you spin me originally published in rou a hooping revolution n churns up ever more joy d & self-awareness in the community.

you spin me round originally published in

b

y

A

n

n

a

D

u

b

r

o

v

s

k

y

p

h

o

t

o

s

b

y

C

l

a

u

d

i

a

G

o

e t

z

e

l

m

a

n

n

art credit

art credit stylist: Jasmine hamed; hair/makeup; tamara brown/artist untied; clothing from far left: catsuit: dervish girl; crop top: melodia; capris: dervish girl; men’s tank: american apparel;

shorts: zobha; cami: dervish girl; leggings: american apparel If you saw their bodies but also encourages better not only helps them tone and tune in to Devotees of the hybrid art form say it cities such as Sydney and Barcelona. trend is going global, picking up fans in to Cincinnati to Manhattan—and the across the country, from San Francisco are teaching workshops in yoga studios hoop- with exotic names stage name is Laura Blakeman) and other shimmied inside her rings of fire. 100 percent —beamed as she whirling part pinup dervish, girl, and whooped in wonderment. Sunfire—part she picked up a second hoop, the crowd then blossomed into a backbend. When Hanumanasana (Monkey God Pose) and She spun it overhead as she sank into waist, and whirling around her rib cage. down her body, orbiting her thighs and with flames. It rolled like a wave up and her partner—a plastic hoop trimmed tune, Sunfire danced in the embrace of firsthand. As the DJ spun a downtempo community’s enthusiasm for hooping Valley, California, you felt the yoga last year’s Wanderlust Festival, in Squaw Shakti Sunfire take the main at stage Today, Shakti Sunfire (whose given (right) play on a hot summer day. Claussen Sunfire (pictured left) and Nayeli Michelle Bouvier FUn FUn in the sun the in and Sianna Sherman

