Nope, no turkey talk here.  I’m talking about dance.

Baste?

Yup, BASTE, as in elements of dance.

• Body
• Action
• Space
• Time
• Energy

These are the foundations of dance.  Jenny is starting to teach us about these elements in hoop class, as she did yesterday, along with Laban’s Eight Efforts (that’s another post altogether.)

As hoopers, we definitely can add a little dance BASTE to our art.  It’s not all about the tricks, but how we move our bodies, how we express ourselves, and how we interpret a song, emotion, etc.

As I have been finding in my own research about BASTE, I came across an excellent website, The Elements of Dance, that breaks down BASTE very succinctly, providing students with videos resources for individual and group study.  I have some reading to do.

It’s funny that Jenny would start teaching us about the elements and foundations and dance, because it’s something I have been starting to explore on my own.  Caroleeena, who is a very influential hoop dancer, has a great Facebook group that I recently joined, Putting the Dance in Hoopdance.  It is a closed group, but I do recommend checking it out if you are interested in adding dance elements to your flow.  She takes a different approach, but the elements are all there in her extensive list of how to add dance to hooping.

I love it when my own study and class serendipitous-ly comes together.

To put my own study into practice, and before Jenny introduced these concepts in class, I have been exploring more movements with my arms and hands as a waist hoop by using space around, in, and behind my hoop.  Now I have more tools and knowledge to put this into practical use by learning about BASTE and Laban’s Eight Efforts.

This appears to be an exciting time of newness in my hooping.  The weather is getting colder, and lighter hoops are a tad impractical when wearing bulky clothes to keep warm (lighter hoops can crack in the cold, anyway,) so I can practice with a heavier hoop, keep it at the waist, and learn to dance.  I can use the lighter hoops in doors if I have an opportunity to do so, too.

There, now, I am sure once you are done reading this, it’s about Thanksgiving, and you have to baste in the literal sense, as in your lovely turkey.  I wish you and yours a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  Remember, eat well!  You can hoop it off later.