Balkan Beat Box

I just got back from an amazing trip to NY. While I was there, I went to see one of my favorite bands from Brooklyn, Balkan Beat Box. They put on quite a show!
I managed to sneak my hoop into the Fillmore, and got some hooping in too.
And, to my great surprise and delight, who was there but Stephan from Groovehoops who rocked the hoop I brought!

There was just a nice article about Cosmic Hoops written up in the Homer News.

http://homernews.com/stories/11212007/business_1_001.shtml

Burning Basket Hooping

A friend of mine, Mavis Muller, goes to Burning Man every year and then comes back to Alaska and builds a giant basket for Fall Equinox and burns it on the beach. It's an amazing event where people from the community participate in all aspects of the creation of the basket and the Equinox event. Spencer and I joined in the fun this year by spending a little time in my glow-in-the-dark hoop. Next year, I hope to spin a fire hoop at the event!

On the Radio

So, the radio interview about Cosmic Hoops aired on AK radio for their "On the Bottom" episode. (If you click on the link it will download the one-hour radio show. My interview airs near the end for about five minutes.)

Check it out! It made me laugh. . . at myself!

Woolly Mammoth Hooping

At the Seward Music and Art Festival I hooped with a woolly mammoth! Actually, I hooped with a whole bunch of amazing creatures, mostly human, but didn't get pictures of any of them.

Have you been hooping with any strange or unusual creatures? Got a picture? Send it to me and I will post it on my blog!

Hooping.org

My website launched a few days ago, and a picture of me and some of my Cosmic Hoopers were featured on Hooping.org yesterday - I'm feeling right in the flow of things!

Tomorrow, Rebecca Sheir from AK radio is coming to do a radio show on my Hooping class, and I'll be teaching my first drop-in hooping class at the Studio. (Hopefully, it will be well attended!)

It's really amazing how hooping was just this fun little hobby a year ago, and now it's become my business and is getting so much great attention.

Amy Lowry of BlankSlateMedia helped me with my website, and I really appreciate her hard work getting my site up and running so quickly.

It's funny, I've done so many different things over the past ten years since college -- massage, graphic design, t-shirt designs, directing plays -- and this is the first things that's really just taken on a life of its own almost immediately. I think it means that I'm on the right path.

And that I'm aligned with something that is a deep part of me: dancing. After a major neck injury in high school, I wasn't able to dance like I had my whole life, so I spent a lot of time looking for other things I could do. Somehow, though after my son Spencer was born, I discovered hoopdancing and found a way to dance that actually helps my neck. The hoop automatically limits what you can do, as well as allows for a certain group of things. It's that limitation that's good for me and my neck - it means I won't go running and leaping off a stage, or swinging my head around like Tina Turner. But the hoops offers so much in the way of a dance partner that it doesn't matter that some options are out.

It's funny how you can't outrun your passions. I felt like I'd left behind the dancer in me, but then she came and found me again. Thank goodness she did.

Seward Music and Arts Fest

I had a booth at the Seward Music and Arts Festival this last weekend. What a blast! The indoor festival had a great line-up of music from Seward and Anchorage, including one my favorite bands to dance to Nervis Rex. The Anchor Town Circus put on a really fun show, and made me reconsider a lifelong fantasy of running away to join the circus!

The most fun I had at the Fest came from turning people on to hooping, though. I converted quite a few skeptical, but interested folks to the magic of hooping with just a few spins of the hoop.

I also launched my new website CosmicHoops.net this weekend. So check it out! My schedule of classes is on there, as well as my new line of hoops!

Cosmic Hoopdancing Class

I taught my first hoop class today! So fun! I felt like I was doing what I was 'born to do'. Two ladies at the beginning came in apprehensive, asking if they could take one class before committing to the series, and I said sure. About halfway through, one of the ladies squealed, "I'm having so much fun!" And by then end, they both signed up for the series.

I've adjusted the "HoopGirl Workout" format to fit my classes needs, and my favorite addition is 10 minutes of Cosmic Hooping at the end. Instead of the stage fright inducing Hoop Jam format, I lower the lights, turn on the Disco Ball, crank the music, and let people just dance in their own space. It gives us all the freedom to play with the ideas and skills we have already without the pressure of performance anxiety. Instead of omitting the Hoop Jam altogether, I think I will have the ladies work up to it for the very last class. Either way, I've found my groove teaching, and my students are definitely finding theirs! It's great!

Hoopsta in the Pribs

I had to 'jump through a bunch of hoops' to mail my first hoop out - the Post Office just didn't know what to do with me! But finally, mission successful. My hoop arrived in Saint Paul Island, Alaska a few days ago.

Bj, the happy new hooper wrote me this:

My Bering Sea Hoop arrived this morning...and its sparkling in the sun while I hooped to the surf for an hour.....The islands a buzz..PO said WOW!! Kids spy it a mile away...thank you Kammi!

This is her, hooping it up out on a small island in the Pribilofs.

Hoop Group Fun

My friend Miriam took these pictures the other day at our weekly Bishop's Beach Hoop Group. The sun was shining down on Amber, Annie and me as we hooped it up!

