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Welcome to The Northwest Hoop Gathering 2011 Bend, OR
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Shakti Sunfire | Rayna McIntuf | Malcolm Stewart | Julia Hartsell Crews | SaFire | Brandon Huston | Groovin Megzz
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Shakti Sunfire
www.shaktisunfire.com
Shakti Sunfire is curious at heart with an aptitude to dive in deeply, exploring her many passions. She has a diverse wealth of experience, with a background as a brand communications consultant, copy writer, and marketing misses, a performance artist, a writer, a creatrix, teacher, mentor and yogini. She is currently applying the fusion of all worlds in creative, big picture events, theatrics, festivals and women's retreats.
Shakti continues to witness her own transformation inside the hoop. Now a resident of San Francisco , she draws on her own experiences and her heavy participation in the community to encourage unfettered self-expression centered in the heart. Her message is one of radical self acceptance.
Shakti was certified in 2008 in Beginning Hatha Yoga at the Shambhava School of Yoga on the Big Island of Hawaii. She is currently undergoing extensive training in Anusara Yoga with her primary teachers, Sianna Sherman and John Friend, and is studying Tantrik philosophy and the Sanskrit language with Christopher Wallis and Yogasthana, the Foundation for Yoga whose goal is to foster authenticity in western yoga.
In her writing Shakti dives deep into human experience, exposing universal connection and poignant sychronicity through personal narrative. You can find more of her work on Elephant Journal.
Workshop
I believe that the heart of what brings us into these experiences of art, movement and community is a yearning for direct experience of our deepest Self. It is a tapping into our unique expression, a celebration of our personal signature in the world. Disconnect occurs when we are attached to something we either think we are or think we should be (i.e. 'I am ________, or even, I should look like _______'), while obstructing what we will become if we soften to the dance. Gurumayi, one of my teachers says so beautifully, that when you think you know what you're doing, you can only live and act from that limited place. When you truly surrender something way more profound may come through.
For me, the hoop has been this potent doorway into the present moment where the only demand to 'flow with' is to be uninhibitedly and unabashedly honest with what is arising from the core of my being - be it nerves in a performance or sentiments of vulnerability, strength etc. In this workshop we will learn through various exercises and single hoop trick technique how to get out of our own way, how to dance the fullness of our inner experience made external, and how to move on tshe wings of grace without an agenda. This is a single hoop class. Please bring a pen/pencil and your journal.
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Rayna McIntuf
www.ihooponline.com
For over a decade, Rayna McInturf has been sharing her love of Hoopdance and the joy and transformation it brings with tens of thousands of people across the globe. A pioneer in the hooping movement, she originally studied under and performed with Anah Reichenbach, aka Hoopalicious, who has been credited as the “Mother of the Modern Hoopdance movement.” Rayna is the creator of the Hoopnotica® Hoopdance Curriculum, which she has shared through classes, DVDs and the Hoopnotica® Teacher Training Program she developed. She is tremendously grateful to be a part of this incredible community and finds herself more eager than ever to create and inspire as an active part of this transformational, mind-body movement. Rayna is no longer directly involved with the Hoopnotica Corporation, but you can follow her evolving hoop journey at http://www.iHoopOnline.com, and her collaboration with Anah at http://www.HoopRevolution.com .
Hoop Revolution Workshop
Extension in Hoopdance Learn to enjoy your hoopdance more deeply as you explore delicious new ways to move with your hoop! In this workshop you'll learn to extend your body to create beautiful curves and lines, add accents and flourishes to your moves, and slow down to extend your moves for added enjoyment – both yours and your audience's! Rayna will challenge you in new ways, extending you beyond your comfort zone to more fully express yourself.
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Malcolm Stewart
www.groovehoops.com
Malcolm started hooping in 2002 when he met a group of hoopers at a loft party in Brooklyn , NY, where still lives and works. He had an immediate connection with both the hoop and his new friends, and shortly thereafter they created Groove Hoops. He has been teaching since 2002 with Groovehoops, privately, and larger gatherings (Hoop Convergence 2009 & 2010, Hoop Camp 2010). In 2005 & 2006 he performed and choreographed in Agora 1 and 2, by Noemie Lafrance. He has had regular appearances at Deitch Projects as well as clubs and variety show venues like Galapagos, Sideshow by the Sea Shore and Astro Land in Coney Island , the Slipper Room, and Amanda Lepore's Carnival. In 2009 he performed in the Life Ball in Vienna with the House of Xtravaganzas, choreographed a hoop performance in the opera Il Mondo Della Luna in the Natural History Museums Planetarium in New York , as well as showing in Performa Festival with his performance troop Color Wheel, at the Sculpture Center in Long Island City .
