Here's some of the amazing workshops available to you.

For a grid with dates and times, see the Schedule.
For detailed descriptions, click on any workshop title below.

HOOP SKILLS

• Hoop Performance Techniques -- Stefan
  
• Multiple Hoops -- Alley'Oop
  
• Jump for Joy -- Michele
  
• Tricks & Combos -- Hoopalicious
  
• Flow Dynamics -- Hoopalicious
  
• Choreography Workshop -- Stefan
  
• Partner Hooping -- Ammon & Marria Grace
  
• Hands and Arm Work -- Caroleeena
  
• Dervish Style: Sustained Spinning -- Jewels & Spiral
  
• Twin Hooping -- Jewels & Spiral
  
• Street Hooping (a.k.a. busking) -- Revolva
  
• Ignition Writing Your Hoopdance -- Revolva
  

• Fire Dance Safety -- Caroleeena
  
• Fire Hoop Construction Forum -- Ali Cat
  

• Hoop Yoga -- Kara Maia
  
• Hoop Yoga 101 -- Sandhi
  
• Hoop Yoga: the love of backbends! -- Sandhi
  
• Hooping Health -- Ariana & Laura Marie
  
• Understanding The Chakra System -- Tracey Oliveto
  
• Hooping as a Healing Art -- Kara Maia
  
• Hooping Mama: Pregnancy thru Postpartum -- Kara Maia
  
• HoopFlex -- Ted
  
• HoopCamp -- Ted
  

• No-Sew Haltar Workshop -- Annie Weinhart
  
• Performance Make-up Techniques -- Christine & Patika
  

• Hoop for Joy! Mental Health and Hooping -- MelMacPink
  
• Hooping with Different Communities -- Ariana & Laura Marie
  
• Sustainability and hooping -- Ali Cat
  
• How to Teach a Beginners Class -- Stefan
  

These workshops will teach a variety of hooping techniques, including hand work, footwork, advanced movement meditations (aka tricks), as well as hooping specialties, such as street performance, choreography, performance tips, sustained spinning and twin hooping. There will be workshops appropriate to all skill levels. See below for full workshop details and teacher bios.

Doing tricks is one thing, giggling out is another but how does one craft a performance for a crowd? In this workshop we will identify what "wows" an audience. Define the arch of an act. Work on character development. "Personify" the the hoop & leave with a lot of new homework.

In this workshop you will learn the fun and challenge of using multiple hoops. Adding two, three or four hoops can greatly enhance the dynamic of your performance or take your own personal practice to a whole new level. For this class you will need three or four hoops all the same size and weight (or pretty close) and to get the most out of this workshop you will want to try to come warmed up. And don't forget to bring a little personality, as this is key in figuring out what works best for you.

Let's get wiggling!

In dance, any time the feet leave the ground, it is an exclamation mark. Jumps are the most exalting and definite way to punctuate movement and offer a wealth of opportunity for creativity. In this workshop we will learn how to analyze our flow and discover the best jump tricks for you. Most importantly this workshop will teach you how to build up the strength and flexibility required to prevent injury and over time, leave you with high soaring jumps with light as a feather landings!

Tired of your old moves? Need a breakthrough? In this class you will learn some new moves, variations to freshen up your old ones and how to combine moves for more POP!

Level: All

In addition to her two convergence classes, Hoopalicious is also offering private 50 minute sessions:

"The quickest way to progress really is through working one on one. It allows me to focus all of my 12 years of hoop dance experience into tailor made instruction just for you!"

special convergence price of $85, normally $100!

Do you have fabulous tricks that you just can't seem to pull out when in the flurry of performance? Or are they technically great but don't have the greater flow of dance? This class focuses on transforming your 'tricks' into dance in one seemless flow. Discover what mental processes are blocking you from full expression and you will develop the ability to get out of your head and confidently pull of those moves with style!

Level: Intermediate

What does it take to make a performance? How do I put a group of hooper on a stage and make it look good? How do you block out an act? What looks good to an audience? What is possible? GrooveHoops™ has spent years asking ourselves these questions while performing our multitude of dance numbers. Whither it was for a 70,000 person festival or a celebrity studded gathering GrooveHoops has risen to these questions and answered them many times over. Allow us to share what we have learned and put it into practice with you.

Come join Ammon EP & Marria Grace from the Boston Hoop Troop for some partner hooping mechanics. No need to have a pre-arranged partner, you can connect with a willing partner on site. This workshop will focus on how to arrange yourself with another person while hooping & exhibit ways to intersect / combine / avoid & complement each other's hoops & bodies on the vertical & horizontal planes. This is a great warm-up for performance with dual psi hoops and the amazing patterns dual hooping creates. This workshop will bring awareness to the placement of your hoop in space & the relationship of you & your hoop with another person.

