The first time I ever hooped in a club it was rather impromptu. I had lotsa hoops in the car, and my friend was the DJ so I brought some hoops in to spread the love. I started hooping in the front of the club and people just stared for a minute (In Alabama, it is very rare to see someone hooping in a club). I handed out hoops to the lovely people around me. Within 10 minutes people were, as we say in Alabama, "hoopin and hollerin", and having a great time. I performed terribly. I was so embarassed that I just stopped and watched everybody else. There was only room for about 5 people at a time. I realized that in the end it didn't matter that I performed poorly. I was able to spread some love and bring a smile to several peoples faces, even if they were laughing at me. It was very fun, and I do not regret it at all. Stay focused on the positive. If you drop it, pick it up and give it another whirl! Good luck on your next performance!

My first real performance was in front of hundreds of people during the Utah Arts Festival. During the day, we were wandering minstrals and at night we performed a choreographed fire show. My hooping partner and I both suffered from stomach pains and pre-show jittters. What I found then and have continued to find over the years, was that the day time activities took the edge off the night time show. During the day we would stop at open locations, scatter lots of hoops around and encourage members of the crowd to join in the fun. I taught 5 year olds and 70 year olds how to hoop. It was marvelous! What I learned from the experience is that, at least for me, the fun was encouraging others to let their inner child out long enough to get over the "I can't hula hoop. It's too hard. I will be embarrased!" People loved it and I realized that most of them were wishing that they had the gumption to do what I was doing! From that point forward, I made it a habit to encourage others to join in the fun! When I go to a club, I grab my hoop, go out onto the floor, hoop my heart out and smile at anyone who makes eye contact with me. If I'm feeling shy, intimidated, or just plain friendly, I look for a certain gleam in the eye of someone in the crowd, I hand them a hoop and encourage them to try. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, but it always opens us all up to the fact that we are just scared kids at heart. Just the fact that you are out there doing what you do inspires others. You did it! Celebrate! Do it again!

I agree - the best thing you can do when you drop your hoop is to pick it up and start hooping again!

To prepare for my first performance, I made it a point to practice doing exactly that. Every time I dropped the hoop, instead of doing my usual bend over and pick it up routine, I pretended that there were people watching so I had to make my way over to the hoop in a more stylish manner like I meant to drop it/toss it onto the floor. Thank goodness I practiced how to recover without getting that freaked out look on my face because I ended up dropping the hoop TWICE during my first performance.

Although I don't enjoy dropping the hoop in front of people, I've learned not to freak out about it and just keep going. That was a big hurdle for me to get over and it took a while, but now I know it isn't the end of the world - plus if you make it look like you did it on purpose and keep going, most people will not know that it was a mistake!

Dropping the hoop if part of hooping, whether anyone is watching or not, so don't beat yourself up for it!

I got really lucky for my first performance. I was going to be fire hooping. I'd committed 8 months in advance and I was barely able to do a few tricks. I practiced really hard lit up and with a regular hoop. I picked really easy things and decided to be sure to execute them well.

When I showed up - the area to perform was "in the round" - and people were sitting very close. I was worried about safety, but they just wouldn't move back (Ok - they'd move back, but after you turn your back on them, they'd move forward again - erg). Looking back, it was pretty safe, but because I was nervous I felt like they were a foot away. But I was so afraid the hoop would just *fly* out of my hands. m Luckily - I was "keeping it simple".

I did everything well...except check which way the wind was blowing. I wanted to wait until the wicks went down before doing some neck hooping. There was one fat one (isn't there *always*) but it wasn't anything larger than what I'd practiced on. I went for it...and felt coming around towards my face a large poof of flame. I was facing into the wind and sniffed up some flame. Hopefully, this is the worst I'll ever experience. I got very lucky I think.

The plus side was that for the first time ever in my life, I didn't have any nose hairs. I know that's not healthy, but being a hairy mo-fo of a Greek heritage, it *was* kinda nice!

Stef

What a coincidence! I started hooping in October as well, and my first performance is in less than a week. I'm still in high school and I tried out for our 'idol' show (which is essentially just a talent show). I dropped my hoop three times during the audition, but I made the cut! The preliminaries on Wednesday and the finals are on Thursday. I'm really excited but I'm also super nervous...I don't know how ready I'll be when the time comes. I've been practicing like crazy, I just hope it's enough. I've never been a shy person, and I've hoopdanced in public before as well as acted in a bunch of plays, but I feel this is different. I have the feeling that my breath is not going to come very easily before I go on that stage...Hopefully hooping.org will post the video as video of the day once I do it. I hope I do well!

Hi Kellsey,

When I first started hooping I wold practice in an open area of the University and at certain times right before or after classes there would be a whole wack of people walking by. It was kind of intimidating but I didn't really have a choice so it was a good experience. I also started teaching a class about 3 months into my hooping; it was really informal and I learned A LOT from explaining things to others.

If you are nervous about performing in front of others I suggest practicing with your eyes closed. Then during your performance if at any time you feel yourself getting nervous, just close your eyes, breath and relax into your hooping. If you've played enough with your eyes closed then this will come very naturally to you and will help you feel less like you are performing and more like you are at home playing.

~ SaFire ~