Having grown up in New Hampshire, she went to school in Olympia, Washington, moved to Seattle to study the healing arts, lived on a farm in Vermont, spent a few more years finding herself and the hoop in Seattle, before moving to Oregon in 2005. She explains, "Eugene is lush and green all year round and we have incredible farmer’s markets. We also have a thriving hoop community which meets regularly for hoop jams at the dojo or spiraling in the park." You might find her partner Rob there as well, who has also taught classes and crafted collapsible hoops for Mandala Hoops over the years. Her son Ari, eight, might also be on the scene.

She explained, "For three years I sold hoops through my website. I retired my hoopcrafting work though as I found myself challenged by repetitive strain injuries in my wrists from taping hundreds of hoops – which has thankfully healed since stopping taping hoops every day, and I downsized my practice hoops to 100 PSI. Now, I offer HoopDance & HoopYoga classes and workshops to groups and events and co-facilitate our local hoop jams."

It all began for her five years ago. Kara informed us, "I hula-hooped as a child, but I became hooked on hooping in 2003 thanks to my friend Ariel Meadow Stallings, a Hooping.org co-founder, who was living in Los Angeles at the time, but had come to Seattle to visit. She hosted a gathering in the park with hooping to see friends while in town. I picked up a large handmade hoop and starting spinning it around my waist at the park that summer day. Ariel taught me my first trick, how to get the hoop from your neck to your waist by getting it going around the neck, then watching the empty space, and lifting one arm than the other. The hoop fell to my waist, and I had an 'A-ha!' moment, where I realized that this was really fun and I could do it."

These days Kara hoops every day. "For years now, I have kept the central space of where I live clear of furniture so I can hoop in my house. People often comment when they walk in my house how open it is. It’s because we are always dancing in the living room."

While it's obvious that hooping has changed her life, I asked her how. She responded, "I’ve met incredible people through hooping, and many of my closest friends are people in which I connected with through hoopdancing, or hoopdancing has strengthened our relationship.
It’s also a great ice-breaker! I love being able to bring hoops to almost any gathering and event and have an activity in which young and old can do, and everyone can have fun doing.
Hooping for me is very meditative, centering, and moving. I find that hooping has helped me to express my creativity to a greater degree and feel empowered in being my own unique individual among the greater hoop of community. Hooping is also transformative, and I feel that my practice of dance, yoga, play, and meditation with the hoop has allowed me to feel peace within myself, despite how crazy and wild and fast the world the world seems around me. The vortex allows me to transmute my emotions of worry, fear, or depression into calm, peace, gratitude, and love."

She continued, "I think this is one of the most important elements the hoop has to offer the world in this day and era, as there is more chaos, oppression, and war in the world than ever before. There is also more hope, more information, and more people than at any other time in our history, and if everyone was able to be at peace with themselves, no matter how fast the world around them seems to be spinning, than maybe we could find a way to heal not only ourselves, but our families, our communities, our nation, and our planet."

A challenge or personal obstacle Kara's currently working is slowing down, letting go, and focusing. She explains, "This is something that I’ve been working with in my life for a while, trying to focus my projects and work to create the most impact with the least amount of work. I see that my hooping reflects this, in my personal hoopdance I’ve been focusing less on tricks and routines, and more on sensing the hoop, being in the flow, and breathing with the hoop. I have been paying a lot of attention to the somatics of hooping, bringing awareness to how movements with the hoop can release restrictions in the spine and increase energy and vitality."

Asking about a favorite hooping memory she noted that her favorite "moments with the hoop are when I become lost in the dance, and there is a feeling of timelessness and peace. This is being in the hoop flow, and it is a place I usually go to when hooping alone with my favorite music. These are the most blissful amazing hoop moments that keep me coming back to the circle for more. There have been exciting moments performing at events, such as with the Girl Circus at the Oregon Country Fair in 2006, all all-female circus with women ages 5 to adult accompanied by a live 10-piece orchestra. I choreographed a hoop performance with myself and two 10-year old girls who were regulars in my hoop classes as part of the circus show. That was a fun show to be a part of."

Currently her favorite hoops are "my set of two hoops that are wrapped in pink, red, orange, purple, and yellow gaffers tape. These hoops are awesome. Because they are all-gaffers tape they just stick to your clothing or skin. Working with these hoops has greatly advanced my leg hooping abilities." Her favorite music to hoop to includes "a wide variety of music from breaks to folk. I like electronic artists such as Eastern Sun, Bluetech, Rena Jones, Daft Punk, Randam Rab and more organic singer-songwriters such as Regina Spektor, Sean Hayes, Brett Dennon, Sia, Mirah, and more."

What quality does she most admire in a hooper? Kara said, "I admire creativity and originality in hoopers. The hoop is a circle, and there is an infinite amount of movement, dance, and play that can be created from the hoop arts. I love seeing people pick up the hoop and start moving with it in their own rhythm, flow, and self-expression. I love seeing the different movements and tricks that people come up with on their own." So what does she see as being her most marked hooping characteristic? She responds, "I’ve been told numerous times that I am a graceful hooper. I think that is because I am enamored with two details. I love spinning and spinning allows you to slow down your movements and control the hoop more smoothly. Also, I like to concentrate on keeping my hoop moving on an even plane – and changing planes smoothly. I’m really fascinated by the sacred geometry of the hoop movement arts. For me hooping is my self-care and I create intentions for myself while hooping."

Is there anything else she wanted Hooping.org readers to know? She told Hooping.org, "At my web site I have information on hoop instruction and a few hooping videos. Also check out Maia Healing Arts where there is all information on all my work including bodywork, birth arts, and workshops."

In closing, if she had one piece of advice to share with someone picking up a hoop for the very first time, we asked what would it be? "Smile and look up. Smiling relaxes the jaw, which relaxes the pelvis. It is actually harder to hoop if you are holding your jaw tight. Try it and feel the difference. Also look straight ahead, not down at the hoop. Looking ahead keeps your spine, the axis which the hoop rotates around, straight, whereas if you look down you bend your spine down, encouraging the hoop to fall down more easily. Also, practice, practice, practice, have fun, and it’s easier to learn to hoop with less clothing on!

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You can find out more about Kara Maia Spencer at:

Mandala Hoops

Maia Healing Arts

Kara Spencer's Disco Friends

Kara's Rainy Day Hoop Dance