I have much to say in my hoop journal as some amazing things have been happening!  Mostly revolving around A Muse Troupe, the local group of circus entertainers I have joined up with.  What a great idea that was!  It's changing my life!

Since this master-of-all-toys left the troupe, they didn't have a dedicated hoopdancer until I showed up.  I love my hoop and definitely want to perform with LED or fire even though I don't own one of those yet.  That's why I joined!  I wanted a dedicated practice time, to meet with likeminded people, to learn new skills, expand my comfort zone, and get the recognition and respect that performing with an organization is bound to garner - i.e., room to hoop at local events.  It's given me all that and so much more!

For example, a few weeks ago, the Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret came to our town and gave our troupe a free workshop on clowning and swing dancing!  It was a three hour workshop and the people from Dusty Flowerpot were all SuperPeople - incredibly, diversely talented and excellent educators.  I've never been good at dancing but that night I got professional ballroom dancing lessons from the most gorgeous man I've ever seen anywhere (sorry, hubby).  It was an amzing night I'll never forget, and it never would have happened without my hoop to lead me where I would not otherwise have gone.  I'm not comfortable with being the center of attention or acting but involvement with this troupe is forcing me to expand my comfort zone rapidly.  Those performers had a secret agenda - they wanted us to be extra dancers in their show, The Dance Marathon of the Century!  At the end of the workshop they said we could participate in their sold-out show the next night, as marathon dancers who get eliminated.  Can you believe I did it?!  My girlfriend and I dressed up as little old ladies from Hoboken and danced terribly in front of 500 people for like twenty minutes!  I was in a wig and this tacky suit my mom gave me in all seriousness.  Then we got to watch the rest of the show in the front row VIP section and I got to stare at that dreamy man I danced with doing his amazing thing for the rest of the night.  It really was like being in a movie and working with a celebrity as sexy as ... I don't know who's sexy.  Brad Pitt?  George Clooney?  They could have been dancing next to this guy and I would not have noticed. 

The amazing talent of Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret and Maria in the Shower:

Dance Marathon of the Century!  This is the show I was in!

A Muse Troupe is THE major act for the Snow King Parade and street party, which is a really important event for our town.  It happens at the end of February and the elementary school children spend months creating huge puppets (20+ feet tall), floats, and masks.  These huge puppets, the Snow King and Queen, come across our pedestrian bridge waving their arms and heralding the coming changing of the season.  Very uplifting for us remote Canadians encased in ice these last five months.  Besides the giants, the ten minute extravanganza put on by the circus troupe is what draws the crows of 500 - 1,000 people, just about the entire town comes out.  I remember viewing the performance a couple years ago and being absolutely amazed by all the fire spinning.  I couldn't even decide what to look at between the fire hoops, poi and staffs - it was all so mezmerizing.  Who would have thought I'd pick up a hula joop last summer and now I'm going to BE IN THAT PERFORMANCE.

A Muse Troupe Spinning FIRE at the Snow King Festival 2010

And they would have let me fire hoop, too, they would have let me borrow a fire hoop and do it even tho I never have before!  I just wasn't comfortable with that.  I would like to hoop in the performance for sure but not with fire, I'm not ready, it wouldn't be safe.  What can we do to jazz up regular hooping?  The director recruited three tiny little 13 year old girls from juggling/drama clubs at the highschool, and gave them to me.  He said I'm the "go-to" hooper, the director of all things hoop in the performance.  He decided we should make four hollographic hoops (all paid for by the troupe!!!) and I am to coreograph a 2 minute dance for all four of us!!!  In fact I am going to the highschool tomorrow, and those lucky girls get to get out of class for a whole hour to take a hoopdance and coreographing workshop, with me!!!  Me!  I'm going to be teaching these girls some easy stuff hopefully like the weave and the helicopter and we are going to do it all synchronized-like with our hollographic hoops.  Then at the end of the act, after the gymnasts and fire jugglers and everything, all the circus people do their toys (me displaying my hoop skills this time ) while those little highschool girls prance around us with ribbons. 

In addition to that, I have a part in the fire dance coregoraphy, and tooooons of work to do helping get ready for this performance.  It's taking probably ten hours a week of volunteer time.  But so worth it!  I'm just so excited!