Magic City Hoopers's topics - tribe.net

St Clair County Health & Disaster Preparedness Fair 2009

2009-11-06T04:43:48Z

Come join us tomorrow at the St Clair County Health & Disaster Preparedness Fair at Pell City Civic Center from 9-4. AuraHoops will have a booth setup for all your hooping needs plus a bonus 30 minute demonstration and performance at 1:30pm. The health fair, which is free and open to the public, will continue to not only work towards increasing awareness and promoting healthy lifestyles throughout the community but also include disaster preparedness information and new exhibits to this year’s venue—something we are very excited about! Free health information and screenings, clowns and face painting for the kids, door prizes, entertainment and much more. ABC 33/40 Meteorologist Ashley Brand will also be on hand that day as well.

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Hoop Freedom Outreach Ministry

2009-11-04T18:44:29Z

Everyone we need your support to keep this ministry going, this is our first meeting and I suspect it will grow larger by the end of our first series. Whether you can contribute through your time, hoops, tape, $, words of encouragement, advertisement, ect... we need YOU to help the children of the greater Birmingham Area. Let's band together as a community and give these kids something to look forward to. http://www.facebook.com/share.php?appid=2344061033&src=box&tid=151432232801&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DVg8u2Gv3FRU#/event.php?eid=151432232801

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World Hoop Day Local Celebrations CBS 42

2009-09-11T08:11:23Z

Wednesday groups of hula hoopers met to get in shape for a good cause in the Birmingham area and around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f2cfYInHWQ

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Local World Hoop Day Tentative Schedule

2009-08-28T21:50:26Z

World Hoop Day Tentative Schedule Weather permitting: wanted to get this out A.S.A.P. so everyone could go ahead and mark their calendars for special hooping events coming to your area on World Hoop Day September 9th, 2009. Remember this schedule is tentative and is subject to change so check back frequently or respond by saying you will be in attendance, and I will personally keep you updated on the whereabouts of our Central Alabama Hoopers on this awesome day!

Our tentative non-profit hoop outreach schedule for World Hoop Day is as follows:

8am-9am ~ Mother’s of Preschooler’s Hoop Freedom Outreach Program
Location: First Baptist Church Pell City, AL

10:30am-11:15am ~ “Hooping 101- Free Hula hoop dance & fitness informative class geared towards kids ages 6 and up and the young at heart.”
Location: Homewood Public Library
Our curriculum:

10:30 am-10:40 am ~ “ Oh the Joy of Hooping- Informative hooping intro and Hoop fitness demo”
10:50 am- 11 am ~ “ How to make your own hoop demo”
11am- 11:15 am ~ Free Hoop jam in Homewood Park

11:30 am-1:30 pm~ Free Hoop Jam in Homewood Park followed by Magic City Hooper’s Lunch (Confirmed)
Location: Nabeel’s Café and Homewood Park

2pm- 4pm~ Local World Hoop Day Convergence "Hooping atop the Mountain" (Confirmed)
Location: Vulcan Park just under Vulcan statue overlooking city of Birmingham

6pm- 7pm~ Kid’s Free Hoop gathering (Confirmed)
Location: Kid’s Castle Lakeside Park Pell City, AL

9pm- 12am~ TBA
Location: Soon to be revealed!

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hoop dance classes

2009-04-13T17:50:04Z

Beginner classes are every Monday nite from 6:30-7:30. Intermediate level classes are Tuesday nites from 6-7. $10 drop-in. Hoops provided. Located in Pell City, AL at the PCCC. Please let me know if anyone wants the playlists from classes and I can post here. Robbie Lewis is still also teaching at 119 Health and Wellness in Birmingham. You can contact her at hulahoopgirl@bellsouth.net.

Tonite's theme is 80s so get your big hair ready!!!!

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Free Hoop Jam today in bham

2009-04-13T17:49:24Z

UAB Greenway (next to the UAB Rec Center) - 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Free hoopjam hosted by Robbie Lewis

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Sweet Potato Queens put a Spin on St. Paddy's Parade in Jackson, MS!

