Nick Guzarrdo | Shifting Levels

I don't even remember how I came across Nick.  

But this video, Shifting Levels, blew me away when I first saw it.  At this point, he'd been hooping for less than a year O.o  

Nick Guzzardo, from Castle Rock, Colorado, very quickly picked up the art of hoop spinning after he saw it at Burning Man in 2009.  He now is a hooping superstar that teaches classes all over, was awarded the Newbie Hooper of 2011 and was nominated Male Hooper of the Year in 2012.  He has a fun go-go style dance and rocks the head hooping!  I was so nervous and intimidated to go to my first hoop workshop in Boulder cause Nick was gonna be there.   
But you know what?  
He was so nice and even hooked my phone up with a hula hooping cat widget :) 



Check out all his videos on YouTube here.  

Under the Bridge - Nick Broyd

A Life Half Lived

Have you ever seen the movie Stictly Ballroom?

 I love this movie in all its fantastic dancing cheesiness but mostly the message. 

"Vivir con miedo es como vivir a medias" roughly translated means "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."  

How many times do we let fear rule our decisions?  The fear of failure, rejection or the unknown.  I know personally it controlled my life for far too long.  I am now trying to squelch that fear when ever it starts to creep back in. 

This weekend, I am leaving for a two week cross country trip to Pennsylvania.  I will be vending at Return to Roots hoop gathering with my friend and fellow hoopster, Cally Chavez.  (More to come on R2R in upcoming posts!)  We will be selling homemade items from paintings and chimes to aromatherapy products and healing stones. In June when this trip was first conceived, I was excited and a little in disbelief that it was happening to me. The planning and crafting leading up to it has been fun and helped me realize how much work I will be putting into my future endeavors. 

As the time is getting closer, those feelings of fear are becoming more prevalent and are showing up in my dreams (and keeping me from good sleep). But I am pushing through the self-doubt (mostly) and fear of failure (mostly) and looking forward to a fun adventure!  Somtimes the risks are high, but that makes for a greater reward, right? And if things don't measure up to the success I'm hoping for, I'll be ok. Cause if you know me, I already have 5 or 6 more projects just waiting to start! Plus, if anything, it'll be lots of hooping with lots of amazing people. 

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one."

                                                                                                    -Elbert Hubbard

Not taking chances, I believe, keeps you from acheiving your dreams. 

And that is a life half lived. 

Fellow bloggers, I challenge you this week to squash a fear you have! Afraid to try something new? Afraid you'll fall flat on your face or be told no?  Fearing an unknown outcome? Do it anyway...you never know what'll happen. Could be even better than you imagine. Feel free to share about it in the comments.

Better yet?  Blog about it and share with all! 

Pleasantville, Bliss, and Dancing with the Dark : Erin Sparrow

I love Erin's hoop dancing.  It's so graceful and precise, like a ballerina. 



Her silhouette videos are beautiful.

This slow motion video was so emotional and quickly became one of my favorites. 

Also, dancing in the rain?!  Awesome.

I am looking forward to the three day weekend! 
I am a week away from leaving to vend at Return to Roots (R2R) in Pennsylvania. 
I have so many projects to finish up.  I am excited and anxious to debut all the products Cally Chavez and I have been working on.  I will blog more about it next week and the weeks following while we are out on the road! 

 Have a happy hooping weekend!

Ring-o-graphy : Alexandra Savina



A different take on hula hoops.

Happy Monday!

Growth : Shayla Patton aka Ehli

This is favorite video of the moment.  I love how easy going her flow is.  

Sustained Spinning & Spiral

Lately, during my daily practice, I have been gravitating towards a style of hooping called sustained spinning.  Sustained spinning is a technique where you constantly spin as you hoop.  I have been working on really smoothing and controlling my core hooping around waist, chest and knees.  I feel like I have lost a lot of core skills when I downsized to a smaller, lighter weight polypro.  And while it is great for off-body, breaks, reversals and folding, I tend to not do as much on body.  At first, sustained spinning can make you very dizzy and off balance.  The other night, I realized I hooped to a four-minute song almost continually spinning and was ectatic that I have built up the spinning stamina!  This is Spiral sustained spinning to Massive Attack's What Your Soul Sings.

We come spinning out of nothingness, scattering stars, the stars form a circle … and in the center, we dance. – Rumi

{Love the Process : Sandra "Safire" Sommerville}

Safire was one of the first hoopers I found on YouTube when I started my hooping journey. Her tutorials were so helpful as I was trying to learn Hoop basics 101. I came across this video a couple weeks after I started and helped me to realize with lots of practice, patience and dedication I could do this! I loved that she shows that there is a learning curve and dropping the hoop is just part of the process.

Have a great weekend everyone and happy hooping!

PS The Perseid Meteor showers are tonight!  Check it out if you can :)

Boutique Open House

Announcing the Boutique Open House on Saturday, June 18th

The Wagstaff Residence

2685 North 850 West

Provo, UT 84604

11:00 am-3:00 pm

I'll be selling pre-made adult and child sized hoops and taking custom orders!

I'll be doing demonstrations as well if you want to learn a trick or two :)

Also, there will be Addison Renee's adorable hair accessories, Chloe Ashby is making delicious treats and goodies and there will be other vendors!

Hope to see you there :)

{Baxter Hooping}

This is Baxter and he is one badass ninja hooper. He started The Hoop Path out of Carrboro, NC.  His style is very meditative and he encourges you to practice blindfolded, a techinque that I have used a lot. I took a workshop from him in January and was instantly welcomed into the hooping family. I excited to be "going home" at the end of the month for the Hoop Path retreat in North Carolina for many days (and nights)of workshops, dancing and craziness!!

*Spinning Fire at Kinetic Fire 2011*

Kinetic Fire 2011 Recap from Matt Graham on Vimeo.

via Jonathan Livingston Baxter

*Glimses of Lately*

::Yulia Pykhtina::

Solid Air : Sharna Rose

{Round and Round}

Last August I went to a music festival in Denver, Colorado where I heard lots of fantastic music but I also saw this...

I watched a few people dancing with hula hoops and I was mesmerized. The way they could spin it around their bodies continuously in time to the music sparked something for me.

 I came home and immediately started researching hoop dancing.  There is a entire community out there!  I had no idea the things you could do with a hula hoop. 

 The next week I made my first hoop and how fun and oh, how frustrating!

I've never been able to hula hoop, even as a kid.  Could not keep that hula hoop a rockin'.  But you know what? I kept at it and within a few weeks I could not only keep up the hoop for minutes but could turn in circles and do a few tricks.  

I was hooked!

 It honestly has become quite the obsession with me.  I talk about it all the time. I hoop dance for hours a day and it never seems to be enough.   

The best part? I'm losing weight and having fun while I do it.  Who knew it was such great exercise? But yes!  It's awesome...

So for now, this blog will probably be more hooping and less art as I continue on this hooping journey.  I'm excited to see where this year takes me and what hooping has in store for me.