The hoopers at Burning Man were separated into a few different camps. I was part of the Hooper-Hero-Hideout. It was a bunch of hoopers from L.A., Santa Barbara and Me, Stefan (the sole male hooper) from New York City. Anah had contacted a bunch of us pre-burn and suggested the marriage of the hoop goddess to their hoops as a way to unify the 'good vibe hoop tribe'. She suggested all the women state their vows to their hoops. Everyone agreed that this was a fabulous idea and so we set the date of Tuesday (the 2nd day of the Burn) at 4pm.

All Tuesday at the Hooper Hero Hideout, the girls were busy making their wedding gowns. Someone had purchased a sheath of white fabric and in the true tradition of Burning Man, each woman made an: on the spot, homemade costume. Wither it was a tunic, a toga or tightly whites, each one of the hoop goddess all looked beautiful and ready to be betrothed. I had brought a bunch of flowers to fulfill my duties as the Flower-Boy and at 3:30 or so (playa-time) we all headed out to the Temple of Faith. When we got there all the hoopers from different parts of the country, different camps, all got together for a group shot. Thankfully some equal opportunist suggested that all the boys who hoop get together for a group shot as well.

The woman presiding over the ceremony began by having all the goddess stand in a circle. She asked each one of the girls, in order, to state their name and their vows to their hooping as their hands were tied to their hoops and to the hooper next to them. It was really quite revealing and touching to hear each woman's intentions and commitment to their hoops. Ariel's commitment to Hooping.org evoked chills in the middle of a 100+ degree afternoon.

After we had gone around the full circle and all the women had stated their commitment, I threw my bouquet into the center and insisted that the girls spin around in a circle first clockwise and then counterclockwise. There was a group hug and then we all headed off to center camp; the sort of community center of Burning Man, for a HOOP-DOWN!

We walked into center camp and took over the open performance space with our hoops. Very quickly people got the sense that there was going to be an artistic hooping exposition of epic proportions. It started with all of us hooping together but once we had cleared enough space the hoopers created a large circle and we, one at a time, took center stage to show our hooping capabilities. There was some double hooping, lots of tricks, lots of style and lots of hard-core hooping! Some hoopers went in pairs At a few different points the power for the music cut out however it was amazing how everyone started clapping in unison creating the most organic soundtrack for our hoop-down! Thankfully, I was not the only Male hooper, Tom joined us for some amazing work with 2 hoops. It was so wonderful to cheer each other on and hoot and holler for each other's amazing tricks/style. This went on for the better part of an hour at which point I think we were all exhausted but the crowd was so thoroughly entertained that we kept going around for more. One by one we all dropped but the smiles on our faces were so strong and beaming! It was clear that we had made some amazing connections with this renewed commitment to our hoops.

All week long at burning man people kept coming up to me and saying things like "Wow, I was in center camp when the hoopers invaded and that was the most amazing physical exhibition I have seen in quite some time" or "I had no idea you could do such things with those hoops?" It was really wonderful to be able to give our creative energies as a collective to the burning man community. To come together from so many different parts of the country and styles of hooping and all affirm our commitment to our art of hooping it up...we are the Revolution!