xtcian

Wow! Amazing!
As a child growing up in the 50s who can still remember the texture and smell and color of my own hula hoop, I can swear I was never close to that good with it!
Go Annie!

OMG. Go Ann! Go Ann!

I am afraid that I would twist or sprain an important body part if I even attempted ANY of those moves.

Not too shabby, Annie.

But can you throw the hoop out in front of you with backspin to make it come back to you? I perfected that move soon after hula hoops started fitting me like a snug belt.

You add that little wrinkle to your routine and I'll be impressed.

Nice1, hooping is starting to show up at techno parties round these parts, and it's way sexier then the E-tards with the glowsticks on strings, who always manage to bean passers by.

Now, watch it again with this as the soundtrack:
http://www.thearchiver.net/data/audio/Other/alansmith-deephousendiscomix.mp3

Which is how I watched it. Since youtube audio sync is shite, sometimes completely unsynced music is better for video like this.

Hey, NOLACathy, ditto here -- I thought immediately of my lime-green hula hoop from the 1950s. It seemed to me that I had to swing my hips around much more violently than the amazing Annie is doing here, in order to keep my hula hoop circling so that it wouldn't drop to the ground. Her movements are very contained. Cool indeed!

Wow, Annie's incredibly coordinated. An old coworker, Virginia, used to talk about her sometimes. I can't make one rotation on those contraptions. Funny, because my first thought was Tim Robbins, "You know, for the kids." Then saw the title above.

Annie, that looks like a great workout. How long did it takes you to get to that level of hooping skill?

Annie could join the circus! She's incredible!!

As if I wasn't already infatuated!

hot.

Hey y'all!

I can't tell you how surprised I was to see today's blog topic! Ho my god. But thank you Ian--aw shucks! I'm blushin' ovah heah.

I'm all a-burst with my Hoop Story but I realize that this is the comments section so I will keep it brief: there is indeed a grassrootsy hoop craze veh-he-hery slowly sweeping the nation that did grow out of the rave/jamband festival scene (more the latter, via The String Cheese Incident--never thought you'd hear THAT band invoked on this blog, didja!) in which larger, heavier adult hoops (made out of pvc piping and gaffer tape) are used. The larger diameter and weight of the hoops makes them MUCH easier to keep up and, later, to learn "tricks" or, as we Hoop Pathers call them, "moves."

There is a thriving hoop community here in Carrboro (I guess you could say Chapel Hill too) that was started by a handful of hoopers about 5 years ago--the main players being Julahoop, Vivian Spiral (these are "hoop names") and my main squeeze and hooper extraordinaire, Jonathan Baxter (hoop name "Bax"). I started taking his hoop class last year (because I had a crush on him from seeing him hoop at Weaver Street Market on Sundays) with my friend Kimowan (another budding hooper who also teaches art at UNC--check out his excellent website/blog: kimowan@mac.com), but then Kimo went back to Canada for the summer, and I found out Bax had a girlfriend, so I lamed out and stopped coming to class.

This summer, however, Kimo was here and I discovered Bax was single again, so we started going to class again (do I sound all of 14?) and then the three of us started hooping together daily. Bax has had a daily 1 1/2 to 2 hour hooping practice for the last 5 years, and it shows in his hooping --check out his footage w/ yours truly in the background:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWKBSv7sw5c

then with all 3 of us in the frame:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXO0m4AwdwE&mode=related&search=

You see his technique of hooping "blind," i.e. blindfolded, which is how he taught himself most of what he knows. Because he began hooping to overcome muscle atrophy from a broken collarbone, his hooping has developed as a spiritual/healing path which is distinctive from most of the folks out there hooping and teaching. His approach has an entire mythology and pretty well-developed philosophical tenets as well--this is the Hoop Path I referred to earlier. It was what really resonated with me when I took the hoop class (besides his hotness) because I did not give a shit about doing hoop "tricks" or whirling on the Weaver Street lawn. I've found a meditative peace through hooping that has become a seemingly inexhaustible source of sustenance as well as an incredibly powerful healing force.

And certainly also a great way to keep in shape!--duh, almost forgot to mention that. Hooping keeps the body both supple and toned, much like yoga. However, having 8 years of near-daily yoga practice under my belt, I will say that hands-down a good stretch and an hour or two of hooping in your yard beats any yoga class anywhere.

Here is a clip of Spiral, an incredibly beautiful hoopdancer whose grace will reveal my clip as the hooping equivalent to a rendition of "Chopsticks":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8qr4qijb_0

There is also a documentary about hooping due to come out in the next--year? Anyway here's a link to that--there's a trailer of Bax in which he has a voice-over and you can hear his cute Charlotte accent!:

www.hoopthemovie.com

Glad to share hoop bliss with the xtcian community! Bax is teaching a bunch of workshops this year (including NYC and LA--aw hayle yeeh!) so if you are interested in getting your hoop on let me know! Also weekly classes here in C-boro.

