Hooping.org

There’s still time to get in on our Hooper Valentine’s Day Celebration and help us spin up even more hoop love in our community. Here’s how it works. Simply send an email to hoopervalentines@gmail.com with your full name and mailing address before 11:59 PST tonight. That way your valentine can send you some hoop love. Your information will not be used for anything else, we promise. Then on Thursday, February 9th, you’ll get an email with someone else’s name and mailing address for you to send some hoop love to. You can mail them something anonymously or with your contact info, something hand-made or store-bought, something super extravagant or beautifully simple – it’s up to you. Just pop it in the mail to them on Friday, February 10th. Be sure to mark it “Do not open until February 14th” just in case it gets there a little early and on Valentine’s Day keep an eye out for some Valentine’s Day hoop love coming your way full circle.

[Hooping.org columnist Lara Eastburn gets schooled.]

by Lara Eastburn

When I watch my daughter dance, I study her face. Her dance face is markedly different from the furrowed brow of concentration she adopts when she’s coloring – well, now that her teacher has told her she’s not allowed to color outside the lines. And it’s quite separate from the pride that creeps across her lips when she’s succeeded in reading a difficult word – that is, now that she knows she could get it wrong. I study my five year-old’s dance face because it is the extension of a body that hasn’t learned it’s supposed to be doing anything in particular. The only measure of the “correctness” of her dance seems to be what feels good. And it all feels good. I mean, dropping the hoop is her favorite part. “Why, baby?” I ask. “Because I get to start all over again, mommy!” And then, in a tone that suggests she thinks I was born yesterday, “And it’s funny.”

Navi likes to play a game she calls “Hoop Class.” She’s the teacher, of course. And she’s hard core. She wants me to be really good. But not the Wow I just rocked that song kind of good. Hers is a Let’s be so silly we trip over our own freakin’ feet kind of good. Awesome parent that I am, I want to be attentive, take her instruction seriously, encourage and empower her. I find myself concentrating on the lesson, preparing myself to mimic the new “move” as she throws the hoop in the air and runs to position herself under it. And then realize I’ve missed the point completely. Again. Because the point was to bonk yourself in the head and then do a roll on the ground, laughing hysterically in celebration. Read the rest of this entry →