.  I’ve lower my rates to make up for it.  I hope you can make it out.  Please email me if you have any questions (baxter@hooppath.com).

 The Warrior Path:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping. This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes. The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance. We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice. This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves. The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before. If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One. Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops. If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’ Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests. Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

Tickets:

So this may seem lengthy and tedious, but we are in a space large enough that we can accommodate many hoopers.  This means we get to be “cool” and offer lots of ticket options and discounts.  Please read the following carefully, to find the option (and maybe, the discount) you need.  [**if you have any questions or problems concerning tickets, please contact me at baxter@hooppath.com]

There are essentially four ticket options:

1. Days 1-3 (3 day package)
2. Days 1 & 2
3. Days 2 & 3

***Single day tickets will go on sale the week before, if any tickets are remaining.***

How The Discounts Work:

So all of the options have within them pricing discounts for multiple tickets purchased in one grouping. There are three ways to receive discounts:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.  You can only receive the discount for two tickets.

3) If you are coming with 2 or more friends, select the “Bring-2-Friends” tickets and choose “3-10″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-2-Friends.” This will reduce the price of each ticket up to ten tickets.

The Prices: 

Full Weekend = $155 [9 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $270 (2 tix), Bring 2 Friends = 375 (3 tix).
2 Days  = $110 [6 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $190 (2 tix), Bring 2 Friends = $270 (3 tix).
Single Day= $55. (Will go on sale one week before)

(***These prices do not include the etix service charge of five dollars per ticket.)

The last time we came to San Diego, we sold out, so no pressure, but you know…

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices and three tickets to receive the “Bring-2-Friends” prices.

IF something doesn’t work, please let me know. I will correct it immediately. I. can. not. wait.

Now, I know it’s all lot, but be sure to look through the options carefully to get the one just right for you:

Buy your Tickets here! 

The HoopPath on Facebook

With all the hoop happenings now afoot in the nation’s (and world’s) exploding hoop community, it might be hard to know which one is right for you. Some are multi-disciplinary, some are themed, some are a smorgasbord of hoop techniques. Within this growing range, the Hoop Path Retreat holds its own special role. However I’m realizing that role might not be obvious to new hoopers or non-hoopers (or, as we might joke–kind of– “not-yet” hoopers), and so I thought I’d share a few paragraphs to explain our wonderful event to all the inquiring minds out there!

Way back in the spring of 2007 (in hoop terms–ancient history), before there were any hoop gatherings of any sort, a series of discussions on tribe.net prompted Baxter & I to issue an invitation to hoopers everywhere to come down for a summer weekend of workshops and jams with us and our local community. A brave crew of 17 hoopers took a chance and journeyed from far and wide (Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Ohio, & beyond) to our little hometown here in North Carolina to share a weekend of “positive rhythm generation.” Our local hoop family of maybe 15 people, the Hoop Path Tribe of Carrboro, welcomed them with open arms. The bonds we formed that weekend endure to this day. And our tribe blossomed.

The next summer, 25 locals strong, we decided to do it again. Except, this time, 80 out-of-town guests showed up!!! That’s right–eighty. Our home tribe embraced each person with the same warmth and grace they had shown to our First Ring the previous year. And the First Ringers lighted the way for the many newbies who joined us that year.

In 2009, we celebrated HPIII with a larger space, 40 locals, and 100 guests. Even though this was our largest gathering yet, the feeling of family reunion that had characterized our previous retreats was stronger than ever. Tears of joy and gut-busting laughs alike started the moment we opened the event with our traditional Welcome Home Potluck, provided by our local tribe. For the third year in a row we shared the rituals of the Morning Meditation, Live Drum Jam, and Fire Ceremony. Watching this event grow and transform has been an indescribably special experience for us. Most of our hoop family of locals are too busy with jobs and kids to attend any of the national hoop events or Burning Man. But they are as dedicated to and in love with their hoops as any full-time hooper. To see them get the chance to commune with their extended tribe, hug a newbie, maybe even rock out some fake eyelashes, face paint, & hair falls for the Hoopers Ball–well, life doesn’t get much better than that, let me tell you. At least, for me it doesn’t.

To those of you who might be wondering exactly what I mean when I say “local hoop family” or “Hoop Path Tribe of Carrboro”: Our local group has been meeting weekly since April of 2005, when the first Monday night Hoop Path class was held. That Monday night class has continued, uninterrupted, since that day. We’ve added 3 weekly HP classes in the last few years, but that class was the original powerful seed that sprouted our local community. Every change of season we throw a bonfire in which each of us has the opportunity to share what we’re feeling–what we’re *really* feeling–in a completely safe environment of compassionate witnessing. We’ve built that trust through time and also through our shared commitment to our hoop practice. For us, time in the hoop is sacred time. Sharing that space and intention has been much more meaningful and healing to me than I ever could have dreamed possible. My local hoop family is my spirit community. However bizarre that might sound is utterly immaterial to me. My hoop tribe has held and supported an environment that has allowed my spirit to grow and heal. That’s what matters to me.

Our highest hope for the Hoop Path Retreat is that guests from anywhere and everywhere can take these few days to immerse themselves in the special love of this amazing community we are so lucky to be a part of. AND learn to be badass hoopers! If you just want to come and soak up some of the technical insights born of nearly 5,000 hours of flight time (Baxter’s & my actual time in the hoop, combined) you won’t be disappointed. Hoop Path technique is the widest, richest, and deepest of all approaches to the hoop, which I say with the confidence that comes from spending 3 straight years learning absolutely everything I could from Baxter (and still I’m not done!) before beginning to teach on my own. I know how much there is to learn because I’ve spent the most time trying to learn it. Baxter’s insights and ideas about the hoop are literally inexhaustible. I’m now on a mission to dive deep and contribute what I can to this awe-inspiring body of knowledge. It’s the most fun and satisfying thing I have ever done.

So, by now I hope that any of you who didn’t know before now understand what makes the Hoop Path Retreat the Hoop Path Retreat. It really is the highlight of our year–though we’re all wrung out to our very marrow by the end of it each year, we walk on air for days afterward. We’d love to see you this year if you feel like ours might be the retreat for you. Just write me at <ann@hooppath.com> We can’t wait.

Due to inclement weather, we had to reschedule Ann Humphreys’ Hoop Path workshop in Memphis to FEBRUARY 20TH & 21ST.  We’ll re-group that weekend for six hours of hope, sweat, love, & courage.  These are the elements of our work.  The hoop connects us to the physical body; the physical body connects us to the soul.  Rhythm is the bright thread that connects all three.

Since the summer of 2006, Ann has spent every available minute soaking up Baxter’s inexhaustible fund of hoop knowledge.  For the last year she has begun to develop her own distinct teaching style within the firmly established parameters of Hoop Path technique.  Her approach draws on her formal education in poetry and literature, as well as her eight years of experience practicing and teaching Ashtanga yoga.  Ann’s connection to the hoop is inexorably tied to her first Hoop Path class, when she heard the story of the Maidan and was reminded of the Greek myths she read and loved since childhood.  Hearing these heroic tales, interwoven with the powerful symbols of Tree, Bird, and Wind, opened a new world of movement to her–a world in which she could physically embody these characters and images with wild and imaginative movement.   For the first time, artistic passion–for word, story, and image–came together with the body’s need to move, and the impact is still moving her today.

We believe that creative movement is essential to human health and happiness.  The hoop is a playful, gentle Teacher who can guide you into a new relationship with your body.  Many of us live in a world where the body’s primary role is functional:  drive the car, cook the food, work the job, clean the house–and we have forgotten the body’s more sacred and divine purposes:  to express, to release, to embody feeling and imagination, to dance.   The Hoop opens a wide new field for us to explore–the connection between the body and the imagination.  The Hoop Path curriculum is uniquely and specifically designed to foster and nurture that relationship.  Our intention is to hold a completely safe and open space in which you can experience what we have centered our lives around:  The joy of dance.

In this workshop, we will spend Day One working on Core Fundamentals:  The techniques necessary to build a hoop practice working on the core (when the hoop is revolving primarily around the waist, but also the shoulders and  legs).  On Day Two, we’ll switch into some off-body techniques–learning to move the hoop around the body while holding or spinning it around the hand or arm.  If you are a beginning hooper, DO NOT WORRY!  : >  We teach in a ‘building-block’ style in which you and other beginners can work on earlier building blocks of the same technique if we should move into more advanced hooping territory.

Since this workshop has been rescheduled, our registration link is no longer live.  However, because we have OODLES of space in our Memphis venue, we can accommodate anyone!  So feel free to join us, you don’t even need to pre-register!  However if you are planning on coming, please do contact me <ann@hooppath.com> and let me know, so I can send you more information as we get closer to workshop time.

 Click here to buy tickets.

A Benefit:  HipHop, Hoops, and Haiti!

Carrboro/Chapel Hill Tae Kwon Do

102 Brewer Lane

Carrboro, NC 27510-2304

2:30-5 pm

Hello, my Friends,

Feel like some bass beats?  Need an injection of lyrical flow?  Do you feel like throwin’ it down on memory lane?

Well… LET’S GET IT ON…

I will be teaching a workshop THIS SATURDAY, February, 13^th, 2010 here in Carrboro, NC, at the Chapel Hill/Carrboro Tae Kwon Do Dojang from 2:30-5 pm.  This workshop will be a benefit for the struggling peoples of Haiti as they work to rebuild their country from the devastating earthquake.  I will be donating 100 percent of the revenue generated from this event to a charity chosen by the participants at the workshop that day.

I was hooping last Wednesday before our Warrior class here in Carrboro, when the idea came to me. I ran it by the folks in class that night and the idea received resounding support.  I put it on Facebook and I was overwhelmed by the support there, as well.  So, it seems this idea, is right on.

The workshop is called “Hip Hop, Hoops, and Haiti.”  This workshop will be a guided hoop session to the music of my own, personal Hip Hop experience.  My vision is that this will be a Community effort.  By that I mean that this is not about the exchange of goods and services, but rather the giving of time and energy to a people who are in need.   Of course, there will be teaching, but the focus is on cooperative giving.

ABOUT THE MUSIC: As you know, Hip Hop is not always politically correct.  Although, I will avoid really offensive lyrics, the language of the music is rough, at times.  The soundtrack of this workshop will be my ‘personal’ history through Hip Hop.  I won’t play songs I never liked or groups I never supported just to cover a certain sub-genre.  If you hate ‘hip hop’ or ‘rap’, you may want to consider skipping this one.  Please don’t write me and tell me you would come if I were playing some other kind of music.  It doesn’t matter to me.

The space within the Dojhang is limited.  We have room for only 25 attendees.  I have no idea how many people will be able to come, but based on the response from students and facebook friends, a sell out is possible.  I have struggled with trying to come up with an appropriate cost for this event.  I am most concerned with making as much money for Haiti as possible.  I know that there are many of you who have already given generously to Haiti and that I am asking for even more.  My hope is that by donating my time and teaching that I can incentivise further giving.

My hope is that this will be an opportunity to:

1. Help the people of Haiti
2. Gather the Hoop Community around an immediate and just cause
3. Dance and enjoy the music of Hip Hop.
4. Get Down.

The Dojhang has offered to donate its space rental to the people of Haiti, as well, so ALL proceeds will go to the charity chosen on Saturday.

HOW TICKETS WILL BE SOLD:

Tickets will go on sale at 6 pm. Wednesday, February, 10^th.  The cost is 40 dollars per person. I will be selling the tickets through our HP Store at http://hpshop.hooppath.com/.

If you are not local but would like to donate to this event there is a button below that you can use to make a donation.  If we do not sell out we will, we will sell the rest of the spots on a sliding scale.  If you would like to sponsor someone, you can purchase a ticket and send me the name of the student you are sponsoring (Baxter@hooppath.com).

***Just so you know, we are pursuing larger venues.  If one is made available, we will open up more tickets.***

Our goal is to raise 1000 dollars for the people of Haiti.

Let’s do this thing.   Thank you for your support.

Please, please help us.  The list of those who donate from afar will be read at our opening circle.

If you can not attend, but would like to donate you can do so here.  If you plan on attending, tix will go on sale on Wednesday, Feb. 10th, 2010.

(If you’re visiting, we’ll be grabbing dinner afterwards.  Wear you B-boy, bgirl stuff.)

Join us for our first trip to this exceptional state!  Ann Humphreys, Baxter’s student, apprentice, and partner since 2006, will teach this 2-day workshop covering HoopPath fundamentals as well as a few special advanced techniques.  Click here to get your tickets!

         Four and a half years ago, my heart leapt forward and briefly flashed a light on what lay ahead for me in this life.  As is often the case, at the time, I did not know it. 

         I thought I was just developing another new crush.  I was walking on the sidewalk in front of the local food co-op & café, a place I had visited an average of once a day for the last ten years.  On the lawn there was a lithe, dark-haired man in sunglasses and a sleeveless t-shirt, dancing what seemed to be an ancient dance with what appeared to be a dusty black hula-hoop.  For a few moments I had to stop and stare.  I couldn’t have explained why, but I could just feel that there was something deeper going on in this dance.  I felt I could see a clear glimpse of this man’s soul, somehow coming through the dance.  I’d been to many dance performances and seen the finest professional technique onstage, but this was a pure soul dance which was also contained by some invisible form described by the hoop.  The lines of the dance were clean, precise, flowing, beautiful—and somehow seemed to make sense on a cellular level.  I had seen my first hoopdance.

         I was not imagining that I needed a new passion, that hoopdance would become a gateway into a new life of adventure, fellowship, and healing that would provide essential missing pieces in my evolution into true adulthood:  the stage of life in which we embrace responsibility, cease to blame others, come to understand both our real limitations and the power of our equally real gifts.  I was under the impression that I was already “there.”  Nothing was “wrong”—was it?  I had spent (wasted) most of the previous 18 months despairing of a broken relationship, relying heavily on cigarettes and beer to salve the searing pain of my emotions.  But, that wasn’t…unusual, was it?  I mean, everyone kind of loses it when they get their hearts broken…don’t they?  I had a wealth of anecdotal evidence to suggest that many people allowed themselves to temporarily spin off into chaos when confronted with loss or change.  I did not see a way around it.  I believed simply that we were vulnerable beings, uniquely sensitive to the enormity of loss and pain, and there was no way for some of us (particularly we wide-open artistic types) to escape the agony of these inevitable human tragedies. 

         Of course, we all know that loss and pain are indeed inevitable and unavoidable in this human life.  I do not mean to facilely imply that if we cultivate ‘the right attitude’ we can just press the “Skip” button on loss and pain and blithely meander onto the more desirable aspects of life.

         However, what I did not realize then was that our very bodies contain, at the ready, at any given moment, just about any information we need to help us heal.  This is the invaluable wisdom that the hoop gradually began to reveal to me.  None of this was even in my mind as I admired the handsome young man zing his hoop around him with astonishing speed and grace.  My heart simply leapt towards this beauty, and my willingness to follow, for whatever reason, the crack of light opened up in his dance, has led me to a whole other life. 

         As many of you will know or guess, this young man was Jonathan Baxter, and my incidental fascination with him and his hoop led me to be willing to attend a Hoop Path class with a good friend.  To say I had no expectations would be to underplay that concept.  I had absolutely NO intention of “becoming a hooper” or even learning any techniques.  Quite literally, all I wanted was to see Baxter hoop again. Of course, my mind was instantly blown all over again as I witnessed for the first time Vivian Spiral hooping when I walked into the classroom.  To see this dance transformed into something equally powerful, but feminine, gave my senses something they could never have dreamed up on their own.  I cannot believe I overcame my intimidation enough to even try the hoop in this first class.  But it was as though I were following a call that I couldn’t even comprehend I was hearing—my body simply went towards it:  my first lesson in the body’s wisdom overcoming the noise of the mind.

         What does the body know that the mind doesn’t know?  Nothing, I would have said, at that point in my life.  The body is the vehicle of the mind.  The body experiences, the mind knows.  Probably none of us possesses the powers of observation and memory that would be necessary to understand how such a viewpoint takes shape in one’s life.  My assumption of this “fact” was so deep that I hadn’t even bothered, at age 35, to even put it into language, even in my head.  

