Thought you all might be interesting in this upcoming flow workshop. It's about an 45 minutes - an hour away from the Philly area.

Saturday, August 13, 2011
9:30 a.m. - noon
Ephrata Performing Arts Center
Sharadin Bigler Theatre
Ephrata, PA
Cost is $30. RSVP to whirligighoopers@gmail.com

Registration taken here: http://whirligighoopers.com/?page_id=127

Discover the sweet surrender of hoop flow in a special workshop taught by international hooper, Tink from Tokyo. Two hours of guided hooping will help you release into a blissful state of movement as we explore:

Smooth Transitions
Transitions are key to flow. Your mind (and the evil Inner Critic) turns back on instantly when you get stuck in a trick and don't know how to flow into another move. "Hey, I'm doing this reverse weave thing really well...but, um, now what? Right, I suck."  We'll try a variety of transitions, hand grips and sequences that you can play with. Train your muscles to do them without thinking and your flow will expand. We'll tell the Inner Critic to shut up, too!

Connecting to Music
Sometimes the music you like to listen to and the music you flow with are very different. In this workshop we'll get a chance to dance to a wide range of musical styles - slow, fast, vocal, instrumental - and discover which ones you connect with. We'll also play with dance moves to inspire your flow.

Letting Go for Flow
To connect to the body, we must learn to quiet our minds and our egos. We will borrow some meditative techniques from hoopers and others around the world, including visualizations (Caroleeena), blindfolded hooping (Baxter/Hoop Path), ecstatic dance (OSHO), and dervish whirling (Sufis).  We'll also hoop while pretending to be drunk (Brecken) which will put your ego in its place and get you laughing.

The doors open at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center with music at 9:30 am; workshop begins at 10 am. After the workshop, weather permitting, we will enjoy a hoop jam in the park. Please bring your favorite hoop and something to drink. If you are staying for the hoop jam, we suggest a picnic lunch and bug spray, too.

This intermediate level workshop is recommended for hoopers who already have some experience with a variety of on- and off-body tricks.    

For directions visit: Ephrata Performing Arts Center.