"How did you get into hula hooping?"

I was first amazed by hoop dancing (as most people are amazed by the first sight of it) in May of 2008. I was about to graduate from UC Davis, it was a Sunday, and I was on the quad with three other friends listening to music and talking about our future endeavors.

Across the quad was a girl in a turquoise skirt with a hoop revolving around her hand. It was beautiful, and she wasn't doing anything more then practicing her hand hooping, but I could not tear my eyes away. I had to have one.

The following weekend was the Whole Earth Festival, known in Davis for the myrid of food, vendors, activites on campus, and the strange co-op people who emerge from their Dome housing. I called Sacramento stores in search of a hula hoop, not knowing where to get one but knowing that this event would be a big hooping weekend.

I had told my best friend Bali that I was going on an adventure to Sacramento to get a hoop. The festival began in 5 days so I was in a hurry to find one.
After class he gave me a call, "So, I have some good new and some bad news. Which do you want first?"
I always start with the bad, of course. "The bad,"
"You can't get your hoop today. It looks like they're only available online."
Bummer. "Well... what's the good news?"
"Luckily, they do rush deliveries for pickles just like this one. I ordered you a hoop, black and purple glitter tape, and it will be here in two days. Oh, and it's freakin' collapsible!!"

Yes, this is why I love him. He ordered it from BodyHoops.com while I was in class and it did indeed come that Thursday before the festival. From the moment I got it I was addicted, unable to put my hoop down and anxiously awaiting the Whole Earth Festival to bring me new tricks, insights, and hooping friends.

I YouTubed hooping tutorials and came upon SaFire and her video to Paramore's Misery Business. I was blown away at the possibilites of the hula hoop. It wasn't hard to find her tutorials from there and I got to work.

I'd come home from the bars with my roommates late at night, grab my hoop and tell 'em I was off to practice. The campus was only one block away and I'd jam under the street lamps, watching my shadow, ipod in ears, until 5 am. By Saturday I was able to do the vortex!

At the Whole Earth festival there was an entire quarter of the quad dedicated to hoopers, led by Allison the local hoop dance instructor. She approached me, complimented my skills having learned them in the past two days, and asked me about my spiffy new hoop.

I call this day my spiritual awakening. After ending a destructive 4 year relationship earlier that month, I took this time to truly be with my self. I separated from all of my roommates and friends and wandered alone just me and my hoop. I found the drum circle and danced along. I made new friends to play with. But most of all, I learned that I was destined to Hoop Dance. When something feels so right, and clicks so organically, it is just ment to be. Too bad I spent four years earning my Bachelor's degree in English just to graduate and become a Hoop Dance instructor/performer. But whatever it took to get me there, I'll take it.


After graduation, and skydiving, and biking to UC Davis' beautiful Arboretum to hoop, and reading at Bali's bar every afternoon, and helping my big sister move into her new home, I moved back home to the San Francisco bay. This is where I taught my best friends Shell and Hush everything I've learned. And I was not surprised when I discovered they loved it as much as I do, and it comes just as naturally to them, too. Today we are forming an alliance, calling it the Heartbreak Hoopers and plan to make a living doing what we love with people we love.