It's impossible to overstate the importance of technique in dance. Once the basics are mastered, it's the little extras that really make a dance shine. In hoopdance, the hoop is often on the body leaving the hands and arms free to explore the space around them. In this workshop, we will learn to inhabit that space! We will discuss posture, range of motion and anatomy, introduce various hand positions and arm positions, and learn specific, gender-neutral, techniques from a variety of cultures including flamenco, hula, bellydance, bollywood and ballet. By the end of the workshop, each dance artist will have a spectacular new pallet of techniques to draw upon.

This workshop will combine various movement techniques that assist in maintaining the body's spin at various velocities while dancing with a hoop. Over the past 6 years, Spiral & Jewels have been spinning and developing these techniques, as well as costuming to complement this style of movement. This workshop will be followed by a stomach soothing ginger tea!

This workshop will offer strength building exercises and techniques for dancing with two hoops simultaneously on both the vertical and horizontal planes. Increase your body awareness and strength while doubling your pleasure. Some twins provided for practice and purchase.

Whether you've been hired to do "strolling hooping" at a festival or you've just decided to perform on the sidewalk, crowd-level hooping can be a real challenge. How can you create a "show" with no stage, no announcer -- and sometimes no music? Come learn techniques that will help you engage the crowd, stop people in their tracks and fill up your tip hat. Please try to bring two smaller hoops to this class.

Dance is a form of communication. We convey meaning through movement. So what happens when body language intersects with the written word? "Ignition" is about finding innovative ways to recover, discover and dance our own stories. We'll be combining journaling with hoopdance, writing what we dance, moving to words and exploring ways to deepen our practice (and to heal) by erasing the division between body and mind. To "ignite" means to set ablaze, but it also means to cause a strong emotion to arise. This workshop seeks to do both. If you can, please bring a pen and notebook along with your favorite hoop(s).

Note: You do not have to be an expert writer any more than you have to be an expert hooper to try this, and you will not be required to share your written work.

Our post modern era is often separated from the rhythms of the natural world and our dependence on relationships with the elements. Fire, an earthly manifestation of the sun, has been a life sustaining element for humans throughout history. However, these days, we may only get to really experience fire in limited ways and times. Fire has power for transformation, purification, celebration, healing and protection. Thus various fire rituals can rid of us what does not serve us or assist us in manifesting that which we desire. Fire dancing has helped me to cultivate a special reverence for this powerful element.

Hoop Convergence has organized an evening with a drum circle and fire ceremony for fire dancing. If you haven't fire hooped before, this could be a magical moment for you. If you are already a fire dancer, come share your light!

Carleeena has put together a great deal of safety information for fire dancers.

Ali, with the assistance of several fire hoop designers, will allow participants to try out a variety of different types of fire hoops and demonstrate the construction of a fire hoop.

Hoop movements can range from a relaxed low impact core hoop rotation to an extremely athletic practice with full body engagement. For most, these movements will take the body into previously unknown terrain and could, for some, cause injury. Whether you desire to increase the longevity of your own practice or reduce risk of harming students with unsafe class exercises, an increased knowledge of the body and potential risks are very valuable may assist your endeavors. With these intentions in mind, Hoop Convergence will offer workshops and discussion circles focusing on injury prevention, strength and flexibility training and safe effective stretching. We have invited a personal trainer, yogis, hoopers, massage therapists and other body/mind workers and healers to bring together as many perspectives as possible to understand the possibilities and limitations of the body.

While some have been injured on their hoop journeys, even more have been healed. Hooping has helped individuals with depression, anxiety, trauma, attention, abdominal cramping, back pain and endometriosis. As the body achieves harmony through sustaining a rhythmic rocking, focused attention and massaging contact, we enter a state of deep concentration which brings us fully into the present moment. We can access the wise sage and playful child within us simultaneously. Mostly of water, our bodies enter a flow state where we may access new understanding that cross over into various aspects of our lives. Hooping provides an opportunity for magical experiences. In honor of the healing potential of hooping, we will host workshops and discussions specifically addressing these topics and explore various applications. I believe the hoop’s healing potential is magical, undeniable and tremendous. Exploring, sharing stories and approaches will benefit each of us, as well as our communities. See below for full workshop details and teacher bios.

HoopYoga integrates meditation, breath awareness, and yoga asanas with static and whirling hoops for opening the heart and awakening your spine. We will focus upon flexibility, centering, balance, and fluidity. HoopYoga is a wonderful practice for warming up or cooling down from your hoopdancing, as well as a way to bring new flexibility and consciousness into your regular hoop practice. This class is adaptable for all levels of skill and experience.