         A year after that first class, I found myself in the unique and enviable (and believe me, I know how enviable!) position of sharing daily two-hour hoop practices with Baxter and the dear friend who introduced us, Kimowan.  After practice we would sit and talk for another hour or two about our experiences in the hoop.  Every day I was a witness to my body’s encoded intelligence, watching it figure out puzzles of physics that my brain would have abandoned early in the process.  In the hoop I experienced learning as a process again.  It had been so long since I learned to hold a pencil, to roller skate, to ride a bicycle, to type on a keyboard, that I couldn’t remember, really at all, what the physical process of learning to do something felt like.  

         Learning a new physical skill at age 36—particularly one that is centered around a child’s toy—carries with it, almost inevitably, the pain of humiliation.  It was only my uncontainable enthusiasm for Baxter and for the magical and poetic language and imagery he brought to hooping that kept me plugging away, hour after hour.   My desire was not to conquer some ideal of hooping, but rather to experience—however briefly or awkwardly—the beauty, the sheer beauty, I had first seen embodied on the co-op lawn.  Baxter, by word and deed, made me believe in that beauty.  And my life was changed forever.

         These days Bax is fond of invoking the ideal of beauty in the classroom.  We all want to be beautiful.  Don’t we?  The difference, though, is in how he defines it.   Beauty, he says, is not an image.  Beauty is a feeling.  It is the feeling we get when we see or experience something beautiful.  It is that feeling we seek, and it is that feeling that is worth the search.  This is why so often in our pursuit of beauty—our many ways of punishing and depriving ourselves—we feel empty and unfulfilled.  Because what we really want and need is not the external beauty, but the feeling of beauty, the experience of it.  In my own life this simple shift has transformed a million decisions from impossible to easy.  It is so easy to find beauty once you start looking for it.  And beauty is what the body understands—it is the language that the body speaks.

         Since I have re-oriented from seeking admiration to seeking beauty, I no longer agonize about how to spend my free time (or, in my case, my work time either!  But that’s another story). All I have to ask is, What feels beautiful to me?  The list is beautifully inexhaustible:

Playing with my dog

Dancing

Singing

Cleaning my house

Laughing with friends

Looking at art

Listening to live music

Cooking a delicious meal

Walking outdoors no matter what the weather

Watching the sky

Helping someone

         What’s also remarkable about these lists is that things that feel beautiful are also health- and life-affirming.  I am not going to say that it hasn’t taken some time, work, and attention to tune into what really feels beautiful deep down inside.  It has.  It’s taken lots of time and I have been so lucky because I have had good buddies (my hoop community—you know who you are!  I love you!) right there with me on the journey.  But now that I have spent this time alone in my hoop and can feel things as vividly as I used to think about them, I have realized how simple, easy, and inexpensive it is to develop this capacity.  I did it, purely unintentionally, simply by hula-hooping for two hours a day for about two years (these days, my practice tends more towards an hour & a half every other day).  I have experienced as much transformation and liberation as I would have expected from twenty years of enlightenment-focused meditation.  But I didn’t have to renounce my home, wear robes, and sit in silence for ten hours a day.  All I had to do was hula-hoop.  It’s truly incredible.  I never would have believed it had it not been my experience. 

         And so now, as the year turns and I look at my 40^th birthday (just two days away!) with excitement and anticipation rather than sorrow and dread, I tell you this story so that you too might have the chance to allow your body to live for you a little more, and bring more beauty and joy into your life.  Your body already knows how to do this, all you have to do is just allow it that little bit of freedom to go towards beauty.  Any embarrassment you might feel along the way (“I feel so ridiculous out here on this busy corner wearing this multicolored hat I made and waving at everybody just to make their day a little bit easier!”) is worth it, I am here to tell you.  As Baxter says, joy lives just on the other side of awkwardness.  We need to make that leap to the other side.  Those of us who picked up the hoop before it was cool will tell you—it works.  It’s real.  It’s joy.  It’s life.  Come with us!

HoopPath: Boulder, CO with Brecken Rivara

January 15th, 2010 (7:45-10:45 pm)

January 16th, 2010 (6-9 pm)

January 17th, 2010 (2-5pm)

January 17th, 2010 (5:30-7:30 pm, Brecken’s workshop)

Boulder Circus Center

4747 26th Street
Boulder, CO 80301-1657
(303) 444-8110

 ***As of 1/12/2010, we have 9 tickets left for all three days!  Thank you for the Love, Boulder/Denver!  We will most likely have a few single day tickets available.  Those will go on sale on Thursday if we do not sell out, first.***

What’s going on way, way up there, Boulder?!  I’m not afraid of your cold!

 I am really excited to come back to Boulder Circus Center in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, with my new workshop series, The Warrior Path.  I began this tour in NYC, and have since taught it in Louisville, St. Pete, and DC!  So far, we have a string of sell outs happening, and I’m excited to carry that momentum to Colorado.  It was in St. Pete (FL) that hooping sensation and buddy, Brecken Rivara first joined me as a guest teacher, and I’m THRILLED that her schedule has allowed her to teach with me again in Boulder.  The last time we came to Boulder, Anne Dellinger, did such a phenomenal job of promoting and hosting us that we actually sold out on our first ever visit!  Of course, who knows what will happen this time, but Brecken and I are hoping to meet and visit with as many hoopers as we can from Boulder, Denver, and surrounding areas.  While Anne gets ready to bring a new little hooper into the world, Danielle Odette has stepped up to help us return to Boulder and we are very, very grateful for her terrific assistance.

The Warrior Path Workshop Series:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping.  This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes.  The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance.  We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will  come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice.  This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves.  The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before.  If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One.  Day one of WP will be very, very similar to Day One of our other workshops.  If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’  Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests.  Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

Brecken “The Tsunami” Rivara

There are so many wonderful and amazing hoopers within the Hoop Community.  The Community is growing so fast these days, that it is impossible for me to have seen all of them.  That being said, of the hoopers I know, Brecken is one of the most unique, most amazing hoopers to emerge into the scene since I started hooping.  I can not heap enough praise on her hoop dance.  She, like myself, is committed to keeping the ‘dance’ in hoopdance and her style makes that abundantly clear.  It is not so much the uniqueness of her moves or her techniques that set her apart (although no one hoops like her), but rather the Way in which her expression unfolds when she releases into her Flow that makes her so mind blowing and unforgettable.  If you haven’t seen Brecken hoop, then you are in for phenomenal surprise.  I might be the only one who calls her “The Tsunami” for now, but many amongst the Community who have witnessed her hooping understand the origin of my nickname for her.   Look out onto the ocean of Hooping, and the next big wave is Brecken Rivara.  I am honored to share teaching space with such a Channel.

Brecken and I understand that 5 hours of workshops in one day may sound intimidating, but our intent is to structure Sunday so that  someone who is in reasonable shape should be able to endure it.  Sunday of the Warrior Path deals with many of the off-body, less physically demanding techniques of Warrior-style hooping.   Students who have attended both Brecken’s previous workshop and Day 3’s of past HP  workshops believe that Sunday is going to be an amazing and enlightening in its chemistry.  After utilizing this format in Florida, we were pleased how well the workshops went together and most, if not all, the students had enough energy to get through the whole weekend.

 Here is a word from Brecken describing her workshop called, “Bridging and Asserting Planes”:

If there’s one thing I’d like to impart on the hooping community, it’s a broader range of movement. There are a couple of planes we’re all comfortable with, and that’s fine because you need that point of origin. It’s home base. But the hoop can go ANYwhere, and it probably should: I think it’s the freedom to explore our impulses, with the hoop as a guide -or even security, that truly embodies that partnership, and it’s not that hard (honestly) to offer the same to more of your body. Then just knowing how to use that connection-letting it fall into new space and then owning it there; how to take the lead and let it go, and assert and release at will, on beat-that’ll really take it there. …aaand we’ll make it look good.

This class started a while ago as an answer to the question of horizontal/vertical transitions. (You’ll never be at a loss for that answer again, btw.) A year later, it serves as the basis for the majority of my hooping. Coupled with a variety of isolations, extensions, visual techniques and found pathways for being compelled into place… I’m pretty sure you’ll leave a better hooper with a stronger basis for exploration. Forget the planes; they’re always there when you need them. I’ll show you some stuff and we’ll have a blast. Fo shizzle.

Tickets:

So this may seem lengthy and tedious, but we are in a space large enough that we can accommodate many hoopers.  This means we get to be “cool” and offer lots of ticket options and discounts.  Please read the following carefully, to find the option (and maybe, the discount) you need.  [**if you have any questions or problems concerning tickets, please contact me at baxter@hooppath.com]

Basically, there are three categories of tickets:

1. My workshops + Brecken’s workshop on Sunday
2. My workshops only
3. Brecken’s workshop only

Within two of those three categories (#1 and #2) there are many options which include:

1. Days 1-3 (3 day package)
2. Days 1 & 2
3. Days 2 & 3
4. Days 1 & 3

How The Discounts Work:

So all of the options have within them pricing discounts for multiple tickets purchased in one grouping. There are three ways to receive discounts:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.

3) If you are coming with 2 or more friends, select the “Bring-2-Friends” tickets and choose “3-8″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-2-Friends.” This will reduce the price of each ticket (up to 8 tickets). Brecken and I hope you will come to all the workshops, so we have included an incentive: when you purchase all three days, Brecken’s workshop is only $30 with no service charge. When you purchase 2 days, her workshop is only 35 with no service charge!

You can also purchase only Brecken’s workshop for $40 and a minimal service charge.  Brecken is also on board with Bring-A-Friend pricing.  Just follow the instructions listed above for the packages.  (When purchasing tickets to Brecken’s workshop, please note that there is a  $4 service charge per ticket.)

The Prices: 

Bring-A-Friend= 2 tickets purchased on one order for the same packages.

Bring-2-Friends= 3 or more tickets purchased on one order for the same packages.
Full Weekend (+ Brecken) = $200 [11 hours!], Bring-A-Friend = $360 (2 tickets), Bring 2 Friends = $510 (3 or more tickets).
2 Days (+Brecken) = $155 [8 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $270, Bring 2 Friends = $375.
3 Day package= $170 [9 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $300, Bring 2 Friends = $420.
2 Day package= $120, Bring-A-Friend = $200, Bring 2 Friends =$270.
Single Day= $65. (Will go on sale one week before)

Brecken Workshop = $40, Bring-A-Friend =$70 , Bring-2-Friends $90.

(***These prices do not include the etix service charge. You will save on this charge by purchasing packages).

The last time we came to Boulder, we sold out, so no pressure, but you know…

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices and three tickets to receive the “Bring-2-Friends” prices.

IF something doesn’t work, please let me know. I will correct it immediately. I. can. not. wait.

Now, I know it’s a lot, but be sure to look through the options carefully to get the one just right for you:

Buy your HoopPath: Boulder Tickets here! 

HoopPath: Steamboat Springs, CO

Saturday, January, 9th, 2010 (12:30-3:30 pm)

Sunday, January, 10th, 2010 (12:30-3:30 pm)

NW Ballet
326 Oak Street
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
(970)871-1880

Hello, Steamboat Springs!  I’m looking forward to meeting you.

 I am very happy to be coming out to Steamboat Springs on the very weekend of my birthday.  I’ve never been out to your neck of the woods before.  I want to think Jennifer Harlan for hosting me for what should be a nice, intimate workshop series.  I will be teaching in a smaller venue than usual, and I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to connect more directly with a smaller number of attendees.

 Having never been to your town, you might have some questions about the HoopPath and what it is that I teach.  I have been a teaching hooping for almost five years and have sustained myself professionally on hooping alone for well over two years now.  I won Hooping.org’s first ever “Teacher of the Year” award in 2008.  The HoopPath is a hoop dance curriculum that encourages and teaches a Way of moving with the hoop intended to help us become fit physically, mentally, and (for some) Spiritually.  Some cringe at the word, “Spiritual” and can’t imagine how a hula hoop could be anything more than a party favor.  I understand that it is a great leap for many to consider this round “icon” of the 1950’s as a tool which can lead one toward a deeper understanding of themselves.  Sounds crazy at first, but movement and it’s exploration is, and has been since nearly the dawn of time, revelatory.  Sure, the tool we use may surprise some, but the fact remains that hoop dance is movement and expression and the interplay of those two parts is illuminating for those wishing to learn more about themselves.  Movement as meditation isn’t the Hoop Community’s invention.  That concept has been around since papyrus.  We just use a hoop to set us in motion.

 Over the two days of our workshop in Steamboat Springs we will go over what I consider to be essential building blocks of hoop dance.  We will work on hooping on the core (weight-shifting, balances, shoulder hooping, Angle hooping, etc.) as well as some off body techniques and moves.  I do my best to balance hoop technique with room for personal growth with and without the hoop in hand.  If you don’t know this about me, let me be the first to admit that my workshops are outside-the-box.  Don’t worry.  I’m not into embarrassing someone into growth.  To the contrary, I work hard to build a safe, non-judgmental space in which we can all feel comfortable to express and learn new things about hooping and ourselves.

 Hooping has changed my life and taken me all over the U.S. and into Canada.  Even though my personal approach to hooping is as a meditative practice, I like to think that I keep an access open to anyone who wants to take their hooping to the next level.  I don’t teach to hear myself talk and I take a LOT of pride in the growth many attendees experience.  I teach/train students in order to make them better hoopers. Period.  Whatever your motivation for picking up the hoop, you are welcome in my workshops.  All I ask (and this is a lot for some) is that you show up ready to learn and give each exercise, whether it be technical or meditative, your full effort.  My hope is that you will trust me and my method and suspend any disbelief you may have about hoop dance’s potential to grow and transform you.

 Because our space is limited in size, there is only one ticket option and that is for both days.  *If* there are any spots left unsold as of Jan. 6th, 2010, then we will open up single day tickets.  We are blessed to be on a current string of sold out workshops and I hope that will continue when I come to Steamboat Springs.  For the record, there are only 15 spots for sale.

 If you have been before to one of my workshop in another town, or if you are coming with friends, we have installed some discounts to make this workshop an even better deal.

 If you have any questions about the workshops, please feel free to write me at baxter@hooppath.com.

 I look forward to meeting you and sharing some hoop space!

 ***HOW THE DISCOUNTS WORK:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2 (or more) tickets” on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.

Click Here to Buy Tickets!

 HoopPath: San Francisco  Warrior Path

 January 5th, 2010 (7 - 10pm)

 January 6th, 2010 (7-10pm)

 January 7th, 2010 (7-10pm)

 Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab

 Studio 200, 2nd Floor

 301- 8th Street

 San Francisco, CA

***12/28/09 update:  We have 2 tickets left!  Thank you so much.  Can’t wait to see you!  Tuesday single day tickets are now available for sale.   I am honored and humbled by the enthusiasm shown by those who have purchased their tickets so far in advance.  See you there!***

Ahhhh…. San Francisco.  My home away from home.

I have a special place in my heart for San Francisco and the hoopers who live there.  It was in San Francisco that I sold out a workshop for the first time in my career, and, thankfully, that streak has endured when I have revisited.  Who knows what will happen this time, but I’m grateful that I have received so much Love in the past.  The San Francisco Hoop Community has morphed over the last two years, and I’m curious to see how HoopPath teaching will be received when I return in January.

I do not normally teach my workshops on weeknights, but these were the times that were open and I had to go for it.  My apologies to those of you who will not be able to make it because of this.   Like my other workshops, I will sell single day tickets the week before the event for those who can only do one night.  Obviously, if we sell out, there won’t be single day tickets.

 This time around I’m bringing “The Warrior Path” with me.  This may be confusing for some of you who have attended my other workshops in the past.  I actually taught a workshop several years ago in SF by the same name.  This is NOT that workshop.  Although, I’m proud of the former “Warrior Path” workshop, this new series reflects the flight time of my teaching since and is written (I believe) with a much more clear and cogent emphasis.  I have stepped into myself more fully and my teaching has benefited.  It was you, SF, that helped me in that process so much, and I return to you with a stronger sense of purpose and confidence.