My first hoop class starts this Tuesday evening at the Haas Studios here in Homer. I am so excited to be teaching this class! Come join us at 5:30pm if you are in Homer.

World Hoop Day- 777

I finally got some pictures of World Hoop Day that I helped host at the Girdwood Forest Fair. These pictures were taken by my proud parents who showed up to support me, and do some hooping. That's my mom in the first two photos, holding her own pretty well inside that hoop!

There were probably 50 people total who came out to hoop with us that day.

Concert on the Lawn

You don't usually think to wear sun screen in Alaska, but at the all-day KBBI Concert on the Lawn, the sun shone down on us with unusual intensity, and by the end of the day, I was as pink as the shirt I was wearing!

Besides my tender skin, I had a great day selling hoops and playing around at the concert! Excitement about hooping is starting to build in my little town at The End of the Road, and I am happy to be the catalyst and ambassador for this great sport/excercise/dance form.

Oh Looky!

So, my hoops are officially on sale now at The Look in Anchorage, AK. This the little window display that they made to promote the hoops. My hoops have never looked so sexy!

My website, cosmichoops.net will be up and running shortly. I am a graphic designer, but don't have much experience doing web design so I am enlisting some help. Hopefully, my website will be rockin'!

Jena the Hoop Star!

Jena, my Super Fabulous Friend from Forever came down to Homer to hoop with me in the 4th of July parade. I've known this lady since my first days at The Evergreen State College, and we've managed to stay connected through all our travels and adventures, and now we live just miles apart in Alaska! Its really great to have a friendship like that for so long. And, even better, she gets dressed up and comes hooping with me!

4th of July

Wow, we hooped today in the 4th of July Parade. It was great fun! I had originally wanted to hoop in the parade, and then had trouble rounding people up to join me, so decided to pass on it. Then, I ran into a friend in the Post Office parking lot and gave a mini hoop lesson right there, and she was in, so my energy was renewed.

We ended up joining forces with the "Independant Living" float, and were there twirling tail. My two friends who haven't hooped much were amazing at just trying new things in front of people and going for it! They both agreed that they were much better hoopers by the end of the parade just because they'd gotten all that practice in. I, too, felt like my hooping and walking skills improved quite a bit - I never really practice going anywhere with my hoop, but that was fun.

We spontaneously offered our hoops along the way to parade goers, usually kids, who looked like they wanted to hoop. It was fun to have that kind of audience participation. Some of them were really good! I invited people left and right to join our hoop group, Saturdays at 11am at Bishops Beach, so maybe I will have rounded up a few new hoopers. I think I've piqued the interested of many in hooping again - I heard one women say incredulously, "I didn't know adults could hula hoop." When I offer my first hooping classes in the fall, I think I might have a great pool of interested people.

It got me dreaming of creating something for the edinburgh fringe festival next year, too. Not sure what, but something involving hooping, that's for sure.

Thank you for my friends who take a leap of faith to join me in my sometimes wild pursuits and adventures. Thank you for this amazing community that I live in that embraces me, and the new ideas I have. Thank you for this path that we walk that provides us with every thing that we need to learn and do what we need to do. Thank you for endless possibility, and new adventures at every turn. Thank you for guiding me along the way, and gifting me with ways to bring more joy into peoples lives.

Sleep Monsters

I've been crafting for the Girdwood Forest Fair, and my latest creation I am calling a Sleep Monster. They are stuffed animal type creatures, but they are stuffed with chamomile, lavendar and hops. These herbs help promote sleep and restfullness. Isn't it ironic I've been staying up til 2am making these little guys.

I'm sharing a booth at the Fair with a good friend of mine. We'd been trying to figure out what to make for the Fair for a while. First, I was going to make and sell my hula hoops there, but now they are only allowing me to do that on World Hoop Day, so I don't compete with the other hoop maker. Then I was going to screen print patches and sew them on to organic baby clothes, but they didn't think that was "hand-made" enough, so I had to keep coming up with ideas.

Thus, the Sleep Monsters, or maybe I will call them Cuddle Monsters. My son, loves his. And it's the first stuffed animal out of 20 or 30 that we have or have been given that he's really gotten attached to. So, maybe I'm on to something.

Then again, I'm sewing these things in all my spare time late at night when I really should be taking the great evening light to be hooping outside. All winter, I wish I could be outside hooping, and now I have the chance and I'm sewing Sleep Monsters!

I wish I had a little more discipline with my hoop practice. I wish I could actually make time and commit to hooping 1 hour each day. After I put my son to bed, I should just go outside and hoop! What am I doing cutting out little creatures? Well, they are kind of cute.

Please help me to have the discipline to make the time in my life for the things that nourish me. Thank you for the ability to make time for what I need. Thank you for the power to reflect on my life and keep fine tuning, so that every moment is spent in joyful work. Thank you for creativity, in all its forms, that take me down unexpected pathways and show me new things. Thank you for bringing me back to center and showing me what is important to me.

For the Love of Hoops!

I stayed up literally all night making hoops for The Look in Anchorage. They're my first big wholesale order of hoops, and I didn't get the supplies until yesterday, and I needed to get them there my today. So, I did it. Thank goodness for caffiene!

