Caroleeena's Circles of Joyhoopdance
Using Hoopdance Music Videos to Promote Musicians
I love to watch videos of people hoopdancing in their living rooms to music they love. I love to see people tearing it up to music they really get into. YouTube has both enabled us to do this and made it very challenging for us to do this. We have the technology to just turn [...]
Dance Composition – An Introduction
“Choreography is simpler than you think. Just go and do, and don’t think so much about it. Just make something interesting.” – George Balanchine The following is a synopsis of several aspects of the choreographic process. Over time I hope to elaborate on many of these concepts. This is the framework I plan to work [...]
Choreography: Finding Your Hook, Crafting Your Dance
Dance tells a story through movement. When choreographing a dance, we are making decisions about which story-telling devices to include, how to order our story, where to start, and how to end. For this piece we will deal specifically with the first aspect of choreography, deciding which story-telling devices to include. In other words, finding [...]
Happy Humbling Hoop Happenings!
The universe is showering me with so many blessings my knees are trembling under the weight of them! I am honored and humbled and awed. (Which makes it hard to write. Awe takes my words away.) I’ve just learned I’ve been nominated by my peers around the globe for two Hoopies! Hoop Instructor of the [...]
Welcome To The Vegetable Circus (Triangle, NC)
We just started a chapter of the Vegetable Circus in Raleigh, NC. We present in-school, after-school, and kids programs that highlight healthy nutrition, movement, and play. Consider starting a Vegetable Circus in your community.
The Value of a Hooper’s Training Journal … (and how to keep one)
Training Journals are great for learning, fun to peruse and full of insight. I love mine and I recommend keeping one. Bring it to classes, workshops, jams, and playdates. A Training Journal helps us cultivate and direct our growth. It serves as inspiration and aspiration, a collection of our epiphanies, a history of our [...]
Why Are Hoop Retreats So Expensive?
I remember a time when there were no hoop retreats. I remember playing in my backyard with Patika and AliCat and Christine and Valerie, dear friends and hoopers, all of whom lived a long drive away, and daydreaming aloud, “Wouldn’t it be great if there was a retreat for hoopers!?! A place we could all [...]
Honing Performance and Shaking off Anxiety
Someone recently asked me, “When did you stop being nervous before a performance?” I responded, “Stop? Maybe one day … but I don’t think they make calendars that far in advance.” I am always nervous before a performance or speaking engagement or even before teaching my classes. I’m a shy person who has to work [...]
A Short Building Posture Ritual
It only takes a second to reset optimal posture for movement arts, to build a posture of strength in your full range of motion. You start from the ground up: Feel your weight in your heels. Lift and then place the ball of each foot on the ground, one at a time, under the hips. [...]
Directed Gaze – Directing Energy in Dance
Directed Gaze is a dance concept, a way of directing focus, a way of directing energy. We can make people look at things by looking at them. Don’t believe it? Go out on any street, stop and look up in the sky. Watch what happens. By directing the gaze, the dancer directs both energy [...]