Christmas Hoop Jam!

Posted on December 29, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

Something told me to take hoops along to my mom’s house for Christmas. I’m very glad I did!

I have quite a large family with a lot of active kids. My cousin has four, and they are quite a lot of fun. I thought it might be fun for the kids and I to go outside after dinner and play with the hoops.

Little did I know, Vanessa, the girl in the pink sweatsuit and cute hat, got a hula hoop for Christmas! Vanessa, I believe, is nine. What I do know is that she’s extremely active. And now I know she’s pretty awesome at waist hooping!

I went out back and played around in the yard. Vanessa came out and joined me. We had hoop races, and rolled the hoop back and forth to each other, and I tried to teach her to “walk the dog.” At one point, our cousin Hayley came out, as did Vanessa’s sister Alexis and stepmom Nicole.

Nicole is in the red shirt, and we got to talking about hooping, and how it can be great exercise. She said she can totally see waist hooping with some music for a few minutes. After hearing that, I gave her one of my adult hoops that I never use. Nicole was quite excited about that. If I’m not using a hoop I haven’t bonded with, I’m glad to find someone who can use it.

That was my hoopy Christmas. I’m glad to spread a little hoopy joy around the family. I will have to remember to bring my hoops again to the next family holiday gathering.

Floor Workshop and July Spin Jam

Posted on July 22, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

Saturday was full of hooping for me. First, I had that floor workshop with Glo, which was nothing like I expected it to be, and that’s a good thing! She focused on how to move with the hoop on the floor, from laying down to sitting. She showed us the proper “rainbow” movements to do with our feet and hands. Take a look at some of Brecken Rivara’s work. Glo taught us the foundation of what Brecken does. It was a very cool workshop!

Right after that was the spin jam down in Musser Park. Again, we had a good community turnout. We had some teenagers show up with hoops, a young woman came with some poi, and the kids and parents that came to see what we were doing had a blast. We had people just hang back and watch and enjoy the scene. Some just danced. Others were curious about the hoops. It was a great time!

Ah, and there was LED hooping again, I brought my good camera. Yay! I got some neat shots of Amy hooping and Sterling swinging his LED poi. Amy even kindly took some photos of me spinning my LED hoop.

Enjoy the pictures!!

Musser Park Spin Jam

Posted on June 30, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

Friday night’s spin jam was pretty rockin’! Everyone who came out had a great time.

I got there and helped Jay Allday, our DJ and organizer get things set up and going. He put the music through his amplifier on and after about a minute, an athletic man came over and spoke to Jay. I was inwardly cringing. That guy probably wants us to turn down the music.

Not the case.

He asked Jay to turn it UP!

That was pretty much the community vibe all evening. Kids and their parents came over to hoop. A bunch of gals doing yoga came over after Jay approached them to join us. More of the other hoop jammers came, and we had fun well into the night.

What was amazing about this hoop jam was that other people who did flow arts came over. There was a guy with LED gloves. Another one had LED nunchuks. And then a petite girl named Jackie came over with her hoop and introduced herself and asked new join us, with her hoop and and her orbit spinner. New friend and hooper!

I’ll let the pictures here speak for themselves. They aren’t that great, since I was using my phone and didn’t bring the DSLR out. Still, you’ll get a taste of what we had going on.

Oh, and when it got dark, the LED toys came out, as you can see from the pictures. Some of us had LED hoops, other had LED poi, and the LED flow wand was amazing. Ah, and you’ll see the beautiful flow fans up there, too. Gorgeous!

Look for the next Musser Park Spin Jam is JULY 19, 2014, 4PM-?? in Lancaster, PA. More details to come, but plan on being there!!

In the Mandala Vortex

Posted on June 27, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

It’s interesting here in the mandala vortex. And it’s only because those are hoop moves I’m working on right now. And it sounded good for a title.

I’m sorry about being a little lax posting here this week. Family stuff came up and life happened. Everything is ok, I will say.

Since family stuff went well on Wednesday, I was able to get to hooping class. Yay! I don’t know what it is, but this Intermediate class just flies by. Zip! 8:00pm turns into 8:40pm in about a blink of an eye.

Katie taught us the one handed vortex on Wednesday, and it’s a neat move! I always see hoopers doing vortiex moves, and, again, wishing I knew how to do that. I know how to do one version now, and it’s not hard!

Otherwise, I’m still working on the mandala, paddles breaks, around the sun, etc. I did make a video of my practice on Tuesday, but I’m not sure if I’ll post it since it’s only made it to observe my practice and see how I’m doing. Maybe I will post it. I’m not sure.

Tonight there is a hoop jam in one of the parks here in Lancaster, PA at Musser Park. 6:30pm to 9-ish. Should be a fun time, if you are in the area! Bring your LED hoop if you have one!

Weekend of Working Out

Posted on May 27, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

Wow. I haven’t been this physically active in such a short time span that I have in a while. Truthfully, it felt good, despite me being sore in places and I have the bruises to prove it.

First, of course, was Saturday’s Hoop Jam in Binn’s Park. That was two hours of activity, more or less. Second, was Intro to Pole at Studio Spin on Sunday afternoon.

I’ll have to say that taking the intro pole dancing class was fun! It was neat to learn very basic pole moves and transitions. I’m going to think about taking Pole Level 1 because I really need to get my upper body strength up.

I was so bruised up from that class. Starting off with hooping was the same way. Your body toughens up to where your points of impact happen and you don’t bruise as often or as easily. Still, it was quite a workout and I had fun, too.

Yesterday (Monday) brought barbecues for many people, but for me, I went to hoop class. I was the only regular student there and Rachel, the owner and pole instructor for Studio Spin, took class with me and Katie. Katie put us through the usual strengthening paces and also taught us a lasso move that you catch behind your back called Around the Sun, or something like that. I picked up the basic movement of it, but have to work on catch the hoop behind my back and keeping it spinning.

As for today, I’m beat. I’m sore. I think it’s time for a rest day. It felt really good to push myself, though.

May Hoop Jam

Posted on May 24, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

Today was the May Hoop Jam in Binn’s Park. It was small hoop jam today, but it was fun. There were some little girls who came over and tried out hooping. They had so happy to try out. One girl was especially enthusiastic. She asked her aunt for a hoop right there.

Jenny and I got to see Lancaster’s March Against Monsanto happening across the street. It was a great and diverse group of people. There was a community fair of sorts at the end of the march.

Here are my photos from the day. Enjoy!

My hoops that I brought

Jenny’s new gyro hoop!

Kelley tries out the fringe hoop.

Morgan hoops with the coin fringe hoop.

April 19th Earth Day Hoop Jam

Posted on April 19, 2014August 28, 2015 by jennabee25

It was so nice to meet up with other area hoopers and just jam out in the park. Jenny organized it and brought a ton of hoops for curious people passing by to try out. Not only did we have hoopers, we had a few guys swing poi around, too, which I’ve never seen before. Very cool! It was gorgeous day and we all had a great time. Please enjoy my photos by the day from the first hoop jam of the season.