 I do not wish to place SF on any pedestals, but there is no denying that there are more hoop companies and teachers headquartered there than in any other U.S. city.  When I visit there I feel more like a hoop trainer, than teacher.  Although I train and teach in EVERY city I visit, San Francisco is unique in that usually half of the attendees also have hoop companies, dvds for sale, and legions of students.  I’m not intimidated by it.  I’m actually honored that so many pros come and check me out.  So I write this with the greatest sense of care and gentleness:  if you come to my class I will treat you like I treat everyone else.  I have chosen to stop honoring other hoop teachers who are present in Circle, because I believe that, unwittingly, I have in the past made others who are not teachers/professional hoopers feel “less important.”  It has been brought to my attention that the weeds of “elitism” have sprouted in the HoopPath garden and it is my intent to pull’em .  So, fair warning, if you come, you’re a student just like everyone else in Circle.  My hope is that my intent in writing this is being clearly transmitted here.

 The Warrior Path:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping. This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes. The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance. We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice. This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves. The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before. If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One. Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops. If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’ Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests. Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

The Tickets:

There are four ticket options for you:

The 3 Day Package (Days 1-3)

Days 1 &2

Days 2&3 (for returning HP students)

Single Day tickets (these will go on sale one week before event.)

The Prices and the Discounts:

There are two discounts available for this event:

1.  If  you have attended any HoopPath event previously and you are coming alone, you will receive 10% off of your ticket price when you enter “Back Home” in the ‘promo code’ box after selecting your ticket.

2. If you and one or more friends would like to come together, then you will qualify for the “Bring-A-Friend” discount.  This discount is only valid when a minum of 2 or more tickets are purchased.  You may purchase up to six tickets at this price.  See instructions below on how to receive this discount.   If you are coming with a group greater than six, please email me (baxter@hooppath.com) and I’ll explain what you will need to do.

The prices are as follows:

3 Day package = $170, with “Bring-A-Friend Discount” (min. 2 tickets ordered) = $300,  3 tix = $450, 4 tix = $600, etc.

2 Day packages  = $120, “Bring-A-Friend Discount”  (min. 2 tickets ordered) = $200,  3 tix = $300, 4 tix = $400, etc.

(There is a service fee of $5 per ticket charged by our ticket broker.)

* The “Bring-A-Friend” price is good for up to six tickets on one order.  These tickets must be purchased for the same package.  If you need to stretch this discount across packages, please write me.

Directions for receiving Discounts when ordering:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2-6″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.  These tickets are non-refundable, so make sure your friends are committed.

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices.

IF something doesn’t work for you in the ordering proces, please let me know. I will correct it immediately.

So, you ready?

Buy your Tickets here! 

HoopPath: D.C. 2009

The Warrior Path Series

Friday, 12/11/09 (6-9pm)

Saturday, 12/12/09 (4-7pm)

Sunday, 12/13/09 (1pm-4pm)

The Center Dance Company

3443 Carlin Springs Road

Falls Church, VA 22041

 ***THANK YOU.  This event is now sold out of packages.  We have a few tickets left for Friday and will put those on sale on Wednesday morning (EST).  Thank you so much!  ***

 What’s up, D.C.?  (If it were up to me, you’d have representation in Congress.  Just so you know…)

Hello, D.C. area Hoopers.  It has been too long since I was in the Capital City and we are going to change that right now.  I taught in Baltimore about two years ago and have not been back since.  I did see many of you at the last HoopPath Retreat (”HP3″), but the next one of those is not until June and I just can’t wait that long to see you.  So, I’m coming up super soon to bring my new workshop series, The Warrior Path, to you.  We have found a reasonable sized place to hold a weekend of hoop instruction and Community.  The venue should be big enough to have a good size group, but small enough to create a cozy intimacy.  I’m excited to be coming, and I hope this workshop weekend can be worked into your holiday plans.  Now, I’ll give you the details.

The Warrior Path:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping. This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes. The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance. We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice. This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves. The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before. If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One. Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops. If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’ Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests. Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

The Tickets:

There are four ticket options for you:

The 3 Day Package (Days 1-3)

Days 1 &2

Days 2&3 (for returning HP students)

The Prices and the Discounts:

There are two discounts available for this event:

1.  If  you have attended any HoopPath event previously and you are coming alone, you will receive 10% off of your ticket price when you enter “Back Home” in the ‘promo code’ box after selecting your ticket.

2. If you and one or more friends would like to come together, then you will qualify for the “Bring-A-Friend” discount.  This discount is only valid when 2 or more tickets are purchased.  You may purchase up to six tickets at this price.  See instructions below on how to receive this discount.

The prices are as follows:

3 Day package = $170, Bring-A-Friend (2 tickets ordered) = $300*

2 Day packages (1&2, or 2&3) = $120, Bring-A-Friend (2 tickets ordered) = $200.*

(There is a service fee of $5 per ticket charged by our ticket broker.)

* The “Bring-A-Friend” price is good for up to six tickets on one order.  These tickets must be purchased for the same package. 6 B.A.F. tix =$600.

Directions for receiving Discounts when ordering:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2-6″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.  These tickets are non-refundable, so make sure your friends are committed.

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices.

IF something doesn’t work, please let me know. I will correct it immediately.

So, you ready?

Buy Your HP: D.C.-9 Tickets here!

See you soon!

HoopPath: Florida-Warrior Path + Brecken Rivara

Friday, 12/4:/2009,  7 - 10 p.m.

Saturday, 12/5/2009,  11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, 12/6/2009,   11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Brecken Rivara: Sunday, 12/6/2009,  3-5 pm.

Roberts Recreation Center

1246 50th Ave N

Saint Petersburg, FL

Well, Hello, St. Pete!

Florida.  One of my favorite hoop communities in the country.  I am very excited to be invited by Abby Albaum of the Hoola Monsters (St. Petersburg/Sarasota) to return and teach the HoopPath one more time.  This time around I will be bringing my new workshop series, The Warrior Path, as well as, my good hoop friend, Brecken Rivara, to Florida for a weekend of hoop instruction and Community.  The last time I was in Florida we sold out with one of the biggest workshops I had ever taught at that time.  Since that time, both the Hoola Monsters and the HoopPath have grown in students and classes.  Yet, the connection between our two groups has grown even stronger and that makes this collaboration that much sweeter.

The Warrior Path Workshop Series:

The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping.  This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes.  The Warrior Path techniques are also integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance.  We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will  come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice.  This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves.  The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before.  If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One.  Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops.  If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’  Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests.  Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.

Brecken “The Tsunami” Rivara

There are so many wonderful and amazing hoopers within the Hoop Community.  The Community is growing so fast these days, that it is impossible for me to have seen all of them.  That being said, of the hoopers I know, Brecken is one of the most unique, most amazing hoopers to emerge into the scene since I started hooping.  I can not heap enough praise on her hoop dance.  She, like myself, is committed to keeping the ‘dance’ in hoopdance and her style makes that abundantly clear.  It is not so much the uniqueness of her moves or her techniques that set her apart (although no one hoops like her), but rather the Way in which her expression unfolds when she releases into her Flow that makes her so mind blowing and unforgettable.  If you haven’t seen Brecken hoop, then you are in for phenomenal surprise.  I might be the only one who calls her “The Tsunami” for now, but many amongst the Community who have witnessed her hooping understand the origin of my nickname for her.   Look out onto the ocean of Hooping, and the next big wave is Brecken Rivara.  I am honored to share teaching space with such a Channel.

Brecken and I understand that 5 hours of workshops in one day may sound intimidating, but our intent is to structure Sunday so that  someone who is in reasonable shape should be able to endure it.  Sunday of the Warrior Path deals with many of the off-body, less physically demanding techniques of Warrior-style hooping.   Students who have attended both Brecken’s previous workshop and Day 3’s of past HP  workshops believe that Sunday is going to be an amazing and enlightening in its chemistry.

 Here is a word from Brecken describing her workshop called, “Bridging and Asserting Planes”:

If there’s one thing I’d like to impart on the hooping community, it’s a broader range of movement. There are a couple of planes we’re all comfortable with, and that’s fine because you need that point of origin. It’s home base. But the hoop can go ANYwhere, and it probably should: I think it’s the freedom to explore our impulses, with the hoop as a guide -or even security, that truly embodies that partnership, and it’s not that hard (honestly) to offer the same to more of your body. Then just knowing how to use that connection-letting it fall into new space and then owning it there; how to take the lead and let it go, and assert and release at will, on beat-that’ll really take it there. …aaand we’ll make it look good.

This class started a while ago as an answer to the question of horizontal/vertical transitions. (You’ll never be at a loss for that answer again, btw.) A year later, it serves as the basis for the majority of my hooping. Coupled with a variety of isolations, extensions, visual techniques and found pathways for being compelled into place… I’m pretty sure you’ll leave a better hooper with a stronger basis for exploration. Forget the planes; they’re always there when you need them. I’ll show you some stuff and we’ll have a blast. Fo shizzle.

Tickets:

So this may seem lengthy and tedious, but we are in a space large enough that we can accommodate many hoopers.  This means we get to be “cool” and offer lots of ticket options and discounts.  Please read the following carefully, to find the option (and maybe, the discount) you need.  [**if you have any questions or problems concerning tickets, please contact me at baxter@hooppath.com]

Basically, there are three categories of tickets:

1. My workshops + Brecken’s workshop on Sunday
2. My workshops only
3. Brecken’s workshop only

Within two of those three categories (#1 and #2) there are many options which include:

1. Days 1-3 (3 day package)
2. Days 1 & 2
3. Days 2 & 3
4. Days 1 & 3

How The Discounts Work:

So all of the options have within them pricing discounts for multiple tickets purchased in one grouping. There are three ways to receive discounts:

1) If you have had an HP workshop before and you are coming alone (one ticket), enter “back home” in the ‘promo code’ box to receive 10% off my workshops.

2) If you are coming with a friend, select the “Bring-a-Friend” ticket option and choose “2″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-a-Friend.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.

3) If you are coming with 2 friends, select the “Bring-2-Friends” tickets and choose “3″ on the pull down. Then, in the ‘promo code’ box enter “Bring-2-Friends.” This will reduce the price of each ticket.Brecken and I hope you will come to all the workshops, so we have included an incentive: when you purchase all three days, Brecken’s workshop is only $30 with no service charge. When you purchase 2 days, her workshop is only 35 with no service charge!

You can also purchase only Brecken’s workshop for $40 and a minimal service charge.  Brecken is also on board with Bring-A-Friend pricing.  Just follow the instructions listed above for the packages.  (When purchasing tickets to Brecken’s workshop, please note that there is a  $4 service charge per ticket.)

The Prices: 

Full Weekend (+ Brecken) = $200 [11 hours!], Bring-A-Friend = $360, Bring 2 Friends = $510.
2 Days (+Brecken) = $155 [8 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $270, Bring 2 Friends = $375.
3 Day package= $170 [9 hours], Bring-A-Friend = $300, Bring 2 Friends = $420.
2 Day package= $120, Bring-A-Friend = $200, Bring 2 Friends =$270.
Single Day= $65. (Will go on sale one week before)

Brecken Workshop = $40, Bring-A-Friend =$70 , Bring-2-Friends $90.

(***These prices do not include the etix service charge. You will save on this charge by purchasing packages).

The last time we came to FL, we sold out, so no pressure, but you know…

 PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
**I use an online ticket agent for all my productions, and the service charge goes directly to them. The software they use is not exactly set up for our pricing strategies, so I apologize if the “work around” seems tedious. I will be auditing the ticket sales to make sure everything goes to plan, and if there is any confusion or error in your ordering I will alert you so we can correct it. Just so you know, despite available loopholes in the system, you must buy 2 tickets to receive the “Bring-A-Friend” prices and three tickets to receive the “Bring-2-Friends” prices.

IF something doesn’t work, please let me know. I will correct it immediately. I. can. not. wait.

Now, I know it’s all lot, but be sure to look through the options carefully to get the one just right for you:

Buy your HoopPath: Florida Tickets here! 

 HoopPath: Louisville “Warrior Path”

Friday, November 13th, 6-9 pm.

Saturday, November 14th, 1-4 pm.

Sunday, November 15th, 1-4 pm.

St Joseph’s Church/School Gymnasium
1406 E. Washington St.
Louisville KY  40206

What’s up, Louisville?

I am very excited to unveil my new workshop series, The Warrior Path on the weekend of November 13th-15th, 2009.  The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping.  This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes.  The Warrior Path techniques are integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance.  We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will  come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice.  This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves.  The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before.  If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One.  Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops.  If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’  Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests.  Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.The tickets for this workshop are offered in a variety of packages.  Sometimes when we travel, we have had such little space that we have been unable to offer any discounts.  This time around we are very excited to have a space large enough that we can offer essentially “specials.”

Here are a list of our options for HP: Louisville:

Days 1, 2, and 3

Days 1 and 2

Days 2 and 3 (For returning students).

 Single Day tickets for all 3 days will go onsale on Monday, 11/9/09.

We are VERY excited to offer, for the first time in Louisville, “Bring a Friend” pricing.  This means that when you and a buddy buy your tickets (two tickets) together (in one transaction) your individual tickets are discounted.  If you bring 2 friends (3 tickets total) you receive an even greater price break.   **Please note that you will select the “Bring-A-Friend” option to purchase TWO passes for the selected days, or THREE passes if you select “Bring-2 Friends.”  These tickets are non-refundable, so make sure that your friends are committed before purchasing.

If you can only make one of the three days, don’t worry, we will be selling single day tickets beginning Monday, November 9th.

If you have attended a HoopPath workshop before and you are purchasing an “individual” ticket, enter the code “back home” to receive a 10 percent discount.  This discount does not apply to other “Bring-a-friend” discounts. 

IF you cannot attend Saturday, but would like to attend Friday and Sunday, simply purchase “Day 1 &2″ and let me know on Friday that you will not be attending Saturday.  If you have any questions, feel free to write me at baxter@hooppath.com.

Buy your tickets here!

Prices for 3 day pass:

Individual = $170 (9 hrs)

Bring-A-Friend (2 tix) = $300

Bring-2 Friends (3 tix) = $420

Prices for 2 day packages:

Individual = $120 (6 hrs)

Bring-A-Friend (2 tix) = $200

Bring-2 Friends (3 tix) = $270

Single Day tickets (if available) = $65 per day.

 All Skill levels are welcome!

Buy your tickets here!

HoopPath: NYC Halloween

We sold out!  Thanks, NYC.

Day 1, Oct. 30th, 6-9pm

Day 2, Oct. 31st, 4-7pm

Day 3, Nov. 1st, 7-10pm

244 W 54th St, New York, NY

Dance New York (5th Floor)

Hello, NYC!  I am very excited to unveil my new workshop series, The Warrior Path on the weekend of October 30th-Novemeber 1st, 2009.  The Warrior Path is a brand new workshop with new terms, techniques, and exercises intended to introduce hoopers to what we call “Warrior” style hooping.  This concept combines on and off body techniques with rapid current and plane changes.  The Warrior Path techniques are integrated with internal, meditative foci, as well, to help the hooper open up to their own stillness and clarity.

The HoopPath has taught Warrior techniques since its inception, but this will be the first time that we have concentrated this much time and energy on this wonderfully beautiful and unique approach to hoop dance.  We assure you that even those who have taken HoopPath classes and workshops before will  come away with new terms and concepts to further their own hoop practice.  This is indeed the long awaited second chapter so many of you have asked for over the last year.

Within the HoopPath Community, the term, “Warrior” refers to an indomitable attitude or spirit to which each of us has access and, through mindful practice, can foster and grow within ourselves.  The techniques of The Warrior Path help us to explore and develop an inner calm and resilience that strengthens and improves our hoop dance, while also teaching us more about our own personal power away from the hoop.

