Hooping… Architecture… Whatnot…
The HoopLab channel on YouTube has 42 clips, featuring various hoopers (myself, Khan, Sharna Rose, Lucian, SaFire, Robb Mills and Grant’s even in there.) Each clip contains only one or two moves and although they’re not exactly “how-to” clips, most have slow motion demos. There is enough material here to practice for years.
Find more: here
HoopLab was an experiment that came and went, a small collective bound through a ning site, working to develop new moves and advance hooping.
Hoop City seems to be kicking it up a notch. The Homestay Project is sorta like what many of us have done for a while. It’s essentially a way to couch surf for hooper’s. Khan has been doing this for a while and has hosted more hoopers at his place than anyone I know. SaFire’s new project seems like the logical extension of what Khan has been doing for a long time.
Hoop City has a BRAND NEW Feature that I’ve created to help hoopers connect worldwide in a face to face setting. The Hoop City Homestay Directory will allow hoopers to stay with other hoopers when they travel.
Travelling can be one of the most amazing experiences in the world but sadly many people never have the opportunity. Conflicts like time, money and responsibilities prevent us from taking off on our own journey and experiencing live to the fullest. The Hoop City Homestay Directory was created to encourage Hoop City members to take a break from the daily grind and enjoy a holiday away from home. The directory below includes only Hoop City Citizens that have agreed to participate in the Homestay Directory. Feel free to contact them if you are visiting their hometown and need a place to stay for a few nights.
Khan is one of my closest friends and I often consider him my consigliere. In this video he’s bustin out at least a half a dozen new techniques. I particularly like the sequence from about 1:25-1:30 and his isolation technique from 1:50-2:00. The isolation hoop technique into the Brecken pop is a nice detail. Also, I really appreciate the two point technique flips at 2:25-2:30. I haven’t seen those before.
Last time we he and I had lunch, talk of the next Flow Show started floating around. I can’t wait to see this incarnation.
Khan sent me a text message last Friday asking if I minded if he cut some video from the left over tape from Flow In The Wasteland footage. I knew there was some decent stuff from the beach with these beautiful hang gliders soaring in the background so I told him to go for it. To my surprise, these two beautiful clips were posted before I returned from the Priceless Campout. How would this have cut into “the wasteland” you might ask? Well, we thought there was a busted up military building at Fort Funston. Turns out there is very little left accept beautiful views and hang gliders. We shot some footage even though it wouldn’t go into the intended clip and here it is.
Khan, Lauren and I shot this over the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve made any videos and it felt great to see the stuff I’ve been developing on film. Khan demos his new found passion, club swinging as well as a bunch of his axial isolations that I am so fond of. Lauren shot most of the video of us in these remote warehouses down in the dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. The three of us had a spectacular day and I can’t wait to do it again. Khan cranked out this elegant edit job in no time at all. The man has skillz.
The track is “Reborn” by Janaka Selekta off the Pushing Air album. The full album is available for listening here. Janaka is a close friend and producing some of Lauren and I’s favorite music, most of which is asian influenced dubstep. Thank you Janaka for allowing us to use this track. We listened to it for 6 hours on repeat while shooting : )
Check him out at: www.janakaselekta.net
Ann at Flow Show – 4/24/09 from Hoopsie Daisy on Vimeo.
Ann at The Flow Show.
I watched Ann perform this piece sitting above the stage on a ledge. I teared up like the first time I saw her sustained stall video. Whenever I see her do this it totally send me into awe and I get all emotional.
Last night Khan, Shadjua and I had our final rehearsal for the Flow Show. The Flow Show will be taking place this Friday 7:00 PM at CounterPulse in San Francisco:
What happens when object manipulation is taken out of the circus, out of the dance club? This showcase will take the flow arts out of their typical settings and nobody really knows what will happen. Featuring flow artists on hoop, poi, staff, fans, balls and maybe some other stuff too.
I think we have our piece pretty well polished. All three of us are happy with the outcome. I snapped this shot of us at Margaret Jenkins Dance Lab on Saturday. I think I might be even more excited for this show if I could just sit back and watch all the amazing artists from around the world that will be performing. The list of performers is very impressive. Khan has done an amazing job creating this event.
In other news, I just received my second set of mini fire hoops from Cosmic Fire. The first pair were a prototype using HDPE plastic. The new design is a significant improvement and I can’t discern anything that I would change. The new mini firehoops are sweet! I love these little guys. The size allows them to be manipulated in ways very different from full size hoops. You can do staff like linear isolations, firefan moves translate well, they spin a lot like poi and move similar to knujmchucks. I’ve been having a lot of fun working them out for the Temple of Poi Fire Expo.
The Temple of Poi Fire Expo is almost here! The Fire Expo is the largest gathering of internationally renown fire dancing artists assembled in the western hemisphere for a free, legal public show! The show takes place in Union Square on Saturday night from 7:50 PM- 10:00 PM.
More info: here
Saturday morning Chris, Audree, Isa and I will be doing a fire demo on the KRON morning news. We’ll be doing this as promotion for the Saturday night Temple of Poi Fire Expo. I’m not looking forward to driving to the East Bay at 7 am on a Saturday but it should be fun and I’ll be doing it with close friends.
This is sloppy as hell but the elements are all there. This is an overhand thread the needle crossover 180 to a underhand thread the needle. Khan showed me it with poi then he and I talked it through to the hoop version. It’s much harder with hoops than poi. I need to clean up my underhand thread the needle before this will look any good.
