Spiral Hoop Dance

Hooping has changed and enriched my life in many wonderful ways. Along with increased physical, mental, and spiritual awareness, hoop dance has brought me the gifts of joyous health, fun fitness, and lovely community. Over the years I've seen the hoop bring these gifts to many others as well, constantly affirming its positive, healing power.

Whimsical toy, symbolic dance partner, spiritual tool and circular portal to increased somatic and spiritual connection; as the evocative shape might suggest, a hoop is a holistic tool as the many benefits of hooping (or hoop dance) affect Body, Mind and Spirit.

Read more about the many benefits of hooping here and below my bio.

 Kissed by stardust from the rings of Saturn, Vivian became Spiral and was thereby inspired to create a unique, mesmerizing style of hoop dance. Part whirling dervish, circus artist, modern dancer, yogi and acrobat, her life was forever transformed by a love for circles and an affinity for revolutionary motion.

Her engaging performances have wowed audiences from the catwalk in Hong Kong , to nightclubs in Vienna , to a boisterous crowd of 20,000 in Michigan . Her skills include hoop manipulation, contact juggling, fire dance, aerial silks and lyra (aerial hoop). She performs and teaches all over the globe. More info at www.spiralcircusarts.com

BODY:

Much more than just a way to burn calories, trim the waist and achieve core strength, hooping is a fun, creative, and personal way to get physical fitness. The physical benefits of hooping include, but aren't limited to: increasing body awareness, burning calories while having fun, strengthening and toning of core muscles, freeing up of the hips and spine, producing joy-inducing endorphins, increasing hand-eye coordination, flexibility, balance, and rhythm, and re-invigorating the body by introducing new movements. With practice, a more experienced hooper can engage and strengthen more parts of the body, executing lifts and jumps that develop dexterity and coordination and further tone the arms and legs.

MIND:

The physical benefits, however, come almost secondary to the emotional and, for some, spiritual healing present in hooping. Hooping soothes the mind, as it's practically unfailing in its ability to induce joy and calm. Dancing with a hoop is at once relaxing and uplifting, energizing and focusing, exertive and meditative. Interacting with this symbolic prop centers the mind and, the more proficient people become with hoop movement, the more benefits hooping brings. Practice produces proficiency and flow. Mentally, since one can more easily execute movements without thought, the mind enters a focused, clear state of being and flowing completely in the moment

SPIRIT:

The benefits to one's spirit from hooping are some of the most profound, and the most personal. That said, all I can describe of it is what I have felt personally and heard from others. Your own real hoop experience, real time within the hoop, is the best and only way to feel the unfolding of spiritual peace, growth and connection that are possible through hoop practice . Like I mentioned above, hooping is different for everyone and, for some, it may remain a fun, lighthearted way to get fit. The more time one puts in and proficiency one achieves, the more the centering experience of dancing with the circle puts one in touch with a stillness, a calm, an expansive place of peace and connection.

Hooping is, for many, moving meditation. More than that though, it is a symbolic echoing of energy on many different levels- of planets orbiting in our solar system, of the dance of protons and electrons around a nucleus, of the rhythmic beating of our hearts, of the cycles of day and night, a reminder and re-creation of the macro in the micro, reconnecting us to the greater play of life and death, of being here now. Fun is a given, transcend-dance is a possibility.

The relationship between dance and spirituality is ancient. From the beginning of recorded time there are instances spiritual dance in the form of celebratory worship, ritualistic dance, and healing shamanic trance dance. Repetitive rhythmic dance, connecting the dancer to a musical pattern and to other dancers is powerful medicine. Dance is probably one of the most ancient methods of generating altered states of consciousness. In the Gnostic gospelActs of John , even Jesus danced and said to his disciples, "To the Universe belongs the dancer. He who does not dance does not know what happens."