Staying up all night was fun in college, but when you have a child, it just doesn't have the same appeal. But when you have a kid, you don't really have much time in the day, either. So there you go....

I think I'm going to go take a nap now.

Alaska Seems So Far Away

Today, Alaska seems so far away from everywhere else in the world!

I've been watching youtube videos of fire hooping, and am just blown away. I wish there was someone here who I could learn from in person. I'm just craving a community, wishing that I could go to Burning Man this year, wanting to be immersed in crazy performance art, hooping, and anything else that is bubbling to the surface from our collective creativity. When I lived in New Mexico (Taos and Santa Fe) I felt so much closer to the flow. Here in Alaska, it feels so much more isolating most of the time. I joke that in Homer if there's something you want to do or see, you have to create it yourself.

(When I was pregnant, there were no pre-natal yoga classes, so I had to teach one myself. Then after I had my baby, there were not post-natal support groups, so I directed a play, "Yo' Mama!" that takes place in a post-natal yoga class, and convinced my friends who were also new mothers to do the play/yoga class with me. A couple of years ago I really wanted to see The Vagina Monologues but it wasn't playing in Alaska, so I ended up getting the script, staging a reading, and performing the piece.)

So, I guess if I want to see fire hooping in person, if I want an underground, kick-ass crazy performance art group, I'm going to have to create it myself?

I don't know if I can. I know I can't do it alone. I really need some peers. It's hard to be the catalyst all the time. Some times you need a solution!

So, Universe, I'm looking for a solution. I would like to solve the problem of always feeling alone in my creative endeavors. I would like a community that pushes me, supports me, inspires me, and draws out my highest potential. Is that too much to ask?

Thank you for infinite possibilities.

Circus Party

So, I went to a Cirque du Solstice party (http://picasaweb.google.com/garth.highland/CirqueDuSolstice)
tonight, and brought my hoops along. There were a lot of crazy characters there - a full grown gorilla, a bearded lady, a rodeo clown, tattooed ladies (real and made-up), etc. It was a pretty fun scene, but nobody here really hoops yet.

For a while I was just hooping with this little girl who was probably 6 or 7. Kids are such naturals at hula hooping, and totally unselfconscious about trying news things. It took the others a little time, and a few drinks before they picked up the hoops, but a few adventurous souls finally did. I had brought along my 1" hoop with water in it that makes it easier to hoop, and I guided them through the motions with that one first. One woman was so excited about being able to hoop, she told me that she was never able to do it, even as a kid, and this was the very first time she's ever sucessfully hooped! That was pretty cool.

I've been telling everyone that I'm going to teach the HoopGirl Workout in the fall, as I am a licensed teacher now, and I think I could fill up my classes three times over from all the women who have told me they are excited about taking it. I hope I can really lead a great class for them. It's kind of weird being an "expert" hooper here in Alaska, when if I went anywhere else I would really be still considered a beginner. I've seen great hoopers, and I know where you can take this too, and I have barely begun. But, still I am quite excited, and humbled by the opportunity to turn people on to the great joy of hooping here in Alaska. And who knows where it will lead.

So thank you universe, for providing me with this opportunity. Thank you for all the twists and turns in the road that have led to this. Thank you for the great magic dance has played in my life, and the lessons that I have learned from my injuries. Please help me to give others the opportunity to find joy through hooping - a joy that can radiate into all parts of their life. Thank you to Christabel for helping me to see that hooping can be a lifestyle, a business, a passion, and a way to help others. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Summer Solstice

I've been sick for two weeks, and just generally drained on energy. First, I broke my hand, then I got a bad sinus infection... all while directing the play, "Yo' Mama!" at Pier One Theater. Taking care of my son Spencer all day, the only time I have to myself is in the evenings, and I've been staying up too late for my own good. Finally, tonight though I got some good hooping time in!

It was a beautiful sunny Alaskan day, but I'd hardly made it outside. So, when I had finally got Spencer to sleep - 10:30pm! - I headed outside with my hoop and went for it. What a refreshing way to spend almost an hour! My dog Ollie kept getting in the way, as he wanted me to throw the ball for him, and I kept repositioning myself around the house so Kev's parents (who we are sharing a house with right now) couldn't see me. Anyway, despite the distractions, the session was awesome. It was such a great excuse to just play outside on this beautiful day to the sounds of sandhill cranes crooning and spruce hens thumping. It was twilight with a pink glitzy half moon in the sky, and a beautiful dizzying thickness of green all around me. I felt the most alive I've felt in weeks!

I'm posting a pic of my hooping at midnight. It was bright enough to take a picture without a flash! I had to try two or three shots to finally get one where I'm fully in the frame. It was still so beautifully light outside!

I am so greateful for these long Alaskan summer days. Thank you for this beautiful Earth, this amazing planet we live on. Thank you for our bodies, and our health, and our ability to heal. Thank you for friends and people and signs along the way that support us. Thank you for children who delight me every day with laughter. Thank you for the salmon that my husband is fishing for right now, and thank you for the sweet fruits of summer we've been eating. Thank you for the bounty of the summer! Thank you for hooping!!!