“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it’s a feather bed.”
~ Terence McKenna
in the beginning, us humans, would gather round the fire and dance.
we’d sing and hum too and make sounds before we had language.
we had the sound of our very own beating hearts, and each others, to set the pace
we’d move to this rhythm. our heartbeats would sync.
we made drums and echoed the sound of our living ever loudly
the fire would hold us steady and warm and in the Light
this was our first art making
our bodies would speak and our wonder kept us going
our bodies would reveal us
and the moments were ecstatic for the pulse of aliveness moved through us and we had no reason to not let it
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times have changed
most cannot access this freedom
locked, we have become
rigid and fixed and lost to our bodies treasure
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and yet it’s possibility of recovery is ever present
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have you ever been at party and the dance floor is bumpin but you’re too shy to enter?
or maybe you balked at those sillies in their free form expression?
if you did it was only because you wish you could be so free like them not caring how it looked because it just felt so good
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the truth is that the hoop was the door for me,
a safe container,
to dance as i once did when i was a child and eventually, as i dove deeper into the practice,
i wasn’t scared anymore to move like this in places where people could see me because
the good feelings just over rode the fear
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modern hoop dance is not a competition – its a co creative celebration
to find oneself in true expression and fearless self love is a joy
when you are in that place it has a vibration that is highly influential to those around you
that means, on the dance floor, sharing that beautiful energy and cohesion between us acts as a deep and profound harmonizer
that means competition has no place because when we each embody our freedom it gives way to even more good feelings for all
we are better together
we suffer when we isolate if only in our silent judgement of other
our art can be made and shared and our cells record it
and as a result entrain the world around us
to harmony
but as all things do
we begin within
the hoop, the cosmos and the ourborous
to spin the hoop around the core of you a rhythm pulsation is required
a weight transfer from one side of your body to the other
much like the way you were rocked from side to side on your mothers hip
the movement propels the hoop to spin around you over and over and over
eternally returning
like the light cycles of our days here on earth
like the seasonal cycles of your environment
like the planetary movements of the planets around the sun
like the snake swallowing its our tail – the Ouroborus
eternally returning
this undulating movement calms and heals our nervous system
rocks us out of a stress state
rips away the needless weight of worry
by way of centrifugal force
it is beautiful in its simplicity
and profound in its structure – the circle – reflective of the inherent wholeness of all things
though we may have been tricked into thinking otherwise
the hoop quickly reminds us, with the felt sensual embodied experience of it, that this has never nor will ever be true
prop as partner
i teach hoop as a relational expereince
the hoop is your partner and in order to be in harmony with your partner you have to listen to what they are saying and respond
we do this by feeling with our body and our senses
in this practice we quickly are mirrored by the hoops response to us and thus the learning here ripples outward into all of life really
were in relationship with reality
were in relationship with ourselves
were in relationship with our fellows
our families
friends
foes
how you relate to life is reflected in your hoop practice and WILL reflect back to you the nature of your relating
elemental hoopdance
earth air fire water
and the space that holds these
these are the building blocks of life on earth
our bodies
hold all elements within them
i teach hoop through the lens of these building blocks to inspire the knowing that is cellulary held
in class we work with our four intelligences to engage our beings with this art: the imaginal, intellectual, emotional and physical.
we learn the techniques of the movements and then play with them in our own timing
my whole agenda with teaching this practice is to bring you back to the basic understanding that your body and your life is a gift and opening up to discover and receive its blessing
is yours.
Elemental Hoop Dance 