This Isn’t Your Mother’s Hoola-Hoop

Christabel Zamor, founder of HoopGirl, didn’t grow up hoola hooping. In fact, when she took her first hooping workshop years ago, she could barely keep up. But as it goes with challenges and women, this inspired only her to do better. In 2001, she went to Los Angeles to take another hooping class and became fascinated by those who could incorporate dance into their hooping. Back in Santa Barbara after the class, she went to the park by herself in order to have some “me” time with her hoop and a boom box. When a newspaper reporter showed up and saw her hooping, he did a story on her.

Weeks later, one hundred more people showed up to learn her talent, which turned Christabel into HoopGirl, leader of the hoop dance movement and a natural role for a woman who was already pursuing an advanced degree. But Christabel soon realized that she loved the way the hoop felt on her body and noticed she was also able to increase her heart rate while strengthening her muscles. Hoop dance stimulated her body (which, at its heaviest, was 182 pounds) in a manner she wasn’t accustomed to.

On this particular weeknight, HoopGirl twisted her torso and fanned her arms all while she kept her hoop spinning in her Level 2 Hoop dance class at Dance Ground Keriac, a dance and yoga studio in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. I had done my own share of hooping before and had picked up some minor moves in the past, but I basically made a ruckus when my hoop hit the floor. Words of encouragement flowed from our teacher. “Celebrate your hoop-dropping,” HoopGirl said as a smile accompanied a flash of her blue eyes.

The other students worked on their Level 2 moves by jumping through their hoops and then swinging them around their hands and around each shoulder. “Breathing hard into your belly, travel across the room,” the six women, ranging in their twenties to their fifties, walk around the room with their hoops still circling their torsos. “Make eye contact to keep it flirty. Feel the hoop energizing your thighs, your torso, your eyes, all while observing where you are moving in the room.” I decided to sit this one out and took note of the smiles around the room.

“We’re going to take responsibility for our own sweat, which means the ability to respond to the music.” The music of choice here is dance music, which provides a heavy beat to keep your hoops spinning over the length of the track.