While this workshop is very much a continuation of our past workshops, we have designed this series to be equally accessible to those who have never taken an HP class before.  If you have not taken a workshop with us before, you will need to sign up for Day One.  Day one of WP will be very similar to Day One of our other workshops.  If you have not been to one of our workshops before, you should know that the skills covered in Day One are hardly ‘beginner.’  Day One sets up the terms, concepts, and foundational techniques upon which all the advanced teaching rests.  Day One is easily the favorite day of most returning students.The tickets for this workshop are offered in a variety of packages.  Before when we have traveled to NYC, we have had such little space that we have been unable to offer any discounts.  This time around we are very excited to have a space large enough that we can offer essentially “specials.”

Here are a list of our options for HP: NYC:

Days 1, 2, and 3

Days 1 and 2

Days 2 and 3 (For returning students).

 Single Day tickets for all 3 days will go onsale on Wednesday, 10/28/09.

We are VERY excited to offer, for the first time in NYC, “Bring a Friend” pricing.  This means that when you and a buddy buy your tickets (two tickets) together (in one transaction) your individual tickets are discounted.  If you bring 2 friends (3 tickets total) you receive an even greater price break.   **Please note that you will select the “Bring-A-Friend” option to purchase TWO passes for the selected days, or THREE passes if you select “Bring-2 Friends.”  These tickets are non-refundable, so make sure that your friends are committed before purchasing.

If you can only make one of the three days, don’t worry, we will be selling single day tickets beginning Monday, October 26th.

IF you cannot attend Saturday, but would like to attend Friday and Sunday, simply purchase “Day 1 &2″ and let me know on Friday that you will not be attending Saturday.  If you have any questions, feel free to write me at baxter@hooppath.com.

Buy your tickets here!

Prices for 3 day pass:

Individual = $170 (9 hrs)

Bring-A-Friend (2 tix) = $300

Bring-2 Friends (3 tix) = $420

Prices for 2 day packages:

Individual = $120 (6 hrs)

Bring-A-Friend (2 tix) = $200

Bring-2 Friends (3 tix) = $270

Single Day tickets (if available) = $60 per day.

 All Skill levels are welcome!

Buy your tickets here!

HoopPath: Chicago Summer

(AS of 9/17/09 we have tickets still available for all the packages.  If you would like to attend Day 1 only, please write or call us to make arrangements.  At this point, walk-ins are welcome. 919-928-4557.)

The (very brief) Details:

 Friday, September 18th, 2009 (7pm-10pm)

Saturday, September 19th, 2009 (3-6pm)

Sunday, September 20, 2009 (10 am- 1pm)

There will be three ticket options:

Days 1,2, and 3

Days 1&2 (For those new to HoopPath)

Days 2&3 (For those who have previously attended.)

OK, y’all–it snuck up on us!  After a 2-week odyssey that included Burning Man, visiting our awesome Bend OR peeps, and reconnecting with our home tribe in St. Simons Island, GA, we find ourselves, rather suddenly, leaving for Chicago tomorrow morning.

We can’t wait to visit this amazing city when the temperature ISN’T between 0 and 15F (yes, that’s what it was our last two trips.  Yes.  It was.)  And we’re stoked that some new hoopers will be taking the HP plunge with us!  If you’re in the Chicago area and still haven’t dipped your toe into a real HP workshop, I encourage you to take the chance.  Your hooping WILL grow.  I’ve seen it happen hundreds and hundreds of times.

Days 1 & 2 will be geared towards those who have never taken a HP shop before.  Returning students can join us for Days 2 & 3.  I (Ann) will be gettin all fancy on Day 3 and teaching sustained stalling (aka spinning) as well as some cool off-body twins work!  Come one, come all–it’s going to be a blast.  And there’s a PARTY at Corrine’s on Saturday night!  (Thank you, girl!)

Our great pal Heather HooperPower is interviewed in this sweet article from Chicago Now:

Click here to buy tickets!

A new friend of the Hoop Path, who would like to remain anonymous, shared these extremely poignant reflections with us, and we would like to share them with you:

I was excited from the start to finally have a chance to study the Hoop Path way with you two. Having bought the DVD and watching it a few times, I knew that there was a spirituality present in HP which elevated the art of hooping far beyond the mere acquisition of tricks. This really resonates for me; I discovered hooping quite by accident on the internet 6 months ago. After making my own hoops and hooping blissfully with my little sis for a few weeks, I ordered an instructional hooping DVD which happened to be very trick oriented. As I struggled hopelessly to do even the most basic tricks on the DVD, I was overwhelmed with sadness and self-loathing–in a matter of moments I went from loving hooping with a pure and blissful joy, to resenting hooping, talented hoopers, and especially myself for being so uncoordiated, fat, blah blah blah, blah.
Thank God, though, my hooping story did not end there. Thanks to some self-work I have been doing (imperfectly) for the past few years in a 12step program, I was blessed enough to see the insanity and unreality of my thinking. I chose to move away from using the trick DVD for a while and focus on simply hooping for joy and letting whatever happens happen. Interestingly enough, I now can and do use the trick DVD without any negative effects.
I share all this simply to illustrate that a true Hoop Path which celebrates hooping as a sacred and life-affirming dance and art form is so needed in this community. Thank you for guiding hoopers like me along that path. Like so many things in this world, hooping has within it so many approaches and schools, though it is still largely below the radar. Some of these focus on appearance, while others focus on substance. Whenever I feel overhwhelmed and my mind begins to use hooping as a bludgeon (”I should hoop 3 hours a day” “Why can’t I have a body like so-and-so” “No one wants to see me hoop; I know, like, 4 tricks”), I like to imagine that Hoop Path and all that I have learned from it is like a still, small voice which will guide my along my true journey–all i need to do is turn down the volume on all the other clamor–all the World Of Appearance Shit–and listen. Like that piece of scripture…”A voice crying out in the wilderness…or crying out in the desert”…or something. That is how I think of Hoop Path.

Since I am on the subject of spirituality, let me share what was perhaps my most profound moment on the retreat: Hoop Church. If you held a Hoop Church service every sunday, i would have no choice but to move to NC!  : )  Like so many others, my spiritual journey has been, and continues to be, a mysterious and rough road. Being raised in a loving born-again Christian household, I did always believe in God–yet was always unsure about Jesus. Being continually told that Jesus was the only way to heaven and that any wavering about him meant an eternity in hell, i forced myself to believe out of fear. of course, belief motivated by fear is no kind of belief at all. as a young child, fear of going to hell was CONSTANTLY on my mind, making me lose sleep every night, etc. As i went through turbulent teen years, i was able to largely put this out of my mind with ditstractions of drugs, abusive relationships, overeating and restricting, etc. I dabbled briefly with other religions, but nothing was ever a prefect fit. I never lost the sense that God exists, but i had no relationship with God and was in spiritual pain.
A few years ago in my late teens and early 20s I began turning away from some of the things causing me pain: drugs and bad relationships. Those were easy compared to my primary addiction, which i still must deal with daily, compulsive overeating. I have been recovering in Overeaters Anonymous since 2005…with ups and downs…but truly this program saved my life. I know that i never would have found hooping or especially Hoop Path with out the 12 steps. though it may sound odd, i think of hoop path as a part of my recovery from addictions and the disease of self.
To connect this back to Hoop Path and hoop church:  My first year or two of recovery were easy and blissful, which was a gift. I was able to have a relationship with God, my Higher Power, and to set aside most of my spiritual anxieties and uncertainties simply because recovery was such an awesome experience. Then, one year ago, things got hard again. I had a sudden attack of severe back pain, which continues to linger to this day. My complacency about food and meeting attendance was growing and I began to relapse and turn away from program. Again, i became bothered by christian doctrines which stated that there was no other way. i knew i did not believe in christianity, yet i had also been conditioned to fear trying any other faiths because this meant going to hell. finally, right before i found hooping, i resigned myself to the fact that i would probably go to hell no matter what, and that any spiritual journey would be futile. When i began hooping, my mother was mostly supportive. yet when i would show her any hooping stuff on the internet, she would remark that it was a “cult” a “false doctrine” and a “new age california thing.” : )  I thought to myself, “if it is a cult, count me in! it’s the coolest cult I can imagine.”  I did think of my hooping as a spiritual practice. it also helped with some self-image stuff during my food relapse. my first and only hooping event prior to hoop path was hoop convergence–and i had some spiritual experiences there which helped me to move into the mindset i wanted to be in for hoop path.
Coming in to the hoop church service was awesome. the entire retreat had already been so meditative, and hoop church really allowed me to get to a place of serenity. the music was particularly important to my entire epiphany–i was hooping, meditating, etc, and suddenly a song came on: an amazing version of “How Great Thou Art“. This song was the key that helped me unlock years of spiritual pain and to move through and beyond my spiritual blocks. I really believe that your choice to use that song was divinely inspired–that song played for a reason.  I always loved that song, and I have a powerful memory attatched to it. Several years ago, my mother and I were on vacation in Pennsylvania. We were hiking through some caverns and waterfalls in this gorgeous nature preserve. At one point we found ourselves face to face with a HUGE cavern which made tremendous echoes. My mother, who has a beautiful voice, closed her eyes and sung this very hymn, starting slowly and building into a crescendo with the chorus of “then sing my soul, my savior God to thee, how great thou art…”
I remember that when she did this i wanted to let myself be moved to tears but i could not allow it because my heart was so hard.
years later, in your hoop church, i was hooping to this song with my heart completely open. in my mind’s eye i was back at the cavern again. suddenly, i was so overwhelmed with joy and pain and tears–everything was flowing through me at once and all i could feel was gratitude.  The only way to put into words exactly what i realized at that moment is to one of the mantras baxter gave to us: “it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.” I realized, I am okay with the Mystery, and it is okay with me. I am at peace. i am child of God, and I am not forsaken.

Driving home on the interstate the next morning, i passed a billboard. it was huge and black with big letters reading,
“IF YOU DIED TODAY, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU WOULD SPEND ETERNITY?”
Normally, a billboard like this would either frighten or anger me. but becuase of what i experienced at hoop church, i just smiled to myself and answered the question: “No, i don’t know where I am going when i die. and for the first time, that does not scare me.”

Hoop path has given me exactly what i wanted spiritually–and this is to say nothing of everything i got from it physically, emotionally, and mentally as well. blindfolded hooping was awesome. sometimes i wish that the only hooping i would ever do forever is blindfolded hooping alone in the woods. I really feel as though there is my life before hoop path, and my life since. that is not to say that all my hooping since has been magical or blissful–but even the hard days (like yesterday) are teaching me the importance of what baxter was saying about having a commitment to a hoop practice regardless of circumstances or mood.

My last thing to share (though i could go on forever) is about a dream that i had just last night. this dream was about hoop path, and it was because of the dream that i realized i was ready to write this email:

I dreamt that i was organizing a hoop path event, that i had brought Baxter and Ann to my town for the event. though there were already dozens of people there for the event, i began getting nervous and wanting to call the whole thing off. i got up in front all the other hoopers and said, “Well, everyone, there is another hoop path event already planned a month from now in a nearby city. So, we have a choice: we can stay here for this event, and have to do all the work ourselves, or we can cancel it and just go to the event next month which is already planned, that way we won’t have to do any work.” I turned to Baxter and asked, “What should I do: should i do the work, or let someone else do it?” Baxter just smiled knowingly and said nothing.  Then everyone there joined hands in a long circle and starting moving around the room–all i could see was circles within circles, and people smiling and turning round and round, dancing and forming long chains. As the smiling faces surrounded me and i was swept into the dance, i turned to Baxter and said, “i made the right choice didn’t I? i decided to do it myself, right? i’m so glad that i did!” And again Baxter was smiling, and he just nodded.  Then, i woke up. i can’t explain to others what the dream means, but i know it myself.

Sweet Abby joined us for the 2nd year in a row and really added so much of her own unique light and joy to this year’s event.  We were deeply touched by the words she shared in her blog, particularly the personal history that led her to the hoop, and to us:

Light. Bliss. Acceptance. Positive Transformation. Meditation. Gratitude. Happiness. Calm. Silence. Beauty. Talent. Music. Hugs. Flow. Appreciation. Amazement. Tears. Fire. Warmth. Comfort. Community. Introspection. Self-Love. Smiles. Patience. Sharing. PE*A*CE.

These are just some of the words that come to mind when I reflect on this past weekend. I returned from the Hoop Path Retreat in Carborro, North Carolina yesterday evening. Before diving into my incredible experience at the retreat, I want to take a moment to explain what the The Hoop Path means to me and why this event is so significant.

When I talk about ‘finding the light’ and overcoming depression, I often discuss healing through movement meditation - specifically hoop dance. Hoop dance is my passion, my stress relief and my creative outlet for self-expression. It’s also my portal to happiness. I began hoop dancing in 2007 after a friend (Kacey from Homespun Hoops) introduced me to it. At the time, Kacey was taking a few months off from her career to attend music festivals and sell her hand-made hoops. She invited me over one day after work. We had some wine and then ventured outside to ‘hoop.’ Kacey handed me a large hoola hoop and encouraged me to try it. This hoop was different than the hula hoop I remembered playing with as a child. It was larger, heavier and it rotated slowly around my waist. I watched with awe as Kacey danced with her hoop. I was blown away by the grace and beauty of her movements. I found the experience to be meditative, rhythmic and soothing. Kacey made me my own hoop that day, and this marked the beginning of my personal hoop path. It was also a low point for me, in terms of depression.

For a few months, the hoop sat in my apartment untouched. Kacey moved back to South Carolina, and my depression got worse. I was in an unhealthy relationship and negative thoughts were constantly running through my mind. The sadness was consuming me, though I hid it well. One evening, I went to see a band with some friends. I noticed a couple girls hoop dancing. They looked so peaceful as they flowed effortlessly to the music. I watched, reflecting on how much fun I had in the backyard with Kacey. I got home that evening, moved my furniture around, and danced with my hoop in the living room for hours. It felt good.

In the months that followed, I obsessively watching videos on You Tube and Tribe.net. I cyber-stalked the masters on my computer… Spiral, Christabel, Baxter, Ann, Beth, Hoopalicious, and the list goes on… I wanted to do what they did, so I visited sites like Hooping.org, and I studied video tutorials. I also researched the websites of those who inspired me.

I will never forget the day when I logged onto The Hoop Path website for the first time. I read Jonathan Baxter’s story with amazement. Here was a man talking openly about his experience with depression… an illness that I had spent my entire life hiding. On the site, Bax credits his rigorous hoop practice as the healing tool that enabled him to successfully overcome depression. He says he started to notice that his depression struck less often, felt less oppressive and the breakdowns didn’t last as long. As a result, he was filled with hope. He also compared the rocking sensation created by the hoop to a baby rocking in its cradle… soothing, calm and quiet. Tears slid down my cheeks as I read his words. In that moment, I realized the same thing was happening for me. It had been months since I had a breakdown. Could it be that my new-found fascination with the hoop was really helping me overcome depression? This realization floored me.

From that point on, I felt a strong connection to The Hoop Path, and I wanted to meet Bax and learn from him first-hand. So, I bought a ticket to the 2008 Hoop Path Retreat in Carborro, NC. In Hoop Path language, this makes me a ’second-ringer’ (Similar to annual rings on a tree, with each retreat, the community grows and more rings are added).

In June of 2008, I traveled to North Carolina with my hoop dance troupe, The Hoola Monsters. We had recently formed our group, and a few of us had just become certified to teach classes. I was so excited (and nervous) about the event. Last year, if I had to categorize myself, in terms of skill level, I would have put myself at the ‘beginner/ just branching into intermediate’ category.

By nature, I am a competitive person. So, when I arrived at the retreat, I couldn’t help but compare myself to some of the other, more skilled hoopers. It was a humbling experience for me. At home, people would compliment my hooping regularly. At the ‘08 retreat, I was a newbie with lots to learn. There were times that brought me to tears, but Bax’s words provided balance in those moments of frustration. He talked about self-love and discovering your own path. I was learning not to put so much pressure on myself. I was learning how to be patient and accepting of who I am, at any given moment in time. It’s not about how good you can be. It’s about how good you can feel.

I vividly remember a time in one of the workshops where I started crying and broke away from the group. The tears were flowing and I couldn’t stop them. In that moment, I felt arms embrace me. I didn’t know who was hugging me, but I hugged back and that support was exactly what I needed. The hugger’s name is Lauren, and she was there for me before we ever even spoke. Needless to say, the ‘08 retreat marked the beginning of some amazing friendships.

The 2008 retreat was a cleansing experience for me. I would go so far as to say that it was life-changing. I expelled the negative energy inside of me. I literally danced it away, and I felt rejuvenated afterwards.
I’ve been looking forward to this year’s retreat since the day I left Carborro last year. I wanted to see my hoop sisters and brothers, and I wanted to revel in Baxter’s teachings again.

In the weeks leading up to the 2009 retreat, I spent lots of time on the phone with my out-of-state hooper friends, especially Lauren and Kacey. I hadn’t seen Lauren since last year’s retreat, and I really hadn’t hooped with Kacey since she introduced me to hooping in the first place. They were both going to be at the retreat, and I was so excited to see them.

I had a slumber party at my house the night before our Carborro road trip. Cassandra (a fellow HoopGirl Workout teacher), Kiyla (a member of my troupe) and Amy (one of my students) slept over. We had to wake up at 5:30 a.m. in order to make it to Carborro for the first event of the weekend. We were giddy with excitement, as we finished packing and went over the retreat schedule. We knew it was going to be an incredible experience…

Below is a selection from our dear friend Christabel (aka Hoopgirl)’s blog, talking about some of her experiences at our 2009 Retreat.  We were so blessed to have her shining company. 

Yesterday was the last day in Carrboro at the Hoop Path. The morning began with the usual wholesome breakfast around the farmhouse kitchen table at Beth’s home. Beth has an amazing Craftsman house which she designed with her husband… expansive, lots of neat subdivided rooms for different purposes, full of crafty art projects and good vibes. Surrounded by a meadow, a pasture with a goat and mini pony, chickens, trees and a magical “barn”/dance studio. Nyali, Brecken, Katherine, Michelle, Suprise, Beth and I nibbled toasted olive bread slathered with coconut oil, sliced avocado and ground salt, munched mangos and other fruits and sipped teas before launching off for the day.

The workshop with Baxter was wildly different than any other…

He called it “Hoop Church” and asked that everyone enter in silence. I walked in to the wailing voice of an Islamic call to prayer and sat in my hoop and stretched. I loved the lilting, hypnotic chant. Baxter sat on stage in silence, cross-legged, while various forms of music played, like church choir music and then some blues. At some point Ann and another woman (couldn’t see from where I was) began singing more gospely type music.I noticed resistance come into my body as the switch happened from Islamic to Christian tunes… a stiffness in the back of my neck~ old resentment towards the institutionalization of the sacred… I stayed in my breath and just focused in inhalations and exhalations, allowing my mind to stay open and flexible.

It was entertaining to watch the reactions of students in the room as this all happened. Some were super restless, figeting with their hoops and staring at Baxter. I could sense an expectancy, a desire to be directed and impatience to hoop. Others naturally went into their own centeredness, self-guiding through stretches or sitting in meditative postures. Some just got up and started hooping on their own, oblivious to everything around them.

Finally, Bax held up paper with large words written which said something like, “listen to the music, then movement”. He sat back on a stage and began playing singing bowls in lilting and percussive ways. I put on my blindfold and then just let my body flow with the sounds, taking on the vibratory resonance. It was sweet to let my fingers, wrists, elbow and body sway to the vibrations. As a teacher, I appreciated Bax pushing the comfort level of the students, entraining them to seek their own breath and guidance without overt direction. After this wonderful warm up we were ushered into the Mystery.

The class focused on Warrior and Point techniques. The Warrior material involved explosive and percussive grasping of the hoop, off-body with alternating hands. The emphasis was on clean, fast movements to build precision and to maintain the optical illusion of the hoop staying in the same levitated location. We did this in front of the body with the hoop aligned directly in front of us.

These techniques were combined with Point techniques, which I found a bit more intriguing. With Point, we balanced the hoop on four fingers, on the back of the hand. We swung the hoop to the left and right in front of us, counter-balancing the weight of the hoop with subtle pressure from the hand. It was a great exercise. Then we added vertical Swishes, Point from underneath the whole hoop (as opposed to just inside), and arm and leg synchronizations. Baxter closed with a “performance” where he demonstrated how Point and Warrior can be combined in a series of successive flows. It was neat to be able to see identify ingredients. I am inspired to continue this practice!

Next, Ann took over and taught a mini-class on sustained spinning. We focused on our drishti (gaze) and whirled on a “pedestal’ foot as a pivot, or pitter-pattered both feet, while turning. This practice has really fascinated me over the past few years. It was awesome to sink in deep, respond to the music, alternate between one and two-handed carries, focus on keeping the hoop flat and play with expressiveness in my other free arm. I loved seeing how Ann added many other off-body accents while turning since I mostly just whirl while holding the hoop around my body. She did neat behind the back holds, out to the side, behind her back, around the body swings and more. Ann is a powerful teacher who is more and more articulate every time she facilitates. I am excited for more…

I left the class soaked in sweat, breathless, and filled with an inner quiet and connection which felt precious. It was challenging to interact with those who were wandering in for the next class. Their idle chatter felt like a whole different vibration.

The afternoon took me to Weaver Street Market to share lunch with the Baltimore/Washington DC crowd of Jaguar Mary, Noelle Powers, Surprise, Kelly Jo, Max and a few more… Lunchtime talk was of vibrational flower essences, the therapeutic properties of gemstones, elixers, Sedona vortexes, and more…

Back at Beths, I had a sweet afternoon hoop jam with Katherine. Katherine is an amazingly elegant, artistic and a bad ass hooper from New York City. She is tall, lean and a phenomenal painter. It is hard to believe that she has only been hooping 10 months. Her lines are clean and elegant and she has much of the Hoop Pathian posturing of linear arms, leg lifts and super fast breaks while blindfolded. We hooped to Tina Malia and then some breaks and house music. I focused on leg reversals, kick outs, Point, paddling, drills with Snake in inflow and outflow while holding a volleyball behind my back. This particular exercise with the volleyball, which I am super excited to teach, requires incredible control and muscle isolation to maintain hoop orbit. It really pushes my edges! So it was a great sweaty session of drills and dance.

After a break the whole household began to prep for the Hooper Ball. A flurry of fabrics, outfits, and color. Zoomed there in our car… I was overwhelmed by the effort which had been invested into the decorations and lights, the fantastic sound system, fog machine and fun costumes everyone was wearing. The space was radically transformed from it’s daytime look.

The dancefloor sparkled with whirling led hoops and everyone was moving and grooving. Highlights for me: Watching Ann whirl on diagonal angles, Brecken do jazz-hip-hop moves, body-rolling and rubber leg bends, jumps and leaps with her wicked techniques, Nyali with her fluid double hooping, Rich with minis performing for Brecken, watching Michelle groove expressively. I also LOVED jamming with both Brecken and Michelle one-on-one and watching Geoff.

As for my own experience hooping, it would fall under the category of Hoopgasmic! I fell right into the pocket with the music. The deep bass pulled my center of gravity down towards the floor and I found myself doing lots of rolling, crouches while spinning and low dance while hooping and breaking in Snake. Lots of super high tosses into jumps, which I love, and a blur of other moves and accents. I just totally surrendered myself to the music and allowed pure dance to pulsate through me. I felt connected and remembered the captivating Mystery which the hoop initially held for me. Leaping, twisting, spinning and grooving in the joyous environment dropped me right into accessing this sweet spot again. The new Psi hoop which Patrick made for me spun in a rainbow of light around me and felt healing~ the colors were vibrant and soothing and completely unlike the white in many of the other blinking hoops. It was a pleasure to play with. I was so giddy and grateful! And sharing this experience with so many friends dancing all around me was awesome.

After this, the entire party moved over to a wine bar with wonderful food provided by Baxter and Ann (what a sweet gift) and lots of fun socializing and connection. It was such a treat to connect with so many people. I actually hadn’t witnessed the true hoop power of many until just hours before at the Ball. I was flooded with amplified respect for their pure expression and skills. Lots of wonderful connections until 3am.

Many, many times throughout the evening, I had a sense of this being the best weekend I had experienced all year. It was a super high sense of thankfulness for a renewed connection to my hoop, amazing re-connection with so many friends, many new friends, and of course, the wonderful Vessel created by Baxter, Ann and their community. I loved the town, the people, the authenticity, creativity, generosity and sweat. I was also so flattered by the respect and compliments of so many while there, the praise for the book, book-signings and love, love, love…

After the after party, it was back to Beth’s to sleep, arising to the shining green glow of leaves, a quick breakfast and socializing, then a zoom to the airport. Here I am now, actually posting this from the Wi-Fi access aboard Southwest. Whirlwind… time to rest and integrate… I want to remember all this beauty!

After sunset on Thursday, and good words from our homeboy Kimo as well as the first of many speeches by Baxter ; > , we tucked into our delicious (if I do say so myself) plates of homemade green beans and local NC barbecue and let our eyes and ears feast on our friends’ many talents. Highlights for me were, of course, singing harmony with Beth, Casandra’s amazing spoken word poetry-performance piece, and catching a glimpse of some of Spiral’s new acrobatic feats, but one of the weekend’s most profound moments for me began with Laurie’s inaugural poem—an intensely powerful paean to the female body: “Look upon this body, for this is the Goddess incarnate.” I cannot do it justice. Laurie is a healer and a true role model for me and, I’m sure, many others. We are blessed to have her generous spirit among us. Thank you. And thanks to everyone who brought it for the Flowcase! This was our first attempt at a talent show and I thought it went fabulously. We missed Toni, aka ThunderShyne, who was scheduled to speak but was having too much trouble with her eyes to make the trip to NC—we hope to see her and her husband Keith next year.

The Morning Meditation was, for the third year in a row, wonderfully peaceful. Laurie brought her strong voice and healing guidance along with Bonnie’s gentle and soothing imagery, lovingly chosen quotes, and beautiful home setting. I love witnessing the results of their teamwork and feeling the stillness that descends as everyone falls into meditation. We’re so lucky to have these two women in our community. Thank you both.

The Orientation could not have gone more smoothly, and again I felt Way opening moment by moment. I frankly astonished myself by how many names I already knew (thanks, Facebook!), and how easy it was to create the mini-tribes, a task that had proved staggeringly complicated the year before. Just a few shifts into accommodating the natural flow, and voila, tables were buzzing with chatter as everyone shared a few things about themselves. I was able to leave and grab a snack and a Kombucha (Kombucha addiction is NO JOKE) as well as have a couple of needed conversations. Similarly, the Monday ride-share meeting took all of 10 minutes. It was a good thing to see everyone’s readiness and willingness to accommodate others. As if I needed reminding that this was, indeed, a one-of-a-kind group of people! Thank you to everyone who shared rides with the rideless and thank you to all the locals who provided brotherly and sisterly guidance to their fire tribes. I know it was appreciated.

The first workshops, on Friday evening, were a challenging moment for me, as I realized that we might have a serious a/c issue on our hands. Those in the earlier workshop endured some highly elevated temps, and we thank you for your patience in dealing with that. I kept having to pop out of the workshops to make calls about the a/c, so I didn’t get as much of a continuous sense of the how things were flowing that evening. However, we finally got in touch with our friend Brad, a contractor, and he was able to explain to us what he thought was happening. He proved to be exactly right and everything was fine by the next morning. Even though none of them will probably read this note, I offer thanks to Alex, the CFS gym manager, Brad’s wife Christine, and, of course, Brad himself for their patience and generosity fielding our calls on a not-so-early Friday night.

Saturday’s workshops, with better light and much better air, allowed me to drink in the beautiful, expressive hoopdance of every single participant. Many, many times, both on Saturday and on Sunday, I was brought to tears by the sublime expression I witnessed. Several times, as Beth, Khan, and I circulated the room, spotting people as they hooped blind, we had to stop and exchange looks or hugs simply to acknowledge the beauty we were witnessing. That was another major highlight, one I wish everyone at the retreat could share. There is nothing more astoundingly beautiful than a roomful of people hooping blind. There’s no hesitation in the movement. It’s just incredible. Thank you all for trusting the safety of our container and sharing your beauty so generously. What a great job I have!!!

I was tickled pink that so many of you came to my twins class, and especially honored to see twin-spinning badazzes like Cari in the mix. It was a visual thrill to see twice as many hoops whizzing through the air! I wish I hadn’t broken our good camera (a SECOND time) and could have gotten some good shots—another thanks goes out to all of your who are sharing all your great pictures and videos of the weekend! Dealing with a camera is often too much for this former Luddite, and so I hugely appreciate the chance to see so much great footage of the weekend.

The sound textures and beats brought by my old friend Ken Ray to Saturday night’s drum jam caught my whole body and moved me from my very core. The richness of the sound was itself a tribute to Kevin Brock, the gentle and shining soul who was with us in our hearts that night. I reveled in the chance to lose myself in dance for the first time of the weekend.

Victor’s leadership of the kava ceremony only augmented my memories of Maria in years past. Boolaboolabooola! I love this ceremony and I love the way that Victor brought in awareness of the sacredness of the water we drank with the kava—this is the first time in two years we have been out of drought in this area, and it was good to be reminded of yet another blessing.

I loved the fact that Colleen and Nicki helped Sister Mary hand out the rings (thanks to Natalie, Pat, Patricia, Cathy & Kathy for those!) — two of our remaining First Ringers who took the chance to travel hundreds of miles in 2007 to make the first-ever Hoop Path Retreat happen. We MISSED our other First Ring homies–Martine,Vicky, Jess, Diana, Chris, Hadria, Natasha, & Maria—terribly. But we were profoundly honored that Colleen, Nicki, Khan, and Kaiya could make it back to hang with us.

The Fire Ceremony amazed me with each group so galvanized, engaging, and expressive. We locals were the real zorks with our 15-minute fire-lighting struggle. Y’all basically swept us off the stage. As it should be. : >

I loved the mixing bowl of emotions, the multipartite harmonies, the flying birds, the Skoos, the Sacred Seven, and everyone’s realness and apparent ease in sharing some of their deepest thoughts and feelings. I have to say though, the moment that really transported me was singing “We are a circle” while Bonnie’s mini-tribe wove hand-in-hand through the whole group of us. I was lifted! Thank you all so very much. And you know that we all have a special place in our hearts now for Robin, the Hoop Path’s own Steve Tyler.

Sunday’s workshops were a once-in-a-lifetime confluence of planning, openness, collective intention, and Presence. The silence was, for me, utter peace, and the music and dance that followed brought a new level of freedom into our shared space. Sunday’s blind hooping reached even higher than Saturday’s. It was truly humbling to see. You are all bright, shining spirits, and guiding lights to me.

It was such an honor to get the chance to sing with Ter’i Buttafli and Beth—we would have been nowhere without Miss Buttafli! Nothing against me and Beth : > but we cannot bring the a capella the way she can. Thank you for coaching us through!

Another of the highest highs of my weekend was SO MANY of you telling me you had breakthroughs in spinning at the end of the workshop! I had hardly dared hope, but this was one of my strongest intentions of the weekend, to open this door for people who had been feeling, for days, months, or years, that they could not spin. It had really bothered me that so many people told me over the years that they just could not do it. I wanted people to feel what I feel in that sacred place. It means so much to me that some of you who had never experienced that got to feel it for the first time that day. Thank you for trusting me and for allowing me to lead you there. Thank you also for sharing your experiences with me. It really made my year, as far as teaching goes. I’ve been loving having these opportunities to stitch together all I’ve learned from Baxter with other subjects and disciplines in my life. But this was a singular high point. Thank you.

Bringing us to…THE HOOPERS’ BALL…finally, we pulled it off! After two years of feeling very limited by the circumstances of our final night’s celebratory bash (bad lighting the first year, no lighting the second) we finally, finally nailed it. Tsunamis of thanks go to our decoration and breakdown committee—Kara, Josh, Patricia, Antje, Jolie, Laura, Laurie, and Diane—you all ROCK! It was absolutely, absolutely perfect.

Though I was distracted by trying to secure hip-hop for y’all’s discerning ears, once I finally got that rolling (Thank you again, Mary!) I looked at the pulsing crowd and got immediately and completely mesmerized by my dear friend Christabel. I could not break away as she whirled and whirled holding her glowing rainbow hoop. It’s a sight that just stays with me. I still hadn’t even gotten the hoop around me one time but I stayed rooted to the spot! It was a moment of nourishing beauty.

Once I made my way across the room I became similarly entranced by the riveting dance energies of Michele and Nayeli, who were luckily right next to each other. Nayeli’s power and clean lines absorbed me, while Michele’s wild creativity with the hoop kept zapping my senses with wonder afresh! Such richness and delight…

About my own experience dancing, really, what can I say that cannot be summed up in the word “Brecken”? That girl opened a vortex that I can still feel when I close my eyes! I know we all felt it and were truly graced by it. She was like an electric mad scientist possessed by her lab. An other-worldly spirit! When I could finally stop watching (or, really, gaping at) her, I started hooping beside her and was borne aloft by the most palpable current of Energy I have ever felt in dance. I could literally feel the Energy zinging off her. Bless you, friend, for bringing the phenomenon of yourself to share! I swear, that was a life-changing recognition. Brecken reaches deep and taps into something that enriches us all. Thank you.

There are so many more moments I remember and savor—no way to get them all down on one page. To our wonderful house guests, Heather, mARTa, Khan, Geoffrey, Rob, and Donna, and our honorary house guests Rich and Lauren, thank you for holding down the sweet vibe all weekend long. We love you and can’t wait to play with you at Burning Man. To our honored guests, whether you came from Winston-Salem or from Vancouver—thank you, thank you, thank you for making the sacrifices necessary to join us here in Carrboro, thank you for bringing and sharing your authentic selves, thank you for going back into your home communities and bringing the hoop to more and more people who need it. Y’all are a blessing. Last but not least to our beloved local Hoop Pathers: You are our heroes, our inspiration, the reason this all got started, and you deserve the biggest and loudest applause. Thank you for all that you did to pull this off and thank you for showing up to class! We love you!

It’s hard to even begin to get to the heart of what I wish I could express about this weekend–to even begin to wrap my mind around the sweet energy, love, and SOUL that our locals and guests brought to our little event. I am so moved by the generosity and openness embodied by every person. I know that people had their struggles and their challenges, and possibly weren’t always dealing with ideal circumstances, but for me the 3rd Annual Hoop Path Retreat was overwhelmingly marked by the presence of an undeniable Energy, a Force that animated pretty much every moment of the retreat for me, opening doors, removing obstacles, smoothing rough spots, lightening burdens, and facilitating connection. All things that presented themselves as potential disasters, whether logistical, interpersonal or otherwise, easily yielded to this Force and folded into a manageable shape without my having to do anything except stay Present. This weekend was for me so many things and contained so many lessons, but one of the greatest of these was the reminder to stay with Way and allow it to open, to remember not to resist what is, to allow others access to their experience without making them responsible to me or to anyone else. I must say that my belief in the phenomenon of Energy was powerfully stoked by the weekend in its entirety. And I have all of you–the locals and the guests who joined in with their good Energy and positive intentions–to thank for that. Thank you. (Warning: I might say that 400 times in this blog-note).

The story of HPIII began months ago, when we local Hoop Pathers broke our self-imposed restriction on “talking about the retreat” : > in January of this year. Baxter’s and my highest hope was that our locals could experience the retreat as fully and as leisurely as any guest (lessons taught by HPII) and I want to thank each and every local for, among so many other things, *being honest about how much you were willing to do*. I believe with all my heart that this honesty was a major reason why we had such a phenomenal retreat this year. Thank you all for being real with me. That’s what I want and that’s what I hope to offer to each of you. Despite my deep love for so many far-flung hoop brothers and sisters, you are my first and foremost hoop family, and this event is primarily for and about YOU–because we think you are all amazing, we want to show you off, and we love you “to the bones and beyond” (Laurie). I cannot even find words to express my thanks. You are a rare group of people.

Most of our guests realized at some point during the weekend how much love, attention, and work our locals were pouring into this event, but there are still so many efforts that went by unseen, and all I can say is WE COULD NOT AND WOULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM. I LOVE YOU.

Once we began discussions about 2009, now that I look back on it after the fact, it was as if that Energy had already established itself, because we just flowed forward without incident. Most of that was due to the hard work and planning that our 2008 locals had given to this event, and I hold deep gratitude to each of you who participated in that challenging year. We were all stretched to the max, and we tried to bring that into every stage of planning for this year. I feel tremendous joy that several times throughout the weekend, I was able to look around and see locals talking, laughing, hooping, and chillaxing. So grateful…

I did struggle in the first 24 hours of so with just *letting the retreat happen*–it was like I couldn’t accept that it was actually starting. This was really more on Wednesday, the day before most of you arrived. It kept seeming like I could change the channel, somehow, and be in a regular Wednesday with some extra time at the end of the day. I suppose it was the acceleration of time I was resisting. Another lesson in the futility of resistance–but sometimes it’s so difficult to overcome our instincts. I acknowledged it as it was happening and just let myself be in a resistant place. Class that night with my Sweetie helped a lot, as it almost always does. Over 3 years (4 if you count my first HP class ever) my tremendous respect and, really, awe at Baxter’s teaching power is undiminished. In fact, it has only deepened. His great teaching gift gave me, a very unlikely hoop student, an access point into the physical expression of joy and changed my life forever. I am his biggest fan and never get bored in his class, despite a 3-12 hour weekly immersion. I love you, my Sweet Sweet.

Thursday was when I finally felt the Energy in the present moment. I got to Snipes around 2pm to set up tables, and was stunned and dismayed to see that all the folding chairs, which has been set out the day Bax and I went by to check out the space, were nowhere! Mr. and Mrs. Snipes showed me the closet where they had been stored after the last event. I had an “Oh no…” moment, but then strong, beautiful Antje showed up and we got the chairs out in no time. When that ostensible problem became a non-problem, just by presence and doing the work, I felt the first sweet sense of delight that yes, this was our retreat, it was happening, and it was going to be not only good, it was going to be great.

The gentle shift in the weather, away from thunderstorms into the usual mugginess and heat, also lifted my heart and gave me a deeper sense of the presence of Way. All of the sudden, it was easy, effortless, not to worry about the weather or anything that *might happen.* I noticed that despite being aware of *what might happen*, I was just willing to let things happen. What a sweet feeling. Once everyone started arriving at Snipes, and immediately started whipping out hoops and dancing in the light of the setting sun, everything became color, light, motion, Energy. And I knew it really would all be ok.

HoopPath: Vancouver

July 11th and 12th, 2009

The Dance Centre

677 Davie Street

Vancouver, British Colombia

Saturday, July 11th, 5-8pm

Sunday, July 12th, 1-4pm

Click here to Buy Your Tickets!

HoopPath:  Toronto

 July 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2009

OIP Dance Studio

190 Richmond Street East, 2nd Fl.

Toronto, Canada

Friday, 6:30-9:30pm

Saturday, 1-4pm

Sunday, 1-4pm

There are two ticket options:

2 Days (Friday and Saturday)

3 Days (Friday-Sunday)

Hello, Toronto!

I can’t believe my trip to Canada is almost here!  I super excited to come to Canada for only my second time ever as a Hoop Instructor. I want to thank Sadie Spins and the rest of the Toronto hoop crew for a very warm invitation to come to Toronto to share my hoop teaching.

As Ann gets our life back together here in Carrboro after HoopPath Retreat III, I will be coming to Toronto to teach a three-day workshop series for all skill and talent levels.

Some of you may be wondering what to expect in the workshops, so let me offer you a brief description of what to expect:

On Day One, I will share and develop the Way of my teaching technique:  The Maidan Myth.  In the HoopPath teaching, I rely heavily on the use of metaphor in order to open a creative connection between hoop technique and creative expression.  While metaphor can be a phenomenal tool in communicating ideas, it can, if taken literally, become cumbersome.  On the first day, I will outline and create an access for all of us to understand the foundational ideas of hoop movement and dance with a clear, shared meaning of my terms and ideas.  The hoop skills we will work on will be Core skills [core= top of the head to bottoms of the feet.]

On Day Two, we will push into the more advanced core skills such as shoulder hooping, leg hooping, and Angle hooping.  I should tell you that I write Day Two after Day One, so that I can respond to what I have seen the day before.  It is safe to say that, generally, Day Two will cover the aforementioned skills listed above, but I do reserve the right to wander from that path, should my instincts direct me that way.  We will also discuss breaks, reverses, and paddles that day.

On Day Three, we will take the hoop off of the body and move into some of the basic Touch techniques of the HoopPath.  These techniques (Point, Swing, and Samurai) are off body moves intended to help one foster “stillness” within the hoop.  “Stillness” is the calm we create in the Mind as the body is engaged in rapid and changing movements.  Generally, students find the last day to be less athletic, but surprisingly challenging.

Our workshops are physically challenging, to be sure.  Please rest before you come and bring LOTS of water.  If you have multiple hoops, you will want to bring the hoop you feel most comfortable with “core-hooping” for the first day and most likely the second day, as well.

If you have questions, please write to me at Baxter@hooppath.com.

Click here to Buy Tickets!

The 2009 HoopPath Retreat: Moving Beyond Appearance: The Vessel, the Mind, and the Mystery.

Blessings and Greetings to each of you my current and future friends and fellow hoopers! It is with great excitement and enthusiasm that I write to you today beneath this beautiful Carolina sky to extend to you an invitation to join us this year for our 3rd Annual 2009 HoopPath Retreat: The Vessel, the Mind, and the Mystery. The weekend of the Retreat is June 18th through June 21st, 2009. Our first event begins on Thursday evening at 6 pm, and our last event (at least officially) ends on Sunday evening at 11:00 pm.

A Quick History

In 2007, the HoopPath tribe of Carrboro, NC invited hoopers from all over to come and hang out with us for a weekend of workshops and community building over a summer weekend here in North Carolina. We put the invitation out to as many as we could. We were wowed to have 18 guests come from all over the U.S. and join us for a weekend of what we were then calling, “positive rhythm generation.” We brought these folks into our homes and lives for one weekend of pure hooping paradise. We scheduled workshops, get-togethers, rituals, and jams over three days and nights. We found out that weekend that we as a fledgling Community had a lot more in common than just the hoop. It was a pivotal moment not only for our group and those who attended, but also for the Community at large who witnessed that these types of events could not only be dreamt, but also successfully realized. Pulling off this inaugral event was and continues to be a source of great pride for the HP. We later honored those 18 who came with the designation of “The First Ring.”After the retreat concluded in 2007, we were flooded with emails from hoopers who were interested in attending our next retreat. We had hardly recovered from 2007, when it became clearly apparent that a 2008 retreat was being ‘manifested’ by the Community at large and that the energetic momentum of a group we would later call, “The Second Ring” was undeniable. We found bigger venues, made room for more guests, and put tickets on sale wondering what would happen. Ann kept saying, “I think this one’s gonna be big.” She was right. We sold all 80 of our tickets within ten days! We grew from 18 in 2007, to 80 in 2008. It was mind blowing. The local tribe here rallied to the challenge and somehow came together to pull off what was for me, one of the highlights of my life thus far.

From the Heart:

It has been a tough year (economically) for some of us since the last retreat. Since 2007, there are now several, national retreats and conferences, many of which The HoopPath has been involved with through our teaching. These events, of course, cost money and in today’s economic climate, hoopers now find themselves having to be more selective when choosing which events work best within their schedules of work and finance. We have heard from many of the First and Second Ring who have shared that while their Love for us remains strong, they are unsure if they can afford to come to all the events of which they would like to attend, including our own Retreat. We understand. We don’t want to take anyone’s last dime. We know it’s a sacrifice for many of you to come, and we are honored that so many of you are trying to figure out how to “make this happen.” Please know that if you cannot be with us in presence, you will be with us in Spirit.

The 2009 Retreat:

Because of the nature of our current economy, we are not sure how many folks to expect this year. We have positioned ourselves to have the biggest retreat we have had so far. Our idea with annual HP retreats is to offer and encourage a “family reunion”-type feel. In order to do this we give first dibs on the tickets to the retreat to those who have attended our Retreats before. So, after having offered tickets to all of those who have come in years’ past, we then offered tickets to all of those who were on our very long waitlist for this year. Now, as the event approaches, we have heard from enough invitees to know just how many tickets we have left over for general sale to friends we have yet to meet.Our Retreat is a chance for hoopers who are interested in specific HoopPath techniques to come to Carrboro, NC for weekend of concentrated study and play with other hoopers and local HP students here. The Retreat weekend consists of three 2.5 hour workshops and events during the days and evenings. Your ticket (150.00) includes all the events (jams, meditations, gatherings) and workshops. It does not include food or lodging except for the opening dinner on Thursday evening.  (Please check the schedule for the full list.) The HoopPath Community is made up different types of hoopers of all (adult) ages and orientations. In 2009, our Community was honored to be voted Hooping.org’s “Hoop Community of the Year.” The retreat is a chance for folks of this Community near and far to gather and connect (and especially reconnect) to one another face to face. There is no initiation or pledge for first-timers, just a love of hooping as a Practice. That’s it.We take a lot of pride in the groups we have gathered in our classes and workshops. It may be worth noting that the first four or five tickets sold this year went to persons in their upper forties and fifties. To be sure, nearly all (adult) ages are represented here, but we like that our group attracts persons from many different phases of life. We believe, the quality of your hooping is determined by the level of Joy you feel while hooping and not by the fashion you wear or the tricks you know. So, it is encouraging to see so many who share that belief and come to our event for the feeling it gives them, rather than the notice they may receive.That being said, the guest list for this event is hands down one of the most inspiring collections of hoopers I will have ever been around. To be sure, there are many past attendees (B.A’s all of them) who will not be able to come who are incredible movers. (We’ll miss each and every one of the new hoop mommies!) Yet, their absence has opened space for many newcomers who are also mind blowing. I believe one of the best ways to improve your hooping is to witness and observe many different hoopers in a shared environment. Trust me, this event will not let you down in that area.

The Schedule

For a detailed outline of the schedule you can click here.

Adjustments We’ve Made:

There were several suggestions that came from many different attendees and we have chosen to address as many of those suggestions as we can. The following is a list of some of the most common:1. More locals in the Workshops. We hear you. We missed them, too. Unfortunately we did not have enough room to have that many locals in the workshops. This year we have addressed that need by finding a bigger workshop space that can accommodate our local HP hoop crew in exchange for volunteering. As of right now, there are currently 28 local volunteer attendees and the list is growing. I’ve been working on them all year and I am stoked to show them off to everyone. This was our most popular suggestion and I get choked up a little knowing that it meant enough to the 1st and 2nd ring that they wrote to ask to include those who so graciously gave their spots away for them. We really are a part of very special community. Thank you for readjusting my perspective.2. More downtime. We have read and heard your feedback and have decided to offer a little more downtime than in years’ past. We realize that for many of you this is also a vacation opportunity and we want you to have time to hang and have fun away from home. We also realize that a big ‘draw’ to our event is the guest list. So, we have set up more time for you to connect to each other both in and out of the hoop.3. Can you add a day to help us out with jetlag? Look, I totally understand this suggestion. As my travel time in the air has increased since ‘08, I have seen and felt the effects of travel on the Mind and Body. So you asked, and we have provided. We are starting this year’s event on Thursday evening with dinner and beverages provided by us, for you the road/plane weary. We won’t make you do anything but come in, relax, and eat. We are excited to present our keynote address by the amazing and super-inspiring, ThunderShyne. After her presentation, we will then have the Flowcase Showcase which addresses another suggestion….4. Can we have a chance to share, too? Absolutely. Do you want to strut your stuff for us? Do you have a new fashion idea for the Community? Do you sing? Do you want to share a talent away from the hoop? Do you have some thoughts you want to share? Are you new to the Community and want to introduce yourself? You get the idea… The Flowcase showcase on Thursday night is a chance for you to take the stage and show us what you got. Bring it on. (If you’re interested in participating in the Flowcase, you can register with Ann by writing her at ann@hooppath.com.5. Can you rotate the students in each workshop so we can hoop with everybody? Yes. This year we will alter the chemistry of each workshop by combining the different mini-tribes through the 6 workshops. We know that this may add a higher level of complexity, but there are going to be a lot of amazing hoopers with us, and we want to give each of you a chance to share hoopspace with everyone. Again, thank you for this suggestion.6. Can we move Carrboro to the Haight? This is one is going to be tough to pull off. It might be easier if you came here.7. Can Baxter where pink pants with a booty shelter? No way, Jose.