2009-04-07T19:57:31Z

Spotted at this year's 27th Annual Mal's St. Paddy's Parade were Hooping Queens Vickie Vaughan, Del Peters, Sharon Henderson, Teressa Richey, Vicki Merrymon, Nan Strickland (all from Pell City, AL) and Diane Lee of Picayune, MS. The original queen group has been attending the SPQ parade for 9 years. Each of these fabulous queens paraded with hand-made pink and green travel hoops by aurahoops of Alabama.

The event was started 27 years ago by Malcolm White, co-owner of restaurant and music venue Hal & Mal's. Each year THE Sweet Potato Queen, Jill Conner Browne (author of The Sweet Potato Queen Book of Love) and her entourage march down the street in larger-than-life green and pink costume.

This year's event raised at least $25,000 for Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital. About $10,000 of that was raised at a poolside "JELLO Wrasslin'" event!

Next year's parade is planned for March 20. Stay current on SPQ events by visiting www.sweetpotatoqueens.com .

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Hoop Fitness in Bham

2009-03-31T18:40:16Z

I want to give Robbie Lewis props for her Hoop FItness classes Mondays 9am and Tuesdays 5:30pm at 119 Health and Wellness in the GYM. $15 drop-in and $10 preregister at hulahoopgirl@bellsouth.net or 515-3010! Robbie is also a registered dietician AND can make some fly crocheted hair scarves!

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BPW Fashion Show recap

2008-11-11T20:32:35Z

We were so blessed to have been asked to perform at this year's annual Alabama Business and Professional Women's Fashion Show this past Thursday. The performance went really well. We danced to African Drum Beats and wore handmade pants and shirt. It was awesome. We gave out about 180 coupons for free hoop dance class. I wasn't surprised to see several women who have already taken the aurahoops Basic Hoop Dance class there. We sold some hoops and had several sign up for the next semester. Thanks to all for everything! It took alot of people to help us get ready for this. Thanks to Bombard Graphics, Kelli, Teressa, Brandy, Emmie, Benjamin and my mom!!!

Now, on to more pants designs....We still need a crafternoon!....

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Crafternoon? SnB?

2008-09-15T00:38:48Z

In the same creative and community spirit of the emerging Carrboro Hoop Path Crafternoon/ Stitch-n-Bitch sessions:
I was thinking that it would be fun for us to get together and make some hoops or other hoopy paraphernalia (hoop pants, arm socks, yarn dreads, etc.) and then go out and hoop for a while. Would you all be interested in something like that? We could have it at my house, and could hoop under the pavilion at Ruffner Mtn. nature center which is 5 minutes from my lil house. Let me know what y'all think, and I'll pick a day :)
Jessica

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Hoop Dance Basic 1 is going on now!

2008-09-15T00:36:35Z

I have been teaching a hoop dance beginner level course that started Monday. I do Monday and Wednesday nites at Starrz Performing Arts Centre in Pell City, AL from 5-6pm. 20 people showed up on Wednesday! It is an 8 hour course. I did the first 2 hours free. I charge $120 for the entire course, which includes a hoop. For drop-ins I charge $25, unless they bring their own hoop, then it's $20. Robbie, thanks so much for coming on Monday! Jess and Victoria (and anyone else who's interested), if you would like to come one nite I would love to have you. Perhaps you could be a special guest and teach the class a move or two! Robin, get your hoop out and join us!

Here is the site for the studio: http://www.starrzpac.com/

And don't forget my site: http://home.coosahs.net/aurahoops

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hooping in bham tomorrow 7/26

2008-07-31T23:15:58Z

i will be in rhodes park at 10 am

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expanding the hoop territory in AL

2008-07-25T21:37:56Z

I have received so many requests from all over Alabama for classes from aurahoops that i am going to start doing 4 hour hoop workshops in different cities. first on my list are auburn, tuscaloosa, jacksonville and huntsville. help me get the word out! and i'll need help finding places to hoop- aka parks and civic centers. thanks! let me know what other towns we should visit!

posted in Magic City Hoopers - 3 replies

Hooping in B'ham Today

2008-07-21T14:16:37Z

I'll be hooping after work at the middle park on Highland Ave if anyone wants to meet up. It will be around 4pm. =)

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Lakeside Hoop Jam Saturday July 12 at 10 am

2008-07-07T14:30:38Z

Come hoop with us! It's free and fun! Connect with other area hoopers. Skill level does not matter. We will share everything we know and figure out what we don't. See you there!

