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THE ART & SCIENCE of HOOPING - by Marci "Hoopiness" Javril, January 2011

"Hoopiness runs in a circular direction around you & me"

MY HOOP STORY (written for hoopstories.org): For me, the hoop is the embodiment of all the healing arts I have explored in my lifetime, and I am now reaping the benefits of the ageless rejuvenation I advocate. The hoop is my Everything - let me share the many ways I delight in how versatile, nourishing, and needed it is in our lives today.

I picked up my first adult-size hoop in 2003 at Christabel’s Liquid Hoop Dance class in Venice, CA. After that, I was HOOKED! I sent hoops back East, I borrowed hoops for Northern California Dance Collective's annual Dance Camp ‘05, I bought travel ones & went biking around Venice Beach, etc. As the years went by and I took many more classes (Anah, Rayna, Baxter, Miss Rosie, Hannah, Brecken), jammed, shared, explored and took my hoop everywhere, I’ve realized my hoop has become essential in my daily attitude.

My background: professional dancer, dance therapist, massage therapist & teacher, holistic health coach, life-long yoga practitioner, and Ordained Spiritual Minister. I have taught modern, jazz, tap & many dance forms since I was 16, featured in musicals, dance companies, video-dance multimedia performances; given seminars in creative movement, rejuvenation, tantra yoga, infant, labor & pregnancy massage, cleansing & detox massage; innovated STEP BEYOND using the Step Platform combined with hiphop & contact improvisation, as an alternative PE program for kids at the Venice Boys Girls Club & SMASH.

Strata Hooping – shot in my apartment!

Burningman 2004 began my passion for hoop-inspired spontaneous artistic expression, in my impulsively based need-something-new way, I discovered a great versatile toy to push my edges & keep me excellent shape, and so I did! Summer 2010 I created a Meetup HOOPLAY JAM in my neighborhood, which was a terrific way to combine my desire for an outdoor workout & give more visibility to Hooping. I (finally) became a Certified Hoopnotica® Hoop Dance & Fitness teacher in August 2010. This action I took as a statement of my commitment to Hoopiness for Every Body = ;-)

SHOWTIME! -I took my Travel Hoop to Club Med Turqs & Caicos (Jan 2009), and they asked me to perform in the big Friday night show.

My greatest “A –HA!” is that the Hoop is an example of what in psychology is known as a “Transitional Object”, and becomes a perfect non-living (therefore safe) partner, as in dance therapy. As one expresses emotion through creative movement, a chosen Object (scarf, ball, stick, feather, etc) is used to demonstrate, project, and manipulate one’s story for fuller dramatization. This is extremely important for Self-Reflection in therapy, gaining physical metaphors as insights on the unconscious & what is transpiring on the non-verbal level.

NOTE: As an example, at one of my hoop jams, a young autistic girl engaged with several hoops for over 75 minutes, and her father was astounded. I saw the hoop become a safe, intriguing & focused space for her, revealing her longing to connect and yet be in a boundary of her choosing.

The Hoop is my pathway to Right/Left brain integration, following a life-long passion to remain as ambidextrous as possible. I’m a drummer & piano player, and see this as a crucial step in learning abilities.

The Hoop is like an ultimate peacefully wielded weapon. I like to call it my circular staff, as in martial arts. Hoops can be thrown, tossed, juggled, jumped thru, and can offer significant challenges and accomplishments in eye/hand coordination. I feel it as my bow & arrow.

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I LOVE taking my hoop to the floor or ground, utilizing EVERY LEVEL 360 degrees, rolling with it, through it, under/over, stretching, pressing and kicking it! The hoop is my perfect partner for contact improvisation (Aikido-like DanceArtSport), letting it glide over me, fall with me, spring away from me, giving surprises for new reactions, responses, and delight.

The Hoop can be a complete mirror as a meditative or Tantric encounter with Self through Other. As I ask it to be more subtle & precise, and I am more precise & subtle, we become more unified. I harmonize myself with Flow, and Flow gives me spaciousness, where time goes away, and breath is fuller, my Being expands, my eyesight gets vivid… and afterward, I drift on the endorphins, feeling so tingly, alive, heart pounding, inner child giggling, inner warrior proudly nodding. Giving me the inspiration to try MORE things, do MORE, feel, reach, share, offer to others…

My deepest intention is to cultivate the impish Inner Child that floats & rolls me through space, upside down & backwards. The Hoop is my ploy for staying vibrantly FIT, TONED, resilient, and have great cardio endurance. My arms have never looked so great, as I don’t bother with gym weights or any other workouts, I just use my upper body more intensely.

The Hoop is my own community outreach program, constantly drawing people in, intriguing them to discover their willingness to renew a connection to not only their body, but also a spark that excites and compels them. AHH!! The hoop brings much Joy to so many, how can I explain the magnificence & brilliance of its manifestation right here, right now?

In somatic education, we learn that childhood development follows a very specific, progressive pattern of physical activities, one of which is SPINNING.

How many of us need more spinning, and LOVE that sandbox whirling carousel, or spinning tire under a tree?? WE NEED MORE circular stimulation in our lives, our feet are so tied to marching and walking orderly, it creates new neuro-synapses when you stumble, recover, reach further, suspend, and shift weight in new leverages.

...And I could go on & on... Your comments are welcome!

WHAT A FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE for everyone – I wish it to be so…!

~ by Blue-eyed TOOLIPS January 2011

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