IndyHoopers was the company I founded as a hooper and teacher. I performed, traveled and taught from 2007 to 2017.
I decided to retain this page for posterity, however I am no longer offering instruction.
.Hooping has had a huge impact on my life and I have seen and heard similar stories as mine throughout my herstory in hooping. Sharing the empowering capabilities of a hoop practice to such a wide variety of people of all ages has been a joy to lay witness.
I approach teaching hoopers how to dance with their hoops with a coach based approach within the flow style of hooping. Emphasis toward improvisation and developing skill by assimilating new ideas into your known ways to create an individualization of new things.
In The Beginning
I started hoops classes at the Fishers YMCA teaching mostly kids inside a Mommy & Me class. Teaching parents and children is rewarding and challenging to the hoop teacher in many ways. Keeping the younger kids engaged in the actions as play, while also teaching basics and tech skills to a wide range of ages is a fine art. At that time I had myself been hooping for about a year and the speed that the kids pick up concepts kept me stretching as a teacher. Some of the things I could see them heading toward I could not yet smoothly repeat myself. I made for a voracious appetite for my hoop practice. It was exhilarating! I was always spinning in my head about how to keep it all fresh for the group and what to bring to stretch individuals in their unique readiness. As I became more comfortable this was the buzz and the geek out for me as a weekly hoop teacher.
Moving On, Growth
The reality is that even though it was everything that I described it was of course mixed with tough kids, hecklers and bit of babysitting. Lets not fool ourselves, kids are kids. The experience I had when I reached them was well worth it all. … and then one day it was too much. I took some time off from teaching kids there for quiet a while. I had Almost five years back, local workshops would run once or twice a year with twenty-ish students and up to four weekly classes running a that time as well. It was so encouraging. This new baby art form was growing and promising. Every year there was a new festival for hoopers or flow and fire artists. I feel blessed to have taught in the company of so much talent and beauty. An opportunity to connect with others that are as into something as much as you are, something like a plastic ring especially is more valuable that I ever imagined. Stepping out of the day to day and into something mediative and exciting with others. It has really sewn the country together for me, connecting with people that I would have never met otherwise.
Intensive Weekend Workshops
Hosting tours started very early in this timeline. Baxter came to Indy for the first time in 2009 (?). These were the days when he was the only one touring. I have promoted many tours since then and after many trials and a few fails, I have been able to hold space for the projects and we, the community, have been able to support three tours a year, at the most, to date. Supporting in supplying a comfortable attendance for the instructors to cover venue, sometimes air fair and accommodations as well as knowledge, organization and time. It is a community effort to bring in these instructors and to support the local classes.
Local Classes
The Honest challenge today with the Indianapolis area seems to be that the hoopers that want to support classes and workshops are very spread out geographically. Within a survey I created, I learned that it is hard for people to consider driving more than 15 minutes. I get that. I see that busy lives make this hard to incorporate into a schedule. Also, todays new hooper may not realize that this is not a mainstream offering in our area. So driving a little further or getting your friends to take a workshop could be a away to support local hoop teachers and build a community into more thriving numbers again. In my teaching experience the changing climate in the hoop world and as a hoop instructor has felt like a rolled coaster ride. In discussing these changes over the years with hoopers and teachers from other locations around the country, it seems that in some places it has fallen back and trended as we have, while in other areas hooping is thriving. I dont know if there are people out there crunching numbers over successful classes per population, but I really can’t imagine that there is.
I always welcome more opportunities to teach. I still receive support for weekly classes that I offer at the beginning of the year and local workshops when they are supported. I continue to have my curriculum accepted at national festivals. I have taught more private lessons here lately and I bring weekend intensive workshops by touring instructors to the area about three to four times a year.
More Information and Pricing:
Also an artist, I paint, photograph, sculpt and work to create jewelry, clothing and unique home decorations. I work in retail and sometimes virtual assistant and always a mother of two, My family and I appreciate the your support and patronage.
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