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The event was created in San Francisco last year by Annie O¹Keeffe and hooping communities from the six major continents all participated. On July 7, 2007, more than 800 hoops were given away around the world.
Next year¹s event will be held on Sept. 9, 2009, and so on until Dec. 12, 2012.
I went traveling around the world in 2005 and I saw how people reacted when
I brought out my hoop and started dancing with it,² O¹Keeffe said. ³I
thought there should be a holiday dedicated to hooping and feeling good.²
The hula hoop as we know it turns 50 this year.
³It¹s an icon of the innocence of American culture in the Œ50s,² Chris
Guirlinger, vice president of sales for Wham-O Toy Company, said. ³It¹s
referred to as the granddaddy of fads. Most fads come and go, but the hula
hoop is still around.²
Wham-O released the circular toy in 1958, and sold 25 million in its first
four months and more than 100 million in its first year.
The original hula hoop has changed very little except that in 1965, Wham-O
began adding two ball bearings in every hoop to give them its patented
³shoop shoop² noise.
³It¹s popularity has gone through a cycle,² Guirlinger said. ³It was a huge
fad when it first came out. Then it dropped off the market and came back.
We¹ve seen a 20 percent increase in sales from 2007 to 2008. There¹s been a
resurgence in interest as a fitness tool and dance expression.²
Marlenah Barker, a resident of Chestnut Hill, hoops daily and teaches
courses on how to hoop for fitness and fun.
³Hooping doesn¹t fit into any single catagory,² Barker said. ³It¹s exercise,
it¹s dance, it¹s performance art, it¹s meditation, and it¹s a great outlet
for emotion.²
Barker first got a taste of hooping when she went to the Philadelphia
Experiment, a party put on by Philadelphia arts communities, last year and
saw some other girls doing it. Ever since then, she¹s been hooked.
³I call it a form of moving meditation,² Barker said. ³The ultimate goal is
to achieve flow. When you reach it, it¹s bliss. It¹s calm and joyful.²
Barker likes to go to the park with her boyfriend, turn on some music, and
freestyle with her hoop. Even though she is pretty new to the sport, she
said she is part of an unofficial group of hoopers in Philadelphia.
³We learn from each other whenever we can get together,² Barker said. ³We
help each other out. We share moves. It¹s a really supportive group for
people.²
Jen Alvarez, who Barker describes as the ³matriarch of Philly hoopers,² has
hooped alongside 6-ABC Action New¹s Don Pollack and Mayor Michael Nutter.
Alvarez, who has been hooping for six years, has a background in dancing and
is a physical instructor. She also hoops in clubs and at promotional events
by herself and with her group Hoop-A-Delphia.
She teaches five different hoop classes a week, two of which are more
fitness based, and one of which is more free-form.
She directs a junior dance troupe, Hooptoxic, which currently has four young
members. The troupe is part of The Creative Kids Club, a non profit that
gives underprivileged children opportunities they might not otherwise have.
Hooptoxic has performed many times at events like the Sunoco Welcome America
Festival on Independence Mall on Fourth of July.
³When I first saw hooping I thought this is such an amazing outlet and loved
it so much, how amazing would it be to bring it to children?² Alvarez said.
³I did end up bringing it to kids. My goal was to make children rock stars.²
Alvarez is hoping to get a grant so that Hooptoxic can put on a production
that ³falls somewhere between the Blue Man Group and Cirque de Soleil.²
She also works with Community Health and Education Outreach in Southwest
Philadelphia to do a program for adults with high blood pressure or have
diabetic problems.
³The wonderful thing about hooping, no matter what size you are you can
still get a hoop and work with it,² Alvarez said. ³It makes a lot of women
feel good about their bodies. Especially for somebody who may have gone
through some things, they can be a little bit sexy in that safe
environment.²
Alvarez said people almost always react positively when they see her with
her hoops.
³When I walk in anywhere with 40 hula hoops - anywhere - I am so
welcome,²Alvarez said. ³When you have a hula hoop over your sholder, you
kind of have that power.²
A beginning hooper should try a hoop that reaches from their chest to their
knees, Barker said. The bigger the hoop is, the easier it will be to work
with. Alvarez suggests getting fitted for one by a professional instructor
to find one that matches the beat of your own body.
³The toy store children¹s hoops are impossible to work with,² Barker said.
³They¹re too light and too small for the average adult.²
One of the most important things to keep the body healthy is to go in both
directions, clockwise and counterclockwise, Barker said.
Most adult hoops are called weighted hoops, even though they are not made
with added weight.
Barker and Alvarez both make their own hoops.
Online retailers offer all types of hoops, from light-up LED hoops to fire
hoops. But hooper Emily Lopizzo, a Point Breeze resident, was having trouble
finding exactly what she was looking for, so she started her own company,
philthyhoops.com.
³I needed more hoops - and all the designs, after scouring the Internet for
weeks, were just a little too prissy and frilly for me,² Lopizzo said. ³I
needed to figure out some alternate means of decorating them besides the
standard gaffers and mirror tapes. I started making the skulls, flames and
polka dot hoops for myself and thought there must be other people out there
just like me that were looking for a little something different - and I was
right. We opened our virtual doors in 2006.²
Philthyhoop Sales quadrupled in 2008. CLIF bars ordered 24 in the company¹s
colors for a promotion. Lopizzo was mostly shipping her hoops to California
and Florida, but lately the orders are getting closer to home. People from
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Delaware are placing orders.
Lopizzo attributes the growing popularity of hooping in Philadelphia to
hoopers like Jen Alvarez, a coffee shop called Flying Saucer where people
can hoop, and the web site hooping.org. She says there are three basic types
of hoopers she has met in Philadelphia.
³One, hoop dancers that hoop in clubs and sometimes perform,² Lopizzo said.
³Two, hoop exercisers getting in on the next big exercise craze. And three,
the anti hoop community hooper. This is where I fit in. These are people
that just do it because it¹s fun and would rather hang out with people that
are trying for the first time and laughing till near bladder failure than
with a crowd of hoopers having a regular ŒWest Side Story¹ hoop off.²
After she started hooping, O¹Keeffe lost 15 pounds.
³It¹s such an easy alternative to going to the gym and it¹s good cardio
exercise,² O¹Keeffe said. ³It works out your core and your internal and
external obliques.²
But most of all, hooping is a way to lift the spirits.
³The one thing almost every hooper, beginner or advanced, will tell you is
that it¹s good, good fun and puts you in a good, good mood,² Lopizzo said.
Barker said she is seeing more people hooping because they are looking for
something that brings childlike joy in their lives and let go of stress.
³It¹s a revolution, no pun intended,² Barker said.
