In my garden, this afternoon.



Time in my hoop seems even more important right now, what with a busy job to hold down, hoop classes to teach, a family to spend time with ... oh, and that little matter of a wedding to organise. The big day is just two weeks from today, and I am both excited and nervous!

My hoop gives me the time and space to slow down, to breathe, to get off that mouse wheel if only for a short while.

I could have cleaned the bathroom this afternoon, but today feels almost like spring, so me and Monty decided to do some hoop practice instead. [Monty retired to his favourite sunny spot under the lemon tree, so he doesn't appear in this video.] I decided not to add a soundtrack to this video. All you'll hear are birds singing, the wind, dogs barking and someone's chainsaw. I swear every New Zealand neighbourhood has at least one resident who is obsessed with his chainsaw!!

Currently working on a few new moves and, as always, on smoothing out my flow.

Happy hooping,
Anne-Marie

One month from today ....

... God willing, John and I will be married. 

We got engaged in February last year and since then wedding plans have been made and cancelled several times over, as one stumbling block after another met us on the road.

We’ve never wavered in our commitment to each other, but we just didn’t know when we’d be able to have a wedding. With John out of work for much of the past year, all our money has gone towards day to day living – never mind saving for a wedding.

But a couple of weeks ago, one Saturday night, I arrived at the club to pick John up after his football match. He’d had a few drinks, and he wanted to know how I felt about just going ahead with the wedding any way, as cheaply as possible? One of his best mates had given him a lecture about how we shouldn’t worry about an expensive wedding, we should just invite our favourite people and … get married.

The idea couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Over the past few weeks I’d started to feel sad about the fact the wedding seemed to be stalled indefinitely, although I hadn’t mentioned this to John. I didn’t want a big, fancy wedding – I just wanted us to get married. So that’s what we’re doing and I couldn’t be more excited!

So now when I’m not working or hooping I am elbow deep in wedding plans. I refuse to stress about it; both of us want to enjoy our wedding and the build-up to it.

It’s been very gratifying to see how excited people are for us. Not just our families, who are obviously delighted, but friends and colleagues too. Entering into a marriage is not something to be done lightly, and it is risky, yet people still seem to believe in marriage. [Except for one friend of mine who was “jokingly” very rude about me getting married. I probably wouldn’t consider him a friend anymore.]

So many people have offered memories of their own weddings, or bits of advice, or even practical help. Today one of my colleagues – a professional photographer – offered to shoot our wedding for free, just because he knew we were on a shoestring budget. Incredible.

And in case you’re wondering … yes, there will be hooping at our wedding reception. Of course!

My first video.

Drum roll please ... here is my first hoop video. My first video ever, actually. I have been wanting to do this for a long time and, thanks to some savings + a small unexpected windfall, I at last have the technology to video myself hooping.

As you can probably see, it is a dark and gloomy day here in my little corner of the world, my hands were numb by the time I'd finished! Midwinter approaches us, and our days are so short now that every chance for fresh air is welcomed.

You'll see Monty off to the side there - he is my ever-present hoop companion. Even when he is accidentally hit with a flying hoop [sorry baby!] he sticks around. Clearly he was bored or cold today as he trotted off half-way through.

I have to be honest and say I hate this video. I hate how awkward I look, and the mistakes I make. I hate that as soon as the video camera is on, I completely lose my hooping mojo!! Hopefully I'll get used to it and will improve the more I video myself.

Happy hooping,
Anne-Marie

On making mistakes.

Something I am working on a lot in my hoop dance practice right now is fluency.

I’m not great at making mistakes. That is, I make plenty of them while I’m hooping but I don’t deal with them well. They interrupt my flow. I feel like I’ve failed. I stop and sigh and wish for the day when I’m a great hooper who never makes mistakes…

But the more I watch hooping videos [and I’m watching a lot these days] the more I realise great hooping is not about not making mistakes. It’s about taking mistakes in your stride and learning to incorporate them into your flow – or, at the least, not allowing those mistakes to interrupt your flow. One of the videos that helped me come to this realisation is this one of the beautiful Tiana Zoumer, who hoops with grace, speed and passion.

I love this video because although Tiana’s hooping is spectacular, it’s not perfect. She makes mistakes and she recovers from them. She doesn’t get upset that she’s made a mistake; she just keeps on moving.

So, inspired by Tiana, I am determined to keep moving through my mistakes. When the hoop slips I change direction. When the hoop hits the floor I pick it up and carry on. It's not easy - old habits die hard - but when I do keep going, I’m surprised at how right it feels.

Happy hooping,

Anne-Marie

PS. I wonder how many of the moves that are now part of the modern hooping repertoire came about because of mistakes?

Release.

Releasing into knee hooping.

I’ve started learning from an arse-kicking set of tutorials over at Hoop City. The series is called “Waves” and it’s taught by a famous hooper called Brecken Rivara.

I describe the tutorials as arse-kicking because they are unlike anything I’ve learned in hooping before. They are, as the name suggests, full of waves, wobbly moves and twists and melting from one plane to another. I tend towards the big, energetic moves, like throws and tosses; so I’m taking Brecken’s classes to challenge myself. And because I adore her hooping, and if I could take a class with her in person one day it would be a dream come true.

If you are not familiar with Brecken, here is one of my favourite examples of her extraordinary dancing:

In these tutorials, Brecken often talks about the call and response nature of her moves. How the hooper begins the move, then has to release control and let the hoop take over to complete the move. 

Her comments bounced around in my head for a while, as things sometimes do. And then I realised that I’ve already encountered many hooping occasions when I, or my students, have had to RELEASE to make any progress. In my classes, some of my best students have a tendency to overthink new moves. They are focused on putting their hand there and turning the hoop there, and they must control every step of the hoop’s journey. Consequently the move they’re trying to do evades them. Because sometimes all they need to do is starting the hoop moving and let the hoop do the rest of the work.

“Don’t overthink it!” is something my students hear me say a lot.

I often need to take my own advice. Knee hooping is a great example of this. It’s not a difficult move but for some reason I found it impossible. Every day for the best part of a year  I would strain and struggle with knee hooping. My practice was certainly consistent – the hoop dropped to the ground every time! Then one evening in March while John and I were watching a football match on television I stood up to stretch, picked up a hoop, and threw it straight onto my knees. It took a few minutes for me to realise I was knee hooping.

These days, when I’m struggling with a move, I will work on it for a while then put it aside and come back to it later. Maybe a month or two later ... and it's amazing how releasing the need to nail that move, right now, can bring success. A word needs to be invented for that magic moment when you stop straining and allow the move to happen. That moment when you stop wondering, “Am I doing it right?” and realise, “Ah-ha, that’s it!” It’s a wonderful moment.

I'm not saying you shouldn't work to get things right. But there is such a thing as trying too hard, and the trick is knowing when to push through and when to release.

I’m sure there’s a life metaphor in all this :-)

Happy hooping,
Anne-Marie