This class delves deep into power we have to cleanse our energy field, align our chakras, awaken our minds, ground our bodies and heighten our spirits! We will explore the connection between the sacred circle and yoga as we move through different yoga sequences (and I'll demonstrate some advanced ones) with and without hoops while focusing on extending, centering and balancing throughout our movements. Expect to stretch all your kinky spots with a fluid flow of fun!

Romance your soul and surrender your heart to the sky as you plant your feet into the earth! The practice of backbends are about moving into the future and letting go of fear of the unknown. If fear and hesitation remains as we attempt to open our hearts, pain results. (And often in the back!) But as we hoop with these postures, we heighten our awareness of our connections to our strengths, the earth, and those we love! We overcome our fears and hesitations and really open! Swirling into love itself!

NOTE: If you have not taken Hoopyoga 101, it is recommended that you do have a yoga practice.

Hooping Health: Movement in and outside of the hoop for injury prevention will cover many topics including:

• Exercises for warming up and cooling down and why it is so important
• Working with your synovial fluids
• Learning to listen to your body and teaching your students to do the same
• Learn how to check the stability of your core and strengthen its health
• Choosing the right size and weight hoop(s) to increase your ability without injury
• An understanding of simple body biomechanics
• Learn how to utilize a physio ball to support your hoop practice

Chakra is the Sanskrit word for "wheel" and and describes the eight main energy centers located on and around the spine. They correlate with the basic states of consciousness and influence our glands, body shape, ailments, thoughts, behavior and personality. The energy created from our emotions and mental attitudes runs through the chakras. When any chakra is unbalanced due to inattention, cultural conditioning, past trauma or illness or our daily habits, it blocks energy and affects our way of being. Because the chakras literally live in the body, they also have a strong relationship with our physical functioning and movement. The main purpose in working with and understanding the chakra system is to create integration and wholeness within ourselves. In this workshop, we will discuss the chakra system and how excesses, deficiencies and blocks affect your thoughts and behavior. We will explore techniques and movements that can nourish, restore and balance these energy centers.

Please bring a blanket and a yoga mat.

The hoop is a powerful healing tool. The simple circle has the potential to improve the vitality of one's body, heart, and spirit. Hooping energizes and massages the body through the use of spiraling, undulating, and creative movement. Hoopdancing is naturally centering, for one is always at the center of the spiral. Hooping can teach how to be calm and grounded in the midst of life's contant whirling. The hoop creates a rhythm as it encircles the body, massaging with touch, balancing the nervous system through releasing restrictions in the spine. The hoop facilitates the development of core awareness, strength, and flexibility. The hoop can be utilized in a variety of community and clinical settings with individuals and groups to facilitate healing, whether with special needs children, weight loss clinics, occupational therapy centers, and mental health clinics. If you have found that hooping has healed your low back pain or uplifted you from depression than this class is for you. If you are interested in bringing more focus, flow, joy, and health into your life, than this class is also for you! There will be time for sharing about individual experiences with healing through hooping as well as specific tips for healthy hooping.

Pregnant mamas can hoop too! The primal motion of life is a spiral. Spiraling of the hips is a powerful movement during labor that facilitates healthy natural birth. Hoopdancing for women in all life stages is a powerful way to increase flexibility, balance, and healthy movement of the pelvis. It stimulates circulation throughout the pelvis and reproductive organs. Women can safely hoopdance throughout pregnancy, while taking care to utilize strong self-awareness of uncomfortable sensations or discomfort, using lighter hoops, and doing more off-the-body movements. Babies are very safe and snug inside the womb, however many pregnant women find themselves more comfortable letting the hoop naturally ride below or above the pregnant belly. The dancing and spiraling movements are very beneficial for preparing for labor, as is the mind-body centering and integration of hoopdancing. Pregnant mothers may need to adjust their hooping styles to accommodate for looser ligaments and joints, and to avoid vigorous abdominal hooping. We will discuss the importance of spiraling motions during pregnancy and birth, as well as the benefits for postpartum hooping to regain abdominal strength and physique. This workshop is presented by Kara, a birth and postpartum doula, childbirth educator, pregnancy bodyworker, mama, and hoopdancer, and Bonnie, a hoopdancing mama who recently hooped throughout her entire pregnancy.

(or, How I Learned to Stop Spinning and Love the Stretch)

Good flexibility is absolutely crucial for maximizing your hoop power & grace, reducing your risk of injury, improving posture, and maximizing your hooping potential. Join me on a 75-minute journey to discover your true flexibility within. I will lead students through a 45-minute guided stretch routine designed to safely and effectively lengthen those stiff hooping muscles, followed by a 30-minute crash course on basic hooping anatomy and its relation to flexibility. You will leave with the ability to distinguish between good and bad form, the understanding of how to soften or deepen a stretch, and the confidence to design your own personalized stretch program. Appropriate for all levels. Please bring a hard, sturdy hoop which won't get smooshed when you stretch with it.

