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...Be A Hoop Dancer?
Monday Jan 08, 2007.
By Julia Steinberger
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 The only male in the class that night, he was an awesome sport, even when we were asked to introduce ourselves to the class by naming the spice we would be if we were a spice. We began with a lot of discussion about how failing equals learning, and how the hoop symbolizes family, eternity and the like. Once we got our hoops going though, esoteric chatter gave way to some serious fun. Turns out even those of us who were miserable at the sport as kids can likely find success with weightier grownup-size hoops, which move more slowly around the body. In an hour and a half, we learned, among other things, how to walk while hooping, move the hoop from our waist to our wrist and back, and hand the hoop to a friend without breaking its motion, among other things. The skinny: Historians say that Egyptian kids got their spin on with rings of stiff grass or grapevines as early as 1000 B.C., and Brits were hooping with wooden rings nearly a decade before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Modern American kids hopped on the hoopwagon in the '50s, when toymaker Wham-O started selling plastic rings under the catchy Hawaiian-inspired brand name. Revitalized for grownups by the raver crowd and String Cheese Incident fans in the mid-'90s, hooping is working its way onto the mainstream fitness/wellness scene. The getup: Hoopers go barefoot and do a lot of wiggling, so whatever you'd wear to the gym is perfectly fine. The studio provided hoops for use during class, but if you want your own, YogaNow's instructor, Mercedes, sells her glittery homemade ones for $20 and up. You can also build one yourself with PVC piping and electrical tape using these instructions. The payoff: Hooping works the whole body without ever feeling like work. Do it regularly and it'll help tone your arms, legs and abs, and you may even shed a few pounds. That said, 90 minutes of beginner hooping is still a very light workout; hooping once a week probably won't produce dramatic results in anything but your mood. Wear and tear: I took a head-butt to the face when my showoffy sweetie tried to wow the class with a fancy handoff before I was ready, but the physical risks of hooping don't go much beyond embarrassing mishaps. If you bruise easily, you might be a little black-and-blue in places (I wasn't), but most bodies build a tolerance for the hoop after a little practice. The commitment: After just one class I had a solid vocabulary of basic tricks, enough to have fun and probably impress friends if I were ever handed a hula hoop at a party (hey, it might happen). YogaNow's class takes place two Thursday evenings per month. The cost: In line with other classes at YogaNow, hooping class costs $16 per session (if you're new to the studio, your first-ever class is free). You can purchase multi-session class packs for a discount, and students get a 20 percent break. Once you've learned some moves, all you need is a hoop and some empty space to keep the practice going. Difficulty level: Everyone in the class, regardless of size, shape or athletic ability, got their hoop going for a respectable run and kept up with the different tricks. The toughest part might just be lowering your inhibitions enough to play in a roomful of grownups with hula hoops. The verdict: We had a great time and got a boost just from learning something new. The feel-good stuff got a little silly for me at times, but hey, hoop dance class isn't the time to take yourself seriously. I can't say I'll become a regular, but I'm pretty pleased that if a hula hoop presents itself, I now have the skills to work it.
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