Two (BIG) Things That Are Different This Year:

Accomodations. There are some dramatic changes in the way that we are hosting this year and we would like to share them with you. Unfortunately, we are going to be unable to host as many people in our homes this year as in past years. We realize that this raises the costs of attending our event, but quite simply, we have more guests than beds in our homes. We have reserved blocks of rooms in two different hotels in town at very reasonable rates. If you are coming with someone you can split the cost of a room for as low as 28 dollars (each) a night. If you are willing to rough it and cram 4 of you into a room, then the cost drops even lower. The second hotel is a little nicer and little more expensive if you are not in a financial bind.Travel between Events. In order to find bigger, better facilities we have had to move our events further away from the heart of Carrboro. This means that you will need to have transportation! There are many people coming to this event with whom you can share a rental car. The taxi service in Carrboro and Chapel Hill is nothing like what many of you are used to and we cannot recommend it. Car rentals out of RDU International are very reasonable. If you can afford it, rent a car. We are going to try and help move people around, but we are limited with what we can offer. If you know others who are coming, please be proactive in coordinating transportation. As of now, at least 2/3rds of those coming are coming through the airport, so there should be plenty of opportunities for you.

Lastly:

We have only about 25 tickets left for this event! There are many moving pieces with this event, so please let us know if you are planning on coming, but have not purchased your ticket. We are hoping to have room for everyone. Please do no hesitate to ask us any questions that you may have. If you are stumbling upon this and are going to purchase a ticket to come, please do us a favor and let us know that you have registered so that we can get important information to you regarding accommodation details and any last many alterations to our plans.If you would like to have more specific, detailed information emailed to you, please contact ann@hooppath.com.We hope that you will consider joining us.Please click here for the full schedule of events and details.

Please click here to purchase your tickets!

All of our hoops are now onsale:

If you are in need of a hoop, please consider taking a

look in our HP Shop.

[Editor’s Note:  We met Dave, one of the warmest hearts in the Midwest and a helluva saxophone player, when he took a chance and came down sight unseen to our 2008 Retreat last June.  Since then we’ve had the good fortune to connect with him on our last trip to Chicago, and we look forward to having him down here again for the next retreat if he can swing it.  He sent us the following letter after participating in our Chicago workshop.  Thank you so much for your genuineness and generosity, Dave! You are one of a kind!]

What a blessing to go to a circus arts loft/dojo, 1/4 mile north of the United Center (the house that #23, MJ, built), to dive into
Beauty (this time’s Maidan theme/metaphor/visualizing focus). Over three days and sixty times at least, I hit stamina’s wall; the space lovingly held by Baxter for me to pause, reboot, breathe, say “yah Allah, yah Matin, yah Quddus” (Divine and Sufi qualities of Persistance and Holiness). Then I was present to jump back into Ritmo and Flow through connection with the group Energy and the Music Baxter chose. In these moments I found myself saying aloud,”I can do this!!”. Faith and Trust,
Spiritual Strength, Divine Grace were in realtime Manifestation.  I find that Y’ALL, Baxter and Ann, are in true Service, carrying the Divine Light to All through this practice of Hooping and Community.

Please understand what a boost/reboot/kickstart/support the HoopPath Community—-YOU—-have been to my Purpose in this Life, this Time.  Thank you also for your lifting up of my Spirit in this weekend of Discovery and Joy: Ann (OMG, YALL), Heather, Mercedes, Elizabeth (heal fast and well, hoop sis), Ginger, Noah, Kelli, Claire, Marci, Mary, Lynn, Rebecca, Lizzy, Danielle, Angie, Corinne, and all our other sisters from Il, WI, KY, IN and GA!!!!

Dave

 Kevin Brock (1971-2008)

It is with great difficulty that my fingers transmit these words to all of you, near and far, that our Brother, Friend, and Drummer Kevin Brock passed from this place over the last weekend.  Kevin was the man who drummed for us on both of our Retreats.  He and his rhythms carried what is for most of us the most meaningful event of the whole weekend, the Ascension Fire.  It’s Kevin’s drumming that is the soundtrack for both of the videos Enrique Vega created documenting the Retreat and my work with the HPT.  The cause of his death has yet to be officially determined, it is believed that he died of natural causes in his sleep at his home.  There are so many reasons that his death is a tragedy:  he was just 37, he had married his longtime partner only two weeks ago, he told me the last time we spoke that his “path” was his music and that he shared it with us as a Service to a greater Beauty.  There are as many reasons to grieve as stars in the sky above.  I can only imagine the pain his friends and family are feeling.

Kevin and I were not close as chums who spoke regularly.  Yet, Kevin and I would openly discuss the “brotherly/Tribal” feeling we felt towards one another.  To be honest, and to his Glory, I think a lot of those who came upon Kevin in their journeys felt tribal with him, as well.  He was just that kind of guy.  While Kevin and I had a working relationship, I think we both felt that our collaborations were meant to be.  He told me how grateful he was to be a part of both of our HP retreats.  He told me, “Thank you for trusting me to hold this space for all of you.”  Can you imagine:  This instrument of Holy God thanking me for asking him to be a part of our gathering?

*** I’m going to pray here.***

Spirit Wind, this Living Earth, this celestial manifestation of your Divinity, returns to you your Channel, our Friend, Kevin Brock.  We do not hand him over without profound sadness and enormous loss in our breaking hearts.  He touched his drum, your great instrument here, and in so doing guided your tender touch to our needy hearts.   His hands created stillness in the flowing rhythms of your Glory, and between those blessed hands we tasted the delicious nectar of Hope, of Promise, of a Grace Eternal.  Humbly, I ask that you take care of our good friend, Kevin.   I have a feeling he’s missing his wife, his family, and his large group of friends left here behind him.  Will you cradle this Angel in your arms and reassure him that he is missed in so many ways beyond my earthly words can express?  Please, please, please carry these words to him, and I will ask no more of you today,

“Kevin, I am so touched to have known you.  You have no idea how honored I was that you joined me in my vision of creating positive rhythm generation two years ago.  So many of those who came to the Retreat the last two years wrote to me to thank me for your inclusion in our most special Fire ceremony.  When we went on top of that hill over the summer filming with Enrique, I thanked God for that moment.  I felt such a connection to you and yet I knew so little about your daily life here.  You went too soon for me, my Brother.  I know that you would ask me not to make sense of it all, but to accept the gift of your life from God and be Thankful.  My heart breaks.  The world has lost another artist too soon.  So, in your Honor, I thank God for you and your Work without restraint, and without hesitancy.  Thank you, Kevin, for your Sharing, your Teaching, and your Love.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  May God carry this hug, this kiss, and this Love to you, now.

Love!  Love!  Love!”

A Warrior bows to you.

Amen.

Hoop Camp Reflections

I’m back home in Carrboro, NC, this morning sitting with a cold, half-full, cup of coffee next to me trying to sort out my thoughts and feelings about my visit to northern California this past weekend for the first ever Hoop Camp. I’m still a little dizzy from the experience. Yet, I don’t want to let this moment pass without writing my thoughts and feelings down before day-to-day life takes back over. Forgive me for the lack of organization here, but I, too often, let moments like this pass while struggling to make written sense of it all. This event was important enough to me that I’m willing to ask for some forgiveness before this stream of consciousness begins its flow. My apologies to every English teacher I’ve ever had.

Before I get going with my thoughts on the weekend, I’ll set the stage for some of you who could not make it. Hoop Camp was held at a retreat center amongst tall redwood trees and a Sun that kept us warm most of the day. The event, organized by Heather Troy of Santa Cruz, CA, was a collection of workshops given by various teachers and performers over a very dense, tightly scheduled weekend. Each teacher was given 50 minutes (taught 3 times) to share some of their hoop knowledge/Flow with hoopers of all skill sets and backgrounds. With over ninety tickets sold (the event was sold-out), Heather organized a flow rotation of three groups moving between three workshops, one after the other. The system allowed for each student to take every workshop if they were so moved.

In order to teach all of my classes that week, Ann and I had to take a very early flight (5:30 a.m. boarding time) on Friday morning in order to be in Santa Cruz on time. Ann, Beth, and myself had asked Heather if we could combine our blocks so that we could present together. Heather complied by giving us the lone, opening workshop on Friday night. This was great for us because we were able to relax for the rest of the weekend, but it did present us with challenges. The biggest challenge was that the entire camp had the opportunity to be present which meant a workshop of possibly 95 hoopers (83 actually attended.)

I don’t want to spend too much time talking about our workshop effort, but it felt good to us. I’m always second guessing myself, but I felt good about my part when it was over. I was, admittedly, swept up in the emotion of standing in the middle of 83 hoopers, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. To be honest, I felt unusually at ease. My goal was to create a space for the entire weekend, and I believe that was achieved. It was my first time co-teaching with anyone else in a workshop, and it was a pleasure to share the space with two very special friends of mine. I thought Ann and Beth did a very good job, but I’ll save my thoughts on our workshop for another blog. I imagine most who are reading this are scanning by now, so I’ll skip ahead to my thoughts about the workshops I attended as a student.

On Saturday morning, I sleepily headed down to Bunny Hoopstar’s workshop on working with multiple hoops. I had overslept, so with coffee in hand, I watched from the fence the last ¾’s of her first section. Then, I stepped into the second one as a full participant. I found Bunny to be captivating, informative, and exceptionally smooth in her very matter-of-fact presentation style. Her lesson plan was aggressive, but very rewarding. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to take the same shop three times in row. I hated to break from the schedule, but I enjoyed the moment so much, I just decided to stay there. Bunny is a really bright light in Australia and I am honored to call her my friend.

The second workshop set after lunch included Spiral, Sharna Rose, and Shredder. Sharna’s workshop was a lot of fun. Her emphasis was on play as a muse. She created an open, safe space for us to push ourselves into new territories of exploration. Sharna’s hooping is ridiculously excellent. I have never, ever, seen such a repertoire of moves. I don’t like to rank hoopers, but I believe she is one of the leading hoop talents in the world and she deserves every bit of praise that she receives.

Shredder’s workshop was more a performance than a workshop for me. I love Shredder. We have known each other a while, and in that time she has really stepped into herself. Her workshop was a chance for me to be inspired by her strength and flexibility. I tried to keep up, but when we got to the backbends and headstands, I just sat back and watched. Her point that our bodies needed to be loose in order to be strong hit home for me and I hope to work more stretching into my practice.

Spiral’s workshop was my most anticipated. Spiral and I go way back. She and I are forever linked and being with her this weekend I realized again how strong my Love for her still is. Spiral was my first hoop buddy and her Belief in my teaching has always been a Wind at my back. She executed her workshop flawlessly and thoroughly. She was mobbed at the end of her workshop with students asking questions and lavishing praises on her. I have seen that happen everywhere she goes. I used to joke that Spiral was my personal cloak of invisibility. Nothing has changed. Without much effort, when Spiral starts to spin I (and just about everyone else) fade into the background. Having said that, I still found Spiral very well balanced between humility and honesty. One of the weeds that grows in our collective Garden, is the “I’m gonna tell you how bad I am, so you call tell me how good I am” dandelion. Spiral owned her experience as a known hoop performer and teacher and taught confidently from that vantage point. She didn’t apologize once for being good or admired by others, and I think it made us all feel better about ourselves. Everyone knows Spiral is my favorite hooper and Sister, but my Love for her is not the sole source of my praise. She was just that good, and I have one more reason to brag about knowing her.

That night’s workshops were sewing and fire hooping.  I’m not as into fire hooping as most of the community, so I took the time to head down to the Great Field that night for a very, very rare “guys only + Beth and Erica” hoop jam. Yes, my fellow males, it happened! We unapologetically listened to Dead Prez, P.E., Paris, Tool, Rage, and anything else I could dust off in my collection that was full of angst. It was great, but none of us complained when the girls finally showed up. Patrick showed up later with 25 of his PSY hoops and the sky was lit up with spinning LED’s. It was quite stunning. Well… I’m guessing it was. I was blind most of the time. (Crowds make me nervous.)

The next morning we had three workshops scheduled. My first was Christabel’s. For those of you who do not know Christabel, she is the owner of the hoop company, HoopGirl. If we were to imagine hoop instruction courses as martial art “Dojo’s” [a Kimowan McClain concept], then I would say that I truly realized the power and influence of the HoopGirl Dojo this weekend. Christabel has created a language that is so widely used it is astonishing. I feel as though the entire hoop Community has something for which to thank her. I certainly do feel an enormous sense of Gratitude. As I looked around and saw so many she has taught or taught how to teach, I realized, though she and I are good friends, that I have (unknowingly) underestimated her impact. As a member of this Community, I would like to thank her for all of the hard work she has done in building Hooping into what it is today. Her workshop was so far outside of my box, that I found myself wonderfully, pleasantly, hopelessly lost in her Method. If Anah’s workshop had not been next, I would have stayed for two more.

Anah’s workshop was focused on core techniques and “yumminess.” For you HP out there, Yumminess is most closely akin to the Maidan idea of “Inclination.” Doing what feels goods will create a very powerful momentum according to Anah. I, wholeheartedly, agree. My experience of taking Anah’s workshop was really about saying, “amen” a lot. Anah and I also go back a ways. It was good to hear from another “gray-Feather” within the hooping world. She emphasized Flow and personal attraction to moves and techniques, rather than mastery and stature and I found myself sitting right in the middle of her proverbial choir. She let us know she is working on a DVD and I look forward to its eventual release.

The last workshop for me that day was a discussion facilitated by Shakti (sp?) and AliCat of the Boulder hoop tribe. I was exhausted after the two previous workshops, so I had NO problem relaxing in a circle of Hoopers as they discussed the road ahead for hoop entrepreneurs. There was lots of good advice amongst the participants in the circle. I really enjoyed Marjorie and Rob’s advice, but that is for another blog. Shakti and AliCat held the group loosely and I thought that was a smart and helpful tactic. The conversation turned many times, but was always healthy.

And then, it was over. Those participants who could still move without aching, hooped one last time and then we scattered back to our corners of the country.

The weekend felt good, and I hope I’ll find the motivation to write more about it. I’m still processing what went on, and I’m sure that I have left information out.

Thank you to Heather for the amazing job she did herding cats and creating space for so many of us. Thank you to all the presenters who came and gave so generously of their gifts. Thank you to all the participants who made this weekend beautiful by sharing their beauty and voice.

This is a short video shot, edited, and produced by a man named, Enrique Vega.  He has a website called creatorsdream.tv through which he intends to showcase those persons who are creating and developing their own, unique “realities.”  He is just getting started with this project, but we are very grateful for his interest in the HoopPath and the community it inspires.  (Enrique Vega and the Creator’s Dream website are not a part of the HoopPath company.)  If you have any questions for Enrique, or if you would like to inquire about his talents and services, please feel free to contact him through his website.   If you like the video, please feel free to comment and share some Love.

The following is an excerpt from a response of mine on an online forum. You can read to entire exchange by clicking here. The initial poster, Sharna Rose, asked for feelings and thoughts regarding the practice of hooping blindfolded.

