Hooping
Encyclopedia
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
, wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
or plastic
Plastic
A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs...
. Hooping combines technical moves and tricks with freestyle or technical dancing, and is typically accompanied by music. In contrast to the classic toy hula hoop
Hula hoop
A hula hoop is a toy hoop that is twirled around the waist, limbs or neck.Although the exact origins of hula hoops are unknown, children and adults around the world have played with hoops, twirling, rolling and throwing them throughout history...
, modern hoopers a) use heavier and larger diameter hoops, and b) frequently rotate the hoop around parts of the body other than the waist, including the hips, chest, neck, shoulders, thighs, knees, arms, hands, thumbs, feet and toes. All spaces both within and outside of the hoop can be freely explored. Modern hooping has taken cues from diverse art forms such as rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which individuals or teams of competitors manipulate one or two pieces of apparatus: rope, clubs, hoop, ball, ribbon and Free . An individual athlete only manipulates 1 apparatus at a time...
, hip-hop, freestyle dance, fire dance, twirling
Twirling
Twirling is any of several art forms, hobbies, or sport and recreational activities accomplished by spinning or rotating the twirled object either for exercise, or in a rhythmic, or otherwise artful manner. Though the origin of twirling is impossible to ascertain, twirling enjoyed a steady growth...
, and other dance and movement forms.
Hooping is part of the greater spectrum of flow arts, which are playful movement arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....
involving skill toys that are used to evoke the exploration of dynamic, flowing, and sequential movements. This movement, and the related mind/body state, is referred to as "flow
Flow (psychology)
Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of...
". Technically, hooping is a form of object manipulation
Object manipulation
Object manipulation is a form of dexterity play or performance in which one or more artists physically interact with one or more objects. These can be special props made for the purpose of the manipulation itself - such as balls, clubs, hoops, rings, poi, staff, devil sticks, etc. - or any other...
and in as much shares some lineage with classical juggling
Juggling
Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. This may be one object or many objects, at the same time with one or many hands. Jugglers often refer...
.
In its modern incarnation as an art form, dance form, and exercise modality, the practice is referred to either as hoop dance or simply "hooping". Hoop dance artists commonly refer to themselves, and the greater hoop dance community, as hoopers.
The hoop
Hoopers generally use handmade hoops crafted from polyethylenePolyethylene
Polyethylene or polythene is the most widely used plastic, with an annual production of approximately 80 million metric tons...
(HDPE) (1" or 3/4" or 1/2" diameter) piping and wrapped with colorful tape, which serves the dual purpose of providing decoration and grip. These modern hoops differ from the water-filled cheap plastic toys commonly available for children. The heavier weight of these handmade hoops allows for more controlled movement around the body; the larger diameter and heavier rotational mass allows for both slower rotation, and ease of learning moves such as "portal" tricks, where the hooper steps through the hoop while it is still rotating.
Making hula hoops at home is much cheaper than buying them at a store, so many hoop dancers do.
Children's hoops are typically made of lightweight plastic, have a very small diameter, and are incredibly difficult for most adults to use.
Circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
hoopers such as Elena Lev
Elena Lev
Elena Lev, born in Moscow, Russia in 1981, began her training to become a rhythmic gymnast at an early age, assisted and coached by her mother, Elena Lev Sr. She developed a signature hula hoop act incorporating gymnastics and contortion...
(of Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
fame) typically use lightweight hoops made of aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
, or, in earlier days, wood.
A lighter hoop allows for faster revolutions and more advanced tricks, but also consequently take more skill on the part of the performer.
Typically an adult will begin with a hoop of approximately 40-44" on the inside diameter. While these hoops may seem huge compared to tiny children's hoops, they are typically required for adults to have success and enjoy hoopdance. Many people eventually decrease the size of their hoops. Advanced hoopers typically use a hoop between 30" and 36" on the inside diameter, although some professionals still prefer a 40" (or larger) because it allows them to dance differently than smaller hoops allow.
Fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
hoops can be lit on fire (see Fire hooping below), and comprise a plastic hoop with typically four to six spokes radiating outward. The spokes typically extend 6-8 inches from the connection points on the hoop, and are capped with a roll of cotton and Kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
wicking. This design keeps the fire a fair distance from the hooper's body, although getting burned at some point is a high probability. Making one's own fire hoop and playing with it while burning can be very dangerous. It is recommended that those who want to make their own hoop proceed with caution and take a fire safety class before lighting up.
LED hoops have internal batteries and are lit with light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
s (LEDs), and make mesmerizing patterns when spun at night outdoors or in low light environments. These hoops take advantage of the "persistence of vision
Persistence of vision
Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina....
" phenomenon which occurs when bright lights are moved at high speeds within the observer's field of vision.
History of hooping
Ancient
The earliest known incidence of hooping was in ancient EgyptEgypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
as early as 1000 BC, where children used large hoops made of grape vines, which they rolled along the ground propelled by sticks, or swung around their waists a la the modern hoop. In other parts of the ancient world, hoops were made of stiff grasses as opposed to vine.
Old world
In the 14th century, recreational hooping swept across EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. The records of doctors at the time attribute numerous dislocated backs and heart attacks to "hooping." The word "hula" became associated with the toy in the early 19th century when British sailors visited the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
and noted the similarity between "hooping" and traditional hula dancing
Hula
Hula is a dance form accompanied by chant or song . It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli or mele in a visual dance form....