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Lakeside Hoop Jam this Friday

2008-06-25T13:43:27Z

Come to Pell City and hoop with us Lakeside at the park! 6:30 til. See you there!

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hooping in rhodes park sat morning

2008-06-21T13:47:24Z

will be at rhodes park sat morning around 10 hooping if anyone wants to join. i've been so busy! we did the pell city block party and made some great contacts. making lots of hoops and have 6 orders for this week alone. not a bad week! hope to see u saturday!

posted in Magic City Hoopers - 7 replies

aurahoops to be covered in tomorrow's paper

2008-06-19T03:28:59Z

Look for an article in the Sports section on aurahoops! It will be in the St. Clair County News Aegis.

posted in Magic City Hoopers - 2 replies

Another Saturday in Rhodes Park

2008-06-19T02:58:31Z

I will be at Rhodes Park again this Saturday for a hoop jam at 10 a.m. Please come!!! Also, check out my website for more hoop jams in teh area. http://home.coosahs.net/aurahoops

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aurahoops website

2008-06-11T23:14:17Z

http://home.coosahs.net/aurahoops

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Do Dah Day 2008

2008-05-19T02:42:31Z

Do Dah Day celebrates 29 years of fun and good causes on May 17. The annual festival, which has raised more than $500,000 since 1992 for Jefferson County animal shelters is one of the city’s most cherished springtime events. Festivities include the annual parade (it starts at 11:01 a.m.) as well as music and fun in Caldwell & Rhodes Parks in Birmingham’s Highland Park neighborhood. They can always use more volunteers for the event as well. Don’t forget about the crowning of the Do Dah Day king and queen on the 16th at Do Dah Eve!

I plan on being there, hoops and all! Any joiners?

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hooping in bham sat

2008-04-14T17:02:51Z

hi there
i'm thinking of hooping this saturday midday if weather permits at one of the parks (the middle one) on highland avenue. just wanted to put the thought out there just in case someone else wanted to hoop, too! i need to work on angles, tosses and stalls/sustained spinning. this will probably be more practice than jam time for me, but come on if you want some hoop company :)

~inflow~
jessica

posted in Magic City Hoopers - 3 replies

workplay hoopers

2008-03-09T19:37:25Z

My hooping obsession began at Workplay. I was an employee there, and Cayla (bartender) brought her hoop to work. I picked it up and haven't been able to put hooping down since. I haven't worked there for almost 2 years now. But, I won't let the hoop love fizzle. I had the pleasure of making a hoop then teaching some tricks to some friends from Southside Monday nite. Workplay employees, of course. I took a ton of pics and hope to have them posted by tomorrow. I successfully taught Amanda and Channing how to roll the hoop over their back across the shoulders. Got great pics of Benjamin doing the Ninja Turtle hoop method. I wish I had a video camera for that one. ;) So, look for pics later this week. I am so thankful to be able to spread hoop love. Amanda loves her new hoop!

I may just have to bring mine to the They Might Be Giants show next weekend and hoop with her! Kudos to workplay employees keeping the hoop movement alive.

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Practice to resume Saturday 3/01

2008-02-25T18:11:36Z

Thank God we are all recovering from the pandemic. Get your hoops ready. We got some catching up to do! I am planning on a day in Rhodes Park if anyone's interested. As usual, we will meet Saturday in Pell City, AL.

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Happy Hoopers

2008-02-08T15:20:34Z

Meet the happy hoopers (from Raleigh newspaper : New & Observer)topic posted Yesterday

Grown-ups find fitness, fun and even spirituality in twirling circular piping
By Joe Miller, Staff Writer
What's behind North Carolina's emergence as a hot spot for Hula Hooping?
An abundance of irrigation pipe.

Actually, that's just one reason why a childhood activity born of the 1950s is finally bridging the generation gap to adulthood. Another reason: a technological advance is doing for hooping what the oversized racket did for tennis in the 1980s and supersized golf clubs did for golf in the '90s: making the activity fun for the masses, especially those who may not have the coordination and energy of a 10-year-old girl. And you need to factor in our growing desire to make workouts fun as well as our quest for spirituality.

Spirituality? Through twirling a Hula Hoop?

"When I'm hooping, I'm visualizing," says 46-year-old Mary Water of Chapel Hill. "I think about my goals, my aspirations."

Over the past 10 years -- and particularly over the past two -- a growing number of people have been finding emotional relief and physical release inside the rotating ring. What started as a gimmick by the band String Cheese Incident to get its audiences up and dancing now has all the earmarks of a nascent fitness craze: formal classes, spiffy how-to DVDs, local clubs (called tribes in hooping circles) and rising stars who have achieved celebrity status in the tight-knit hooping community.

"There certainly isn't any data about how many hoopers there are," writes Philo Hagen, editor of the San Francisco-based hooping.org magazine, via e-mail. "But whatever that number is, it has definitely grown exponentially in the last six to 10 years."

And perhaps nowhere has hooping taken hold as firmly as in the Triangle's most eclectic nook, Carrboro.

"Carrboro is a hoop scene unlike any other," says Hagen, "and it is one that is having an impact on hoopers all over the world."

Most hoopers date the birth of adult hooping to 1990s jam band The String Cheese Incident. To get people up and dancing at their concerts, the band tossed hoops into the crowd. The hoops went over big. Soon, hoops began showing up on the rave scene.

Beginning in 2002, a group of women in Carrboro began embracing the hoop. Every Saturday, Julia Hartsell, Vivian Hancock (who now goes by "Spiral") and others took their homemade hoops to the Weaver Street Market and jammed. They brought extra hoops for any onlooker who wanted to join in. Some didn't know what to make of the scene.

"I was shy about it at first," recalls Beth Williams of Chapel Hill. "I was very self-conscious." But she had with her the ultimate ice breaker for such occasions: her 5-year-old daughter. Her daughter wanted to hoop, so Williams, who was into rock climbing and yoga, found herself hooping, in public.

The scene also attracted an art major from UNC, but for a different reason.

"A friend of mine told me there were all these pretty girls at Weaver Street on Saturdays, that I should check it out," Jon Baxter says. At the time, Baxter had just bought a new bike and was into cycling. But the day he bought the bike, he went down, crushing several bones in his right hand (not a good thing for an art major). Within a year, he went down again, breaking his collarbone. Hooping was starting to look pretty good.

Not only was it looking good as a safe fitness alternative, but Baxter saw something that made him think it could help rehabilitate the atrophying muscles in his shoulder. The Weaver Street women didn't confine their hooping to their hips; they got their whole bodies -- including their arms and shoulders -- involved. Pretty soon, his homeopathic hoop therapy was making an arm out of his chicken wing.

But the hoop was doing much more for Baxter. The bouts of depression that had plagued him for most of his life were becoming less severe.

"I'd suffered from depression," says Baxter, who is 34. "I wasn't incapacitated by it, but I was subject to it." The bouts that had come in cycles lasting months were getting shorter and shorter.

"Now," he says, "it's down to days."

Undulating into the light

Baxter is quick to acknowledge that it's the movement, the motion that keeps his depression at bay, that other types of physical activity could do the trick. For him, though, it was hooping.

He built a hooping space in the backyard of his Carrboro rental where he could hoop for hours during warm weather. When it turned cold, he began frequenting a 24-hour gym, which he hit after getting off his bartending gig. He could go for hours.

"Once as I was leaving the guy at the desk said, 'Good morning,'" says Baxter. The sky outside was just beginning to lighten.

One of the great things about being on the front edge of a movement, Baxter quickly discovered, is that there's no precedent, no blazed path, no rules -- even loose ones -- to follow.

"It's an interesting place to be," he says. "It's not like it's a new form of an old thing. It's all new."

