Caroleeena's Circles of Joyhoopdance
Choreography: Tips for Soloists
Before the show, arrive early, go on stage, pick a spot at the farthest point, in the middle, to spot on and anchor. Project your energy there! Take the Stage. When you take the stage, make an impression. Don’t wait til your music starts. Take the stage like a professional. Leave the stage like a [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
The Beauty of Stillness in Hoopdance
Sustained spinning is beautiful. It is a hoop-related art all its own. And art, heck, Life, is filled with duality. There is black and there is white, there is earth and there is sky, there is up and there is down. So what is the opposite of constant movement? Stillness. I want to encourage you [...]
Creating Lines in Hoopdance
In hoopdance we don’t often think of creating lines. Hooping is round and we tend to relate to it with a round mindset. There are many ways we can utilize lines in hoopdance though. We can travel in lines, we can create lines with our posture, our arms, our legs, we can even imagine lines [...]
The Big Finish!
When it come to polishing your dance, few things shine as much as “The Big Finish”. The Big Finish is one of the things that differentiates between dancing and performing. It’s also one of the things that distinguishes between a hooper and hoopdancer. The Big Finish is comprised of three parts: 1. A Ta Da! [...]
The Subtle Dance of Musicality
Musicality is a major aspect of dance. It is also a part of Flow. But, sadly, when it comes to hoopdance, absorption in tricks, technique, choreography, even costuming can get in the way of dancing musically. Musicality is challenging to define. To me, it is the difference between dancing “to” the music or “with” the [...]