.
Independently, Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
developed their own traditions surrounding the Hoop Dance. Native American Hoop Dance
Native American Hoop Dance
Native American Hoop Dance is a form of storytelling dance incorporating anywhere from one to thirty hoops as props, which are used to create both static and dynamic shapes, or formations, representing various animals, shapes, and storytelling elements. It is generally performed by a solo dancer...
focuses on very rapid moves, and the construction of hoop formations around and about the body. Up to 30 hoops may be used in storytelling rituals to create formations such as the butterfly, the eagle, the snake, and the coyote. Native American hoops are typically of very small diameter (1 to 2.5 feet).
Twentieth century
In 1957, an Australian company began manufacturing bambooBamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
hoops for sale in retail stores. This caught the attention of a new California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
-based toy company by the name of Wham-O
Wham-O
Wham-O Inc. is a toy company currently located in California, USA. They are known for marketing many popular toys in the past 50 years, including the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, Slip 'N Slide, Super Ball, Trac-Ball, Silly String, Hacky Sack and the Boogie board....
, founded by Richard P. Knerr and Arthur K. Melin. In 1958, Knerr and Melin travelled to playgrounds across Southern California, where they gave away free hula hoops and performed hooping demonstrations for the children. From this humble beginning, over 25 million hula hoops were sold in a four-month period.
Over the ensuing years, hula hoop contests were organized across the United States of America, and over 100 million hoops were sold in total.
Today
In the mid-1990s, the jam bandJam band
-Ambiguity:By the late 1990s use of the term jam band also became ambiguous. An editorial at jamband.com suggested that any band of which a primary band such as Phish has done a cover of be included as jam band. The example was including New York post-punk band Talking Heads after Phish performed...
The String Cheese Incident began tossing hoops from the stage into the audience and encouraging participants to groove, thus contributing to the modern hooping movement. The annual Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
festival has also served as a melting pot and fertile ground for hoopers from all around the world to share their tricks, techniques, and energy. Ubiquitous grassroots "hoop jams" and "convergences" such as Return to Roots Hoop Gathering (Hawley, PA) happen throughout the world almost every month of the year. These meet-ups, as well as various online communities, are the foundations of the hooping subculture
Subculture
In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong.- Definition :...
.
Native American Hoop Dance
Native American Hoop Dance is a form of storytelling dance incorporating anywhere from one to thirty hoops as props, which are used to create both static and dynamic shapes, or formations, representing various animals, shapes, and storytelling elements. It is generally performed by a solo dancer...
has been recognized as a cultural heritage. The most popular Native Hoop Dance competition occurs annually at the Heard Museum
Heard Museum
The Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....
in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
. Recent competitions have drawn as many as 10,000 spectators.
Most recently, hooping has been promoted into the mass consciousness through various dance studios and videos which promote it as a fun, practical path to whole-body fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
and wellness
Wellness (alternative medicine)
Wellness is generally used to mean a healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit that results in an overall feeling of well-being. It has been used in the context of alternative medicine since Halbert L. Dunn, M.D., began using the phrase high level wellness in the 1950s...
.
Generally speaking, either the hoop or the hooper is kept in constant rotational movement, although there are many new styles of hooping that emphasize "isolations" and the "touch" technique. These evolutions of hoopdance focus on moving the hoop through space in ways that are not necessarily in rotation around the body, but rather a point in space.
Hooping and costuming
Costuming has become an important part of the hooping phenomenon. As with any form of dance, dressing in creative ways can be inspiring.Fire hooping
Fire hooping requires the use of special "fire hoops" and, as with all fire dancing, is dangerous and poses a risk of injury.
The construction and weight of the fire hoop, combined with the fact that it is on fire, limits the possible moves, or tricks, to a much smaller gamut than those possible with a standard hoop. Some modern fire hoops have been designed to be much lighter, with smaller diameter tubing and with flexible wick spokes; these tools have begun to close the gap between fire hooping and general hooping trick vocabularies.
It is important that every fire dancer first obtain a lesson in fire safety. Always wear protective clothing made of natural fibers, and always have a "fire safety" (a person with a towel or duvetyne blanket who can extinguish any rogue flames) close by.
Hooping and fitness
In recent years hooping has become popularized as a fitness regimen alongside kickboxingKickboxing
Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....
, breakdancing and bellydancing. Hoopdance can now be found in gyms, and is often combined with Pilates
Pilates
Pilates is a physical fitness system developed in the early 20th century by Joseph Pilates in Germany, the UK and the USA. As of 2005, there were 11 million people practicing the discipline regularly and 14,000 instructors in the United States....
or yoga disciplines, all of which build strength, balance, and flexibility.
Hooping is widely recognized by health and fitness experts as being a superb form of exercise. Hooping increases muscle tone and strength; it also improves cardiovascular health and burns calories, since it is a type of aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise
Aerobic exercise is physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy-generating process. Aerobic literally means "living in air", and refers to the use of oxygen to adequately meet energy demands during exercise via aerobic metabolism...
. A study by the American Council on Exercise found that a thirty-minute hooping workout burns around 200 calories. Hooping works many muscles in the body and has the potential to build core muscle strength while improving flexibility and balance.
External links
- Hooping on the Open Directory ProjectOpen Directory ProjectThe Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings...