Sass is an actress currently playing Dr. Jennifer Adams in the South African soap Binnelanders. She’s also one freaking awesome hoopstress whose personal story of surviving rape is giving credence to the transformational power of the hoop, a story that is highlighted in The Hooping Life. She’s also a self-proclaimed “creatrix” whose personal is political. Born in Johannesburg, Sass grew up in Cape Town before moving to Los Angeles, California, in 1993. She’s been back in South Africa for almost two years now, but continues to make frequent trips back to the City of Angels. She told Hooping.org, “Right now I’m feeling very much like a displaced person though, with no real home anywhere.”
The 43-year-old had her first experience hooping at her very first Moontribe gathering on December 13, 2000, shortly after sunrise. She told hooping.org, “I saw Anah and Sita hooping and think that was the weekend Anah introduced hoops into the SoCal scene. I had to try it! The hoop fell straight back down into the dirty on my first try and I was ready to walk away, but Anah grabbed me back and persuaded me to try again. I think I spent the next four hours hooping. I bought two hoops from Anah, waiting while she wrapped them in the back of her van and the rest is hoopstory.”
She’s continued hooping ever since. “These days not as much as I’d like to. The hoop life is very different when you’re in a Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm job and your time in between is spent reading scripts and learning words for the next 7-7.” After guest starring on NYPD Blue, a recurring role on City of Angels, and appearing in various commercials, she’s returned to South Africa. Sass told me, “I’m acting in Afrikaans and I play a doctor who in many ways is very unlike me. The show goes out every evening Monday to Friday and is sub-titled. I film pretty much every day depending on how big my current story line is. I love working this much!”
How has hooping changed her life? She explains, “It could be a one word answer – entirely! Or it could take reams. I am a rape survivor and to quote myself from something I wrote on the hooping tribe, ‘the hoop helped me open up my lower chakras and re-awaken my sexuality and sensuality and helped me heal after many years of being shut down in chosen isolation and hiding. it helped me re-connect with the playful, joyful child hidden in an almost inaccessible place inside me for way too long.’”
She continued, “Through hooping I also met some fantastic women. Anah, who was my “eskimo” as they say in 12-step programs, showed me the way. Christabel on the other hand yanked me unceremoniously into my real life. She invited me to Burning Man and into performing with the Good Vibe Hoop Tribe. I think I hooped myself back to my authentic self. I hooped away a marriage and a life which, though comfortable, wasn’t serving me anymore and though it was hard I am so grateful for it.”
When she isn’t hooping or working you might find her online. She said, “I’m an internet and google junkie. I like information and learning about things I don’t know about. I love that someone can say ‘circumvolution’ and I can jump on the internet and find out it’s just another word for hoop!”
You can also find her sharing the joy of hooping, particularly to those in need. She explains, “I am making my personal political in that I have two hoop workshops lined up at the end of July, one at a very indigent school for disenfranchised girls – in an area where abuse is historically rampant, and another with women who too are abuse survivors.” What’s her motivation behind it all? Sass says, “To help the rape/abuse survivor who’s locked her body up so tight she’s lost all connection with it. I want to see her melt into the playful, joyful girl who’s waiting to come out and play again. I want to see the smile break open her face and hear the peal of her laughter.”
So what is her idea of earthly happiness? Sass says, “It varies depending on the situation. Sitting here freezing in Johannesburg where the temperature this morning was around 26 degrees, right now I would simply say ‘central heating’ which is unheard of in this country.”
Her favorite hoop right now is the one she has in Cape Town. “I think I traded Christabel for it in August 2003. It’s yellow and orange and right now it is my oldest hoop. My fire hoop, which I made, is also one of my favorites. It just works for me. My hoops keep getting smaller. Does the size of one’s hoops change in inverse proportion to how long one has been hooping?” I told her that while it’s also true in my case, I didn’t know if it was true for all.
Her favorite music to hoop to is Michael Franti, anything off of “Everyone Deserves Music.” She’s open to many other sounds though. “Anything that can get me moving. Funky house, tribal, ekova, kramer, classical, you name it. Probably not country or heavy metal, but if i had to….” A favorite film of hers is ‘Lost in Translation.” Why? Sass revealed, “It exactly captured that feeling of being caught in a hotel in a foreign country. My ex is an actor and I got to travel the world with him, but I also got to be the Scarlet Johansen character way too many times. The movie caught me emotionally.” A favorite book? “‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy. Her imagery is fantastic. She describes the monsoon rain as ‘slanting silver ropes’ – I really love word paintings and she does it so well and I love her activism.”
The qualities she most admires in a hooper are fluidity, passion and personality. What does she see as her most marked hooping characteristic? She says, “My interpretation of whatever music is playing. I can get lost for hours, just dancing. I also don’t see too many people knee and ankle hooping as much as I do.”
Last, but not least, I asked her if she had any advice for someone picking up a hoop for the very first time. She thoughtfully replied, “Hooping is like life. The more you put your back into it, the more you get out of it. Also, hooping will quickly teach you the difference between centered in self and being self-centered. If you’re the latter, that hoop is going to come banging into you and bruising you every time it comes around, but if you stay centered in self, you can move with the hoop, staying in touch with it, maintaining constant contact, confidently yielding, so that it rolls gently around and with you. Hey, did I mention that hooping is like life? Roll with it!”
can you send me more info on this and where do i go for classes?