So how did it all begin? She explained, "August 17, 2002. What a day! The day I first hooped was also the day I met the love of my life. My Atlanta blues band was playing an outdoor music festival in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I was so enjoying the music, the weather, and the people and I wanted to dance so badly. But, as usual, I was too embarrassed. I thought of myself as an incurable klutz and couldn’t bear to subject other people to the wild, erratic flailing of my limbs that was my best attempt at enjoying music. So like I had always done, I held myself back, smiling and tapping my foot while I swayed back and forth with unremarkable grace - and then I saw this giant black hula hoop laying off to the side in the grass. 'That’s how I’m going to get to move to this music without making a fool out of myself,' I thought. I picked up that monstrous beat-to-hell hoop and didn’t put it down for twelve straight hours. Dear God, I was dancing!"

She told us, "After that day in Louisiana, it took two years for me to find Jason Unbound and Hooping.org to figure out how to make a hoop." Once she made a hoop of her own she really started hooping. She explained, "I'd hoop for up to 4 hours a day to my vinyl records. I woke up every morning, put on some soul/funk, and asked myself, 'What else can I do with this thing?' Today, my relationship to hooping has changed a lot. The passion I experienced early on fueled lots of performing and the creation of the LED hoop-making business that I built together with my roommate and longtime hooping partner, Barry Clement. Building our hoops and teaching and performing with Superhooper.org seemed a natural step in sharing with others what hooping had brought to my life. But it also put more emphasis on hooping as a job."

Her having a hoop career interfered with her hoop joy? She responded, "Right now I’d like to rediscover the personal love affair I began with the hoop nearly six years ago. Hooping in front of an audience for so long has distanced me somewhat from the intimate fun of those long, delirious mornings hooping solo. Though I may not pick up a hoop as often as I used to, hooping is still part of my movements every day. It’s in the way I walk and the way I instinctively know to move my body whether I’m learning new tricks from belly and African dance, or silly dancing with my daughter."

One of her favorite hooping moments was on the eve of the birth of her daughter, Navi. "It's my favorite hooping moment. I had found hooping while pregnant difficult and missed it terribly. But the night before my labor began, I picked up a hoop at a social gathering and hooped for hours the way I used to. As this big circle turned around my burgeoning belly, I thought about my body’s long relationship to the hoop and imagined I was dancing for the first time with the precious being on her last night still within me."

What music does Lara love hooping to the most? She explains, "I’m largely an old school music fan. I live for vintage soul, funk, and blues on vinyl. It’s in my blood. But I’m no snob, either. If my hips start moving despite themselves, then it’s too late to get picky – I’m already hooping!" Does she have a favorite hoop? "HA! My favorite hoop has got to be the first one I made. It was ludicrous. I hadn't any idea how big a hoop should be. There was still so little information out there. But I used Jason’s earliest instructions to make a 5 foot 5 inch hoop out of one inch tubing. It was taller than I am, unbelievably heavy and slow as molasses - and I loved it! I kept it around for a long time after and would give it a spin every time I put some slow jazz on, just to remember how far we had come together."

The quality Lara admires most in a hooper is the ability to hoop as though no one is watching. So what does she see as being her most marked hooping characteristic? "I can’t hoop while standing still. Just can’t do it. If I’m hooping, I’m turning or spinning one way or another. I imagine a whirling dervish and channel myself as a ten-year-old spinning until I fell down."

We asked if there was anything else that she wanted Hooping.org's readers to know. She said, "Well, I am so proud of Superhooper.org. When Barry and I started this business, so many years ago, we just wanted to make an LED hoop for ourselves. A hoop without all the bells and whistles - just sturdy, simple, bright and affordable. It took us about a year and a half to figure out how to do it, but when we did, we figured there might be some other folks that would like them too. From those humble beginnings to Barry’s creation of the first LED/Fire combo hoop, I still wake up every day and ask myself (in a very different way!) What else can we do with this thing? I am amazed, proud, and delighted at how the hooping community has supported innovation in the hoop. I feel like an old lady when I step back in awe of what has happened in hooping in just the past 3 years! The Internet and Hooping have shared a truly fascinating and complimentary relationship. Only a few years ago, I struggled to find information and materials for building hoops. Today, people separated by languages, miles, and even oceans are learning from and sharing with one another. Bless YouTube, Bless Tribe, and Thank Hooping.org!"

In closing, if Lara had one piece of advice to share with someone picking up a hoop for the very first time, what it would it be? She said, "Nothing helped me more than thinking of my hoop as the perfect dance partner. Marvel at how it follows your every movement, flawlessly executes every turn, and inevitably teaches you about how your body moves in the world around you."

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You can find out more about Lara Eastburn at Superhooper.org and SocratiCoach.com