When he started teaching hooping classes at Carrboro's Balanced Movement Studio in April 2005, he discovered he needed to create a "curriculum" as it were, from the ground up. "I had to write a language, come up with a format."

That has driven Baxter to help forge a distinctive form of hooping. In some circles, circus tricks (twirling eight hoops at a time, for instance) are big. Others are into performing.

"The North Carolina style," says Hooping.org's Hagen, "evolved as naturally as it did anywhere else, but the results were markedly different, emphasizing hooping in both directions, hooping blindfolded, the spirituality of the hoop path."

That spirituality manifests itself in different ways.

For Mary Water, it's an opportunity to visualize. For Bonnie MacDougal of Mebane it was a new way to find the escape she once found running, which she had to cut back on because of fibromyalgia. (It also proved a diversion just before giving birth to her second child last month; during a long labor, she hooped for a brief spell as a diversion.) And for 50-year-old Anna Mulqueen of Chapel Hill it's about getting to the core of what play should be about.

"It's hard to find activities that are fun to do."

And it's also about stepping inside the protective circle of the hoop and just escaping for a while.

Says Water: "It's hard to hoop and think about your to-do list."

Hitting a sweet spot

In the 1970s, every tennis player in the land wanted the Wilson T2000 racket. Trouble was, only one person in the land could play with the unforgiving thing: two-time Wimbledon singles champ Jimmy Connors. The newfangled metal racket with a sweet spot the size of a dime sent balls flying in all directions except one: over the net. Then, in the early 1980s Howard Head gave the yeomen tennis players the great equalizer: the oversized racket with a sweet spot the size of New Jersey. Now, anyone could sustain a volley.

Something similar happened with hooping.

When you were a 60-pound grade-schooler, Wham-O gave you one option: a 30-inch diameter Hula Hoop. And that was OK, because you were a bundle of flexible energy and had little trouble keeping the featherweight ring rocking. But try keeping 30 inches of nothing up with slower, older hips.

The solution: a heavier, oversized hoop.

"My first hoop was huge," says Baxter, hauling out a 48-inch hoop weighing 6 or 7 pounds from a stash in the house he shares with hooping partner Ann Humphreys.

It may sound counterintuitive, but give the big hoop a good first swing, give it a little momentum, and it takes surprisingly little effort to keep it up. Get your rhythm and technique down with the big hoop and you can gradually move to a smaller size.

"It's a physics problem," Baxter says.

One key difference between the oversized racket and big hoop. When the oversized racket came out, you paid a premium for the bigger sweet spot. You can make your own hoop for less than $10. All you need is a 12-foot or so length of PVC pipe, a coupler and some colorful electrical tape.

Don't leave them in a hot car, Humphreys advises: The Carolina weather that's generally a boon to hooping will warp a hoop in a flash. If you do leave it in the car, that same Carolina warmth can straighten you out in a jiffy: just lay the hoop on hot pavement for a minute or two.

So far, hooping tends to be female-dominated. The typical student in one of Baxter's classes is a woman, a mom, in her 40s. Surprisingly, adds Humphreys, who assists with the classes, the women tend to be somewhat restrained and lead "a moderate to low-activity lifestyle."

Guys, on the other hand, need a couple of things to embrace hooping. One, they need a heavier hoop, Baxter says, because their tendency is to muscle the hoop rather than finesse it. They also need to have a less testosterone-driven attitude. At least in this neck of the woods.

"It's really weird to be a guy and hoop," Baxter says. "It's hip-oriented. In some cultures that's considered macho.

"In the South," he adds, "it doesn't quite play that way."

joe.miller@newsobserver.com or (919) 812-8450© Copyright 2008, The News & Observer Publishing Company

A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company

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Hip Hop Hoop

2008-02-04T14:54:10Z

I am working on a new curriculum for a Hip Hop Hoop class. If anyone's interested let me know. Would love practice jam on weekends. Spring is getting nearer! YAY!!!!!!!!!!

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Make your own Hula Hoop

2008-01-30T18:22:58Z

Here's the link for instructions on making ur own hoop. I am gonna try it this weekend~! I see groovy hoops in my future!

http://www.jasonunbound.com/hoops.html

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