You have asked about a technique that has meant so much to me on this path, that I feel compelled to add my thoughts to this discussion. Reading these posts is very funny for me, because all of the reasons that have been mentioned have at one time or the other been a reason for me to go blind. Eventually, all the reasons grew together into a very solid acceptance of the blindfold’s place and importance in my Training.

My ancestors of the Hoop have said to me repeatedly, “There are many Winds.” It certainly applies to the use of blindfolds in one’s Practice. It’s not for everybody. Each of us takes hold of this world in different ways. For some, their eyes are essential in finding and moving about holds on the proverbial climbing wall. Without sight, some have told me it feels as though they are in ‘freefall.’ To have these types of Hoopers blindfold themselves is equivalent to spinning them around until dizzy and asking them to then run as fast as they can. I have had the honor of hooping with other ‘Madres’ and I can say that each of them had different relationships to being blindfolded: some of them used blindfolds a lot, some not so much.

My own experience with the blindfold has honestly been life changing. There are two main reasons I started hooping blind: the first reason, was that I was tired of worrying about witnessing someone’s reaction to my hooping in my backyard, the second reason was that I (later) did not want to be witness to anything other than the pe*A*ce (rhythmic balance) between my hoop and myself. As time has gone on, I have pulled further and further away from the outside world when I am Within no matter what or where the setting.

It was at Burning Man in 2006, when I first started hooping Blind in public spaces. It was weird at first, but I remember being nervous and thinking the blind would calm my nerves. It did. I think I might have only hooped ten minutes or less when I came out. A woman came up to me and hugged me and said, “Thank you for your gift.” I am so grateful she was the first person I saw for I took it to Heart. (I had gone that year to ‘give’ my hooping prayers to the Playa.)

One of the biggest reasons I used the blindfold early on is that, unfortunately, for most of my life, demons (insecurities) have used the gateways of my eyes to infiltrate my consciousness. Like mosquitoes, they come inside and bite me again and again, breaking my concentration and creating a chaotic discomfort within which I can find no peace. Demons have a way of needling me with useless questions regarding my appearance to others and mocking my replies. At the end of most days, I think these conversations are more destructive than helpful, and I find my participation in these exchanges to be moments of life not fully lived. So I go blind, thus, denying an entry to these triggers of insecurity. Of course, this doesn’t mean I don’t have insecure feelings when hooping blind. Rather, it means there are fewer and therefore, I am not as overwhelmed and I am able to be more present within the Current of that moment. Subsequently, those moments of real connection and presence strengthen my resolve to work on the weaknesses upon which these demons feed. Going blind is not a denial of insecurity, but of its triggers. Wrestling with one insecurity can be enough to inhibit one’s expression, but taking on many insecurities at once can flat out destroy it. A Warrior understands that the isolated foe is more easily defeated than when in the company of his allies. By going blind, I am able to have greater control of when and how I deal with my weaknesses and insecurities. The result of this training, for me, is that it now takes much more nasty and vicious demons, to break me from Calm than it once did (both in and out of my hoop.)

As a teacher of Hooping, I think there is much to learn from being blindfolded away from the reasons I just mentioned. Sometimes, hoopers are more connected to what move they are going to pull off next, than to what rhythms are happening in the now. “Next. Next. Next.” As a hoop mantra can create a “hurry up” tempo and disrupt a natural Flow from forming. From what I have experienced, Flow gathers itself like winds do. I have seen in many of my students and in my own practice, that the blindfold seems to awaken a Patience in hoopers. Whatever the reason may be, there is, very often, a noticeable difference in the way someone moves the moment the blindfold is put on. Many, many times the difference is that their hooping looks smoother and more organic. Again, this does not apply to everyone, but I have seen it happen a lot since I began teaching.
If asked, I would probably say that I am a better hooper when I am not blind, but my best hoop feelings have almost all come when I was blindfolded. Probably for that reason more than any other these days, I spend about 70 percent of my practices hooping blind. I think it definitely is worth a try for everyone once.

[The teacher in me won’t let me get out of here without saying that I think it is good to condition yourself to hooping blind. For me, the initial feeling of disorientation and dizziness went away as I worked my way into longer and longer sessions.]

I love reading this tribe. Thanks to all of you who post here.

It was about two years ago that I had adopted the motto of “Without Hope or Fear.” I adopted it from a book called “M”, which was an excellent book about the life of one of my favorite artists. He was, and is, known in the art world today as Carvaggio (this was actually the name of the town that he was from.) He was a violent and conflicted man, but also an artistic Channel. Brooding and tortured by vice in his daily life, “M” was a master of light rendering and emotional indexing with a brush in his hand. His paintings and his life were both so dimly lit, that he remains almost as much a mystery today as he did to his contemporaries back then.

“Without Hope or Fear” developed into a mindset for me after reading “M”. I felt free of the “wishing” taught to me in Sunday school. I felt, then, that Hope and Fear were two sides of the same coin. While letting go of fear was easy to understand, letting go of Hope felt almost controversial to this preacher’s kid. Inside of me, there was push and pull over the usefulness of Hope. Ultimately, I let go of Hope and fear because I believed they were concepts based on “what is not” rather than “what is.”

It wasn’t easy to do, however.

I spent my first eighteen years in Church. Hope is such a big concept in the Church. So much so, that I had an unexpected conversation (I was super-enthused about this approach) with my Father when I explained my new (latest) attitude to him.

“If that’s where you’re at, then I guess that’s where you’re at.” he said. “That’s not where I would wanna be, though.”

‘Weakness!’ I decried internally.

He went on to say, “I just can’t imagine wanting to live without Hope.” Now, two years later, I can’t imagine it either, Dad. We spend so much time focusing on our physical losses as we get older, that sometimes we forget that most of us are wiser than we have ever been before. I like to think that my recent re-embracement of Hope is a fruit of this new Wisdom.

Without Hope this world is dying. Without Hope, our partners may never ‘get’ us. Without Hope, our children may never appreciate us. Without Hope, we may be doomed to a life of isolation. Without Hope, all we are today may be all we will ever be. Without Hope, we begin dying. With it, we begin living.

I say this to you, knowingly over-stepping my position as your hoop instructor, Hope is optimism. Hope is Belief. Hope is Love’s enduring presence. Hope is that we will reach points Higher. Hope is that there is still mystery and beauty beyond what our eyes record. Hope is that there IS a way out, through, or over. Hope, I say to you, is not a “wish” but a belief in making the most of what is at hand. Hope is a nutrient for the Spirit self. Hope. Hope. Hope. To each their own, but I can not live a life without Hope any longer. I, understand, the finite nature of the Earth’s resources, I understand the increased levels of violence in this world, I understand that there are more cancers than ever before, I understand that capitalism is killing us, I understand that biofuels may not be the best idea, I understand that one man isn’t going to change all that is wrong with this country, I understand that many are without food, I understand that the Earth is cooking, I understand that health care is too expensive, I understand that I can’t spend my whole life hooping, I understand that one day I will die. I get it. I know that Life has an ugly side. I know that there are those who hate me. I know it. I see it. I don’t deny any of it.

“That’s not where I wanna be, though.”

I choose to live in a world of Hope. I choose to live in a world of Promise. I choose to live in a world of laughter. I choose to live in a world of young children with big, uncorrupted eyes looking back up at me. I choose to live in world of brothers who walk again, of sons who come home again. I choose to live in a world where scorched Earth grows green again. I choose to live in a world where Life is precious because it is fleeting. I choose to live in world where “you mean a lot to me” means a lot to me. I choose to live in the world of Hope. I choose to live in a world where permanence has nothing to do with Beauty. I choose to live in a world where I see all things, but live with Hope for the unseen.

April 12th, 2008

Day two out here in Santa Cruz, California, was terrific. I am very encouraged by the response I received from my class of students here on the first day of our two part series. Everyone here has been so nice to Ann and me. I feel so blessed to meet so many wonderful people through the work that I do. Santa Cruz is experiencing what locals here are calling a “heat wave.” Temperatures yesterday reached into the upper 80’s/low 90’s. According to our amazing host, Heather, air conditioning systems are unnecessary up here because temperatures rarely hover for long above 80 degrees. When we arrived at the studio before the workshop began, the temperature inside the studio was in the high seventies. By the time we were into our third or fourth exercise, the temperature was well into the eighties. It was interesting to me that no one complained. Heather explained to us that it is so rarely this hot here, that she and, most likely, the others embraced the heat that they so infrequently experience. I might feel differently later on, but right now I am looking forward to the summer temperatures of my native North Carolina in the upcoming months.

I love the feeling of breaking a good sweat. In truth, sweat is one of my favorite ingredients for making a good hoop (experience.) My body needs this kind of detoxification. I’m not the health nut I should be, but my body isn’t a toxic wasteland, either. However, some of the toxins I think sweat carries out of my body are not just chemical. Old locked up memories, subterranean anxieties, and internal destabilizing insecurities flow like water from me and are carried off into the wind, cooling my whole body and purifying my chemistry. Sweat is part of my stabilizing process. I have hooped so much in climate controlled spaces over the last year that I have not experienced temperatures high enough to create a good sweat Flow. Today, when I woke up, I actually felt lighter. I look forward to more experiences of this kind of cleansing. With temperatures already in the mid-eighties today (4/13), I’m sure to be even lighter tomorrow morning.

I kept true to my intent to “testify” on behalf of the HPT in the workshop yesterday. I don’t know if I referenced my notes once in my opening talk. Everyone stayed engaged with me as best they could and it helped me to stay focused. As my teaching flight time increases, I find that I am able to read and react to moments more subconsciously and accurately. This is a skill I have always wanted to develop in me and it seems as though some growth in this area is occurring. I used to find myself knocked off track when students in Circle would look down at the ground or off into space as I was speaking. These days, however, I realize that my words, like the hoop’s rotation, are intended to carry people away. Indeed, it is not my intent to build cubicles, but to open cages. I see an image of an old man untethering a bird, clapping his hands, and smiling as his pet becomes its own, liberated being: wild and free, again. This image is a powerful motivation for me in my teaching. In essence, I teach hoopers to walk their own path towards the nourishment they need to thrive. If all goes to plan, my role as their teacher becomes de-emphasized over time. My authority over my students is designed to decay. It’s tough to let go, but that is the part of the process of teaching a Practice that is meant to develop sustainable freedom.

After the workshop, we came home and napped, then went to the beach for a dinner and a fire. It was a nice way to end the day. The temperature dropped fairly quickly as the sun set into the Pacific Ocean, and the fire kept us warm and close to each other. So many metaphors are present here, but the one I am feeling most deeply as I write these words now is the idea of building heat sources amidst coldness. Is this not what we do every time we set out with our hoops? Is light not the path out of darkness? If we seek and do not find, then we must create. This is what I have done for myself with the story of the Maidan. In their story, I find a warmth, a light, and a Way. I dream of living in moments now, rather than living in mansions. I am free because I walk the Way of Free Beings.

Blessings to each of you, and to the Spirit of Ascension.

April 11th, 2008

Nothing much to report at this point. I’m 30,000 miles above the heartland, speeding towards my most aggressive workshop trip so far. In the next ten days, Ann and I will be teaching in Santa Cruz, Ojai, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. I have never been to Santa Cruz or Ojai, so I’m excited to see these two new places. Everyone who has been to these two cities tells me that both are very beautiful cities. I sure that they are. Everywhere that I have been in California has been tremendously rich with beauty. Even in Los Angeles, I am struck by the visual power of the landscape on top of which this sprawling city has been built.

In the South, our mountains are many hours from our beaches. In North Carolina, there are beach communities and there are mountain communities. On California’s coast, there are both within one community. It’s a type of topographical integration that seems to me to set a tone for all the cities I have visited there so far. Racially, economically, culturally, and musically there is an integration that just isn’t present, at least with the same force and vitality, in my home state of North Carolina. I’m not making a judgement here, it is what it is, but traveling to California provides an opportunity for me to be reminded just how some of America truly is. I find it refreshing and, at an almost cellular level, I find it replenishing.

In this way, my perception of California and its struggle to be diverse, but not divided, reminds of me of the HoopPath Community and Tribe and issues we will face as our flock grows in number.
We are a group of many individuals who (until now) have never joined groups. Indeed, most of us have avoided groups just because they are.. well.. groups. There are as many reasons for this as raindrops, but I think for many of us, we avoid groups in order to avoid homogeny and the freedoms of expression it inevitably strips away. Though our HP tenets are yet to be written, one tenet has clearly been formulated over the last three years: We are a group of Individuals. We respect each others boundaries, opinions, and Ways. As the Maidan would say, We are all birds in flight: each with our own relation to the Sky above and the Earth below. When we gather together, we fly as one flock, casting our one shadow on the ground beneath until that time when our own, individual flights, once again, take us in directions away from each other. We are always who we are whether it be as one or as many.

As we descend into SFO, I am reminded to be true to this spirit.

Here is an article written recently about us on a local website by a woman named Laura Oleniacz. I love the pictures she took of HoopPathers, Ann and Natalie.

(Laura’s article is great, but I don’t think I was clear about one thing in my interview. What I was trying to say is not that everyone hoops like me, but that a unique style of hooping has emerged out of our connection to each other and to the weekly class. I apologize for not making that more clear to Laura.)

Thank you, Laura, for your interest in the HoopPath!

    The hoop is challenging me to trust my own body to learn. It’s been a long time since I’ve had to learn anything deeply. I can’t recall when I’ve had to step off from square one.I can’t even remember learning how to make art. It came naturally. Over the years I’ve practiced to become better, but I had the basic knowledge, it seems, without the progressive struggle that comes with learning.

I think hooping now is the first time I’ve had to start at the beginning. With hooping, I can’t fake knowing. Either the hoop moves well or it doesn’t.

My friend Baxter has a neat way of teaching the hoop. All he asks is for me to feel the groove, to relax into a zone and be present. I’ve been doing that for a few months now and I’ve reached a plateau.Baxter says its like taking a long, spiral path up and around a mountain. Most of the climb is smooth, but now and then we come to an obstacle and need to take the steep terrain. That’s where I’m at now.

I’m learning how to lift the hoop up and down, over my head, back onto my torso. It’s a new skill and it has to be learned and practiced. At first I was afraid to leave the comfort of my known territory, but with some practice and risk, I’ve learned how to move to the next stage.Learning is exhilarating. I’ve often heard myself say that I am most happy when I am learning something. So I’m really grateful for the hoop as a site where learning can occur. How much is there to learn? What can my body do? I don’t know and it’s exciting to think about where this path is taking me.

To read more of Kimowan’s blogs please click here.

    The Hoop Path is to me a place of spiritual exploration in a safe and loving environment. In this grounding, present-centered dance, I have been able to let down my defenses, be vulnerable and finally connect with my own glow…this glow that represents my true essence, my soul, my inner divinity, my primal nature. I have found the Hoop Path classes and community a place that has fostered this growth and these revelations in me. I am so grateful to be a part of this tribe, so grateful to have found each of you, to have found this path.

We speak of point of contact with the hoop, and it just occurred to me today that each of you represents a new and wonderful point of contact for me. Contact with authenticity, contact with love, contact with integrity, contact with acceptance, contact with passion, contact with expression, contact with freedom…I could go on and on. What wonderful contacts to have found…

There is a philosophy that holds that our pain is not from what we haven’t received, but from what we are unwilling to give…In all my experience so far, this Hoop Path is all about giving…learning to give to ourselves –freedom and the vulnerability to explore, and growing through this, and then, in turn, giving to others from our fuller self.

When I first started going to Baxter’s class I was in search of a sense of community that I felt was lacking in my life. Beth had been encouraging me to come to class since its inception…but I was pregnant at the time and then spent the first seven months post partum trying to figure out my new role in life.  Finally in the summer of 2006 I was able to start going. All of Beth’s comments about the amazing group of people in class were more than true.For me, first and foremost, when I think of a “hoop pather” I think of community…those who are looking to build a peaceful, harmonious community with the aid of the hoop. For me, Baxter’s stories have helped me build this community.