Confuscious say: Man who bend over backwards for a friend never need kiss another man's ass.

(or, Realizing your True HoopPotential)

If you've hit a wall with your hoop practice, can't quite get that impossible physics-defying move down, or just want to have more energy and stamina, this intensive 90-minute conditioning workshop is the key to unlocking your True HooPotential. The first 60 minutes is a fast-paced, dynamic double-shot of HoopJuice specifically designed to boost your strength, stamina, power, and flow. Your balance will be challenged. Your core will be awakened. You will discover muscles you didn't even know existed. And most of all, you WILL have FUN. The next half hour will be a quick-and-dirty, Cliffs Notes version of strength and conditioning basics for the "scientifically-challenged". Just the bullet-points, baby- I promise. You will leave knowing the safest & most efficient ways to exercise for hooping, understanding the difference between good and bad form, with a better appreciation of the impact of exercise on hooping. Appropriate for intermediate to advanced hoopers (>1 yr experience). Please bring one light and one heavy hoop, if you have them.

Confuscious say: There is strength in numbers, except when the number is 1. Or lower.

Not only is hooping powerful for the individual, it is healing and connecting for communities and groups.

Discover the bliss and joy of hooping with melmacpink; Social Worker, Mental Health Professional, Hoopdancer and Fire Performer. Her specialty work includes teaching movement, yoga and hoopdance with the Mentally Ill population. Share the experience of how hooping not only helps your body, but the mind and spirit are uplifted too! This workshop will review important concepts like excercise and mental wellness, laughter and serotonin levels, as well as reversing energy blockages and stagnant mental patterns through hooping. Deepen your experience of how hooping can initiate a safe space for joy to emerge in your classes, community and your own hoopdance practice!

You feel drawn to bring hooping to different populations, ie., people with ADD, ADHD, survivors of abuse, to abusers, to the kids at risk, the list is endless. Your own experience in the hoop and your instincts tell you that you can make a difference. How do you make it happen?

To move forward with confidence it will be important to have information on the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects that are present in these different groups. From there things to consider:

• What is your "mission statement," intention or goals for working with this community?
• What image are you putting forth about yourself or your business?
• Choosing hoop sizes and weights for success with populations that many times are experiencing physical and emotional limitations
• Bringing passion and enthusiasm to your sessions in spite of appearances
• Being prepared so that you can be flexible

The richness of the experiences that you will have by working with such diverse populations is remarkable. We will invite questions from anyone participating so that you may move forward with confidence in your outreach programs.

This panel opens the discussion for how and why we want to incorporate more sustainable techniques into our hooping, fire hooping, costume/fabric choices, and transportation.

Stefan's 6 years of GrooveHoops teaching has given him thousands of opportunities to teach beginning hoopers. Within an hour his students gain confidence, joy & mastery of the basics. In this workshop Stefan will show how he beaks down the beginner curriculum and creates attainable goals for students with little or no hoop experience. (Please note: this is a class about how to be a teacher as opposed to how to hoop).

Regardless of the context of your hooping, the hoopability of your clothing choices becomes a factor that can enhance or impede your practice. Many hoopers craft their own clothes based on the new found needs for grip, strategically exposed skin or aesthetic appeal of shimmer, flair or flow to emphasize specific movements. Hoopers have begun to loosely call any preferred hooping outfit as a costume. The term costume has many connotations, and need not be confused with "dressing as that which you are not." In fact, this ritual regalia can assist one on the path to knowing their truest self by opening up different movements and richer expression by embodying one of the many personas that make up our individual concept of Self.

Construct your Own Halter Top with Annie from Annieland! We will create a halter style corset top in a one hour workshop. No sewing required! This is a comfortable and flattering style, with optional cut-out shapes on front. One size fits most. Instruction will be given first as a group demonstration and then individual attention will be provided.

Required Materials: 1/2 yard of 4-way stretch material (the more bling the better!) & a pair of sharp scissors,

Details TBA.

Ahh! The jams! Fruits of the labor of disciplined practice and training are yielded during inspired improvisation. I believe that the skills presented in workshops really sink in and shine during jams. Opportunities for spontaneous co-creation between groups of hoopers and musicians are such a blessing and, in my experience, are a source of inspiration, revelation and integration. Hoop Convergence will host a variety of jams, both casual outdoor (with some of my favorite improvisational musicians) AND a full on, funky, jamming hoop hop set indoors (also enhanced by live music). Plus, Weaver St Market, our local co-op should be in its kick-off Sunday brunch set which will provide a great opportunity to experience a family friendly, community event that really helped to spread the love of hooping in our Carrboro community.