Wow 2012! Just WOW!

I start this entry in a blissed out state due to the excessive amounts of hula hooping I have done in the last 24 hours. I think this might be a requirement for each future blog post! Yesterday I was fortunate enough to take Poki & Malcolm's "HOOP! There it IS!" workshop in which I helped to facilitate here in San Diego. I laughed hard and hooped harder for a full four hours. It was amazing! Some of Poki's complicated isolation work finally started to click after taking it with him several times at various flow festivals. Just when my right arm wouldn't let me isolate my hoop anymore, Malcolm gave us the opportunity to move our bodies in strikingly new ways. We flailed alright! I particularly enjoyed when he spoke about pushing a move or a pose to its fullest potential. Allowing the mechanics of a hoop move to incorporate every part of our body, our legs and arms. We did static tosses which I had never experimented with before. I am always grateful for outside hoop influence. I welcome it with open arms :) Speaking of outside Hoop inspiration, Kit~ and Nick are teaching a workshop in San Diego next weekend! Check it out!

Kit~ & Nick

The best part had to be the ending of the workshop when we took a seemingly "boring" combination of movements and added some "spice." There were all kinds of spice but the best one was definitely the "catwalk" or "runway" spice. Strutting our stuff across the floor with Madonna-like music in the background, while hooping, giggling, hooting and hollering was the best way to end a workshop EVER!

Poki & Malcolm's Workshop

I left the workshop, slapped on some make-up and a costume to perform with my troupe, The Hoop Unit at the San Diego Burning Man Film Festival. We rocked it! Bringing Belly Burlesque Fusion, Belly Hoop Fusion and finally the most darn LED hoopers in one space that most of those audience members had ever seen. All 12 of us jammed out with our glow hoops in the dark to the XX remix of Florence and the Machine's "You've Got the Love." I am so proud of my new troupe members who did great! We all enjoyed ourselves and got great feedback from the audience. Lots of women told me that when they see me perform it is always a celebration. A celebration of life and of the divine feminine form. 

After bringing in outside Hoop instructors to teach a workshop and watching my students and troupe members rock out with their LED and Fire Hoops, I had the overwhelming and satisfying feeling that I have helped to foster a truly vibrant San Diego Hooping community. And it has only just begun! Imagine the places we will go!

HERE is a recent interview by Kaylee Norton of "Outer Strength, Inner Peace" in which I talk about Burlesque, body image, the media and more!

Epic Hot Springs at Electric Poncho

This year is looking nothing short of epic! Wow 2012! Just WOW! The first exciting endeavor is to Guadalupe Canyon outside of Mexicali, Mexico the weekend of April 19-23. I have been going to this magical canyon for about 5 years for Fuente, a festival with the vibe of Burning Man, but much more intimacy and much more water! Yep! Water :) Natural thermal hot springs in every camp, waterfall hikes and cool pools. Truly an oasis in the middle of a dried lake bed desert. This year I will be going to a new event at Guadalupe Canyon, Electric Poncho. It is the first year that I will be bringing my troupe, The Hoop Unit to this incredible location to perform. We'll be performing our brand new 2012 show, "The Sultan's 10 Wives" inspired by an old circus sign that one of my troupe members Lady Leeloo, acquired with the same title and an image of a circus gypsy woman. This show is about a Sultan and his harem of slave sideshow performers, who take their freedom into their own hands. Incorporating sideshow, concepts of gender roles, The Velvet Underground, Tom Waits, veil origami, theater, hula hoops and humor, this show is nothing like what you've seen before! And it will be debuted at Electric Poncho, so get your tickets now! Oh and did I mention the epic lineup of Moontribe DJs?

Just weeks later, on May 12th, I will be throwing my boyfriend Austin a most epic 30th birthday party at the World Beat Center in San Diego! "The Psychedelic Mirage Sideshow" will include Tribal Circus Fusion performance from some of the most exquisite Burlesque, Belly Dance, Fire, Aerial, Hoop and Contortion performers in Southern California. It will be a night of inspiration, imagination and entertainment. Not to mention some rockin' DJs for the afterparty! More info and ticket link on the way. For now, mark your calendar and get on my email list so you know when tickets go on sale. They will sell out!

The next weekend (May 17th - 20th) I will be teaching and performing in North Carolina for Hoop Convergence. Julia Harstell Crews and Scott Crews of HoopDrum are the organizers of this event and they are just such amazing people. They are also co-owners of Synergy Fire Hoops, my opinion of the best Fire Hoops on the market. Last year, I was so deeply touched by my experience there that I wrote about it: "Another major realization that came to me was the profound uniqueness of each individual hooper at HoopCon. The variety of style and approach towards hooping was vast. And the support of everyone to be their own true selves was inspiring! To see an audience that equally cheered on such different people as KaytiBunny and Poki (just an example of two polar opposite, equally fabulous hoopers) was something I had not experienced before." I can't wait to be there again this year! 

I am still waiting patiently to find out if I have been accepted to perform/compete in the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, the first weekend of June. The anticipation is killing me! Hopefully I will know next week. Either way, the following week (June 3 - 7) is The Spin Summit in Colorado! It is going to be another amazing flow art/prop manipulation retreat in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I am teaching and so are lots of other EPIC instructors! Check out the line-up, affordable price and beautiful surroundings :) Oh Colorado in the summer! Please use that link when purchasing tickets to this event so the event organizers know you heard about it from me :)

I am excited to be offering many kids hula hoop camps this summer! At both the New Children's Museum and Cuyamaca College, kids have the opportunity to make hoops, learn hoop dancing moves and create a hoop show to be performed at the end of the week for the parents. Know someone who might be interested? Spread the word!

Finally, in September I have been booked to perform fire dancing at the Singapore Grand Prix! Yes, that's right, just weeks after returning from Paris, I was invited to perform in South Asia. The universe is listening! Really listening! I literally said out loud while in Paris, "Next time I want to go to Thailand!" And Singapore is close enough! I will be traveling through Thailand with my boyfriend Austin, going to Singapore to perform and then going to Hoop Camp right after. I am also trying to navigate going to Burning Man right before all of that to perform in the Conclave again. Whew! 4-5 weeks of insane traveling and accelerated life experience, here I come! I wouldn't have it any other way :) Hoop Camp is Northern California's Hoop Retreat which I have had the opportunity to teach at in 2009 and 2010. This year I have been asked to perform and I know it will be an experience of total and complete Hoop expansion.

I hope you will check out and attend some of these amazing events I am apart of this year! All of them have something special to offer you as you dance, hoop and float through this thing we call LIFE :)