Anusara yogini

and Shakti Daniel MC Yogi concerts, and it up at yoga retreats, summer festivals, and skilled performers alike are hooping folks (men and women, young and old) For those reasons and more, regular sion of fun and joy into yoga practice. alignment while bringing a fresh infu- years ago,” years says ago,” Jivamukti and Hoop a long way since I started hooping six you—if it hasn’t already. class is probably coming to a studio near ter where you live, a groovy hoop-yoga ings; some blast techno music. No mat yoga flow. Some weave in Tantric teach- classes teach you how to hoop through a you’re holding yoga poses, and advanced rest; others teach you how to hoop while part of the class and hooping for the even Hoop Vinyasa. Some teach yoga for names like HoopAsana, HoopYogi, and have created hoop-yoga hybrids with trainings—wherever yogis gather. on the road at yoga festivals, teacher backyard when he’s home in Texas, and founder , who does it in his National Mall during DC Yoga Week. conferences. They spin and dance on the “It’s definitely growing, and it’s come A handful of trendsetting teachers “Hooping rocks,” says Anusara Yoga continued on page 106 page on continued YogaJournal o j a g o y u - . l a n r c o M 5 7 you spin me round originally published in continued from page 75 so burdened by the pressures of everyday areas that feel constricted. So I’ll take off hands. Or three-legged Dog Pose with a Rea’s popular Yoga that they would like her. But Vinyasa teacher Sandhi Ferreira, who has life. You get a hoop on and some music, the hoop, get on the mat, and move into hoop spinning around your raised foot. Trance Dance, or the ancient as she delved deeper into hooped onstage with Michael Franti and and suddenly you get a little lighter, freer, postures that target those areas.” To pump up the volume, try a Hoop Vin- tradition of Sufi whirling, her yoga practice, she says, taught the hybrid art form to Sharon Gan- happier. It energizes you and draws more Hooping can also release long-held ten- yasa class, where you might flow through hooping can be a form of mov- she developed a more inti- non and David Life. Many yogis are drawn light into your life.” sion and emotions in the hips. “That area Triangle, Warrior, and Tree Pose with a ing meditation. As Sherman mate relationship with her to hooping for the same reason kids are, Plus, the fun is contagious. To see for gets so emotionally locked for people. It’s hoop spinning around your wrists, then observes, “My yoga practice body—and herself. In time, she says: It’s fun. yourself, just take a handful of hoops to a where fears set in,” Sherman says. Hoop- hips, then legs. The possibilities are prac- is always in a state of evolu- that new relationship allowed “It’s about connecting to that child- local park, and you’ll attract curious on­- ing gets people moving in a way that “frees tically endless. tion. So bringing the hoop her to bring her fully present like energy, that playful spirit inside you,” lookers in no time. Last year, when Sher- their emotions and melts resistance. They into it is even more fun. It just enhances embodied self to the stage and become a says Liana Cameris, a Philadelphia yoga man and her hoop-yogi friends descended feel more free to express themselves.” turn up the joy the pure, radiant joy of being in my body. knockout performer. “What really moves teacher and hoop dancer who developed on San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts to In class, some teachers use the hoop as On a subtler level, hooping can help you It’s another portal into ananda, or bliss, people,” she realized, “is when someone Hoop Vinyasa with two hoop-yogi friends shoot a promotional video, they attracted a prop to refine alignment. For example, find that balance between sthira (effort, just like meditation.” dances with the uninhibited joy that in New York City. “A lot of times when a bevy of Japanese tourists who snapped in (Chair Pose), Hoop Vinyasa steadiness) and sukha (ease, grace), which Ultimately, hooping can help you tap comes from the center of their being.” you’re practicing yoga, you’re so serene. pictures and then, upon invitation, stepped teacher Julie “Jewels” Ziff Sint, of New is the very definition of in Patanjali’s into what aficionados call the flow, “a “Yoga brought my heart to center stage,” It’s a solemn type of practice.” Hooping into the hoops themselves, giggling. A mul- York City, asks her students to hold the Yoga Sutra. “In asana we can be pushing state of movement without thoughts,” she says. As her yoga practice deepened, ​ is a way to let loose. “You laugh and you ticulti hoopfest ensued, and a connection hoop in front of and above themselves, our bodies to the point where it’s unsafe, says hoop dancer extraordinaire Vivian so did her hooping. “Yoga is a kind of turn- smile,” she says. “It’s like that feeling of was made. making sure that it’s in line with their and we may not know that until we injure “Spiral” Hancock, who lives in the San ing in. It’s about connecting to the Source, being little and getting lost in something torso. The variation makes it easier to ourselves,” Sunfire says. “But the hoop Francisco Bay Area and performs around to your divine essence. In that process, and time just slipping away.” free your Hips “talk about the way the rhomboids, lateral has its own physics associated with it. If the world. “That’s what you want to hit. you see the strength of your own heart Sianna Sherman, a senior Anusara Yoga Yogis who are hooked on hooping insist muscles, and trapezius muscles should you make too much effort, it will fall. You That’s the addictive power of hooping.” and your particular authenticity. Hoop- teacher and avid hooper who has teamed there’s more to it than good times and behave in Utkatasana,” she says. can’t just push through and seek the out- Hoop-loving yogis view their prop ing is a turning out, an ecstatic, visceral up with Sunfire to teach yoga and hooping good people. It can actually take your Once yogis have acquired some spin- come, which is what so many of us do in as not just a toy but a tool for transfor- celebration of that connection.” Clearly, at yoga festivals in the United States and yoga practice to a new level. As Cam- ning skills, the hoop can be used to make asana and in life. The goal is to tune in and mation. Consider Sunfire’s story: For it’s a potent combination. D abroad, agrees. “I feel like the appeal has eris, who switches from mat to hoop and familiar poses more challenging. Picture become sensitive. To listen.” years, she was a self-described “people something to do with people’s longing to back in the course of her home practice, Vrksasana (Tree Pose) with a halo-like hoop There’s a deeper contemplative aspect pleaser”—a hooper who dazzled the Anna Dubrovsky learned to hoop around her play, to feel beautiful, to dance, to not be explains: “As I’m hooping, I’ll find certain orbiting overhead around your namaste to hooping, too. Like vinyasa flow yoga, crowd with her technical prowess, praying waist, knees, and hands for this story.

Yoga Journal Issue 239 (ISSN 0191-0965), established in 1975, is published nine times a year (February, March, May, June, August, September, October, November, December) by Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc., 475 Sansome Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, CA 94111, (415) 591-0555. Annual Sub­ scription: U.S. $21.95; Canada $28.95; overseas $43.95. Single copies U.S. $4.99; Canada $6.99. Agreement number 40063731 assigned by Canada Post. Mailing list: Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies unless the subscriber advises us otherwise. Send all subscription matters and notices of changes of address to: Yoga Journal, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL, 32142-0235. E-mail the subscription customer service department: [email protected]. Call subscription customer service, Mon.–Fri. 7 am–10 pm CDT; Sat. 8:30 am–5 pm CDT: (800) 873-8807 or (386) 246-0197 from outside the United States. All issues of Yoga Journal are now available on mi­crofiche from ProQuest, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48016. Copyright 2011 by Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Yoga Journal is not responsible for advertising claims. Periodicals Postage Paid at San Francisco, CA, and at addi- tional mailing offices.POSTMASTER : Send address changes to: Yoga Journal, P.O. Box 420235, Pa l m Coa st, f l 32142-0235. ca n a d i a n UNDELIVERABLES: Send to Station A, P.O. Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 6J5. The editorial content of Yoga Journal should not be used as a substitute for professional health care. Talk with your doctor before starting any new exercise regimen.

1 0 6 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o m august 2011 august 2011 y o g a j o u r n a l . c o M 1 0 7