Ok, finally I will stop.

Wait! Let me just post some better links to Kimowan's site and HooptheMovie:

Kimo: http://web.mac.com/kimowan/iWeb/portfolio/Home.html

HooptheMovie trailer: http://www.hoopthemovie.com/video/trailer5_lrg.htm

That's it! I promise!

very Nice Annie...

I saw a cirque performance in Lost Wages some time ago with a woman doing about 50 hoops at the same time on a high wire.. WOW!

Have a great weekend everyone!! k

Holy shit - that's amazing. I'm mesmerized.

Go, go, go Annie! NC folks knows how to love 'em some hoops of all types. I'm bustin' with pride to know ya & to have known ya when. BRAVA!!

hella cool!! some of our friends swear that hoops are the only way to truly get rid of a fat belly. you can actually get hoops in borders bookstores (i think it's borders) along with yoga mats and such.

i like spiral's interpretation, reminds me of the belly dancing crews getting down to cheb i sabbah remixes and that whole movement.

Annie, I just showed your clip to my seven year old daughter, and she said, "Mama, that lady ROCKS! No one at my school can hula hoop like that during recess!" Yes indeed!

I have to expose my suburban blandness to admit that I have never even heard of hooping. It is AMAZING! And, if I had a hooping body like that, I think I could rule the world : )

P.S.: Bax is HOT.

LFMD!

Thank you for the props! Best of all is Helen's approbation (second only to Lucy's...)

Hooping, I believe, will grow over the next 5 or so years to attain at least the stature of Pilates as a fitness option--not replacing yoga, but being offered at yoga studios and the like. So it's only a matter of time before it comes to Maryland! There's gotta be some people doing it there already--you can check out www.hooping.org or www.tribe.net (topic: hula hooping) to see if there are folks giving classes or workshops in your town.

I think Bax is the hottest! Thank you! A skinny PK (preacher's kid) from Charlotte/Belmont/Kannapolis--who'da thunk!?!?

If anybody wants to ask anything more about hooping (I will try to be pithy) email me: hushpuppymix at yahoo dot com

pe*A*ce (Hoop Path term for hoop balance/bliss--pronounced pee-AH-che)

Annie

Sexy. Interesting. Smile Inducing. Fabulous. I'm hooked.

Wow. Like LFMD, I showed this to my daughter (who is now 6) and she said "Wow, that girl is sooo good!". I'm also very impressed. I've seen the folks hooping at Weaver Street but now I'm going to have to take my kid too. I think she missed it before. Maybe I've even seen you there Annie?
Ian, (since you are probably the only one left reading this - except maybe Annie). I'm curious about your naming a godparent to Lucy. I had thought through my reading that you might be agnostic. Sorry if I'm labeling you. But anyway, I wonder how you see Annie and Lucy's relationship since it is named in a religious way. Forgive me if this is too personal. I ask because I now regret not doing this for my girls and wonder about the custom. Neither my husband nor I had godparents and in my southern redneck family godparents were only miafia mobsters or maybe part of that foriegn Catholic religion. Anyway, I can see the beauty of it now and I just wonder how it works for you both. Maybe I'm pondering this because it's Sunday morning or maybe I'm think it would have been nice to have honored a friend in this way and to give my girls someone else of official importance in their lives. Perhaps a blog topic of the future. Happy weekend!

Annie! You have no idea how in awe Helen is of you and Bax and your hooping. Via the miracle of YouTube, you have rocked our house this weekend. Helen watched all of the clips of you and Bax (over and over again), and then she wanted to buy a hoop the next day. The weather has been nice, so we searched for a hoop on Saturday. In 4 different stores. Apparently hoops are a seasonal item here in MD! Let's just say that Helen was not going to give up until we found a hoop.

Anyway, we bought two hoops (one for Helen, one for Mama). We have been in our driveway ALL WEEKEND LONG. Of course, Helen wanted some cool music ("You know, Mama, cool like Annie and Bax! Hip hop!"). My daughter is much cooler than me, and I had some trouble finding some satisfactory music, but we found some Kanye West in my collection, and she has been hooping all weekend. I have been hooping too, because Helen is still at that lovely age wherein she likes my company, and I like to have fun with her. So we have been hooping. My second grader and me. With Kanye West blaring on our little radio. With all of our elderly neighbors peering out the window. The hooping trend has officially begun in suburban Anne Arundel County!

Have a great weekend. Thanks for sharing your talents and broadening our horizons! I love xtcian.com!

This is THE MOST ADORABLE AND AWESOME STORY I HAVE EVER HEARD!!!!

Tell Helen that Annie and Bax think she is the coolest kid in the United States!