Workshop
This class aims to strengthen our inner teacher, choreographer, and movement explorer! Everyone has the potential to inspire themselves and build beauty from that inspiration. We will work on repetition and movement evolution, play/focused on structured abandon, i.e. License to Flail, deep knowing, traveling movement, grounding and foot work, and visualization to name a few. I will be sharing with you a combination of general approaches and concepts, specific techniques and exercises. I will make sure the space we create is one where we feel free to not hold back, and to make plenty of mistakes, some of which will inevitably be beautiful as we will see. Unintended results are often gems, gifts from circumstance. We only need to create the circumstance and have a mind for noticing what emerges! If I get carried away, excuse me! Let us just be a bunch of hoops, bones, muscles, minds, and spirits moving in a moment in time and space! Together!
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Julia Hartsell Crews
www.hoopdrum.com
After graduating college with a degree in Religious Studies with a concentration in Fine Arts, Julia Hartsell Crews (aka Jewels) was eager to explore independently and began her studies of yoga, meditation and movement. In 2001, Julia fell in love with an adult hoop. A long time dance enthusiast, Julia was entranced by the circular meditative quality of the movement and began a devout hooping practice. Julia is often characterized by her love of sustained spinning, a sense of sacredness of flow and her play with multiple hoops.
Julia and Scott Crews combined passions with their project, hoopdrum, in 2005 after falling in love and have been co-creating magic ever since. Together they organize an annual hoop dancers' conference in NC, Hoop Convergence; are partners in Synergy Firehoops.; and are currently opening a movement & music sanctuary, The Flowjo in downtown Carrboro. In addition to sharing through teaching and performance, Julia combines her art and activism sharing the hoop with people of all ages locally and abroad. She has found in her travels to Mexico and Haiti that joy and smiles can transcend language, cultural and political boundaries.
Workshop
Exponential Bliss: Twins Practice
Hooping with two hoops can facilitate deeper body awareness as you meditate on multiple points of contacts or currents of energy simultaneously. This practice activates the non-dominant side of the body helping to balance the bodymind. In this workshop, Jewels will lead exercises and techniques for both on & off-body practice.
This class will be technique heavy for intermediate/advanced students. If you are new to dancing with two hoops, please come with patience and playfulness. Bring two hoops that are the same size that you can use on the core and in the hands. These don't necessarily have to be the same pair.
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SaFire
safiredance.wordpress.com/about/
SaFire is the owner of SaFire Dance Inc. Circus and Fire Entertainment as well as the creator and moderator of Hoop City™. Her journey here began in the summer of 2006 when she saw fire poi and immediately became interested in the fire arts and in prop manipulation. When exposed to hooping while at Shambhala she quickly became obsessed with all things hooping. After completing six years of post-secondary education at the University of Lethbridge , SaFire decided to focus her attention on performance and fire dancing. Graduating with a Bachelor of Education and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in December 2007, SaFire relocated to Edmonton , Alberta where she began working as a performer, hoop dance instructor and motivational speaker.
Choosing to step aside from teaching in the public school system but with a burning desire to work with youth, SaFire created a 45 minute presentation called Inspire Through Fire, a motivational presentation for K-12 students. The presentation was created to share her passion of fire performance and encourage young people to dream dangerously, ignore the nay sayers and forget the bullies they will encounter in life.
In February, 2008 SaFire published her first hooping demo on YouTube. Several weeks later she entered the video into the dance category of a talent contest run through Clipstar.com. The contest semi-finals ran for several months and had a preliminary prize of $10,000. When the semi-finals finished, SaFire's video had won and the video still holds a strong place in the viral video world, having been featured and reposted on various video sites with a combined viewer count of well over 3,000,000 views worldwide.
With a desire to share the hoop, SaFire created a series of hooping tutorials and published them on her YouTube Channel.The tutorials were met with a tremendous amount of positive feedback for their detailed and easy to understand instructions. Her unofficial hoop students voiced their appreciation in January 2009 when she was voted Hoop Instructor of the Year through Hooping.org's Hoopie Awards. After dozens of requests from hoopers to release an instructional DVD SaFire searched for a method to instruct online. In early 2009, Hoop City was launched where she was finally able to put her education degree and technology specialization into action by creating some of the first online hooping classes available. The classes have been a huge success and currently include over 800 students worldwide. In addition to the online hooping classes, Hoop City has a strong online presence as a community for hoopers to connect, share ideas and locate other hoopers in their area. The community currently has over 7,000 members and is growing daily.
Workshop
We will be introduced to the concept of multi hooping, beginning with two hoops and working up to three. We'll play with variations and combinations that will ease us into the movements of multi hooping while also exploring some more challenging combinations. Moves covered will be in horizontal plane using moves that are on body, off body or combinations of the two. In addition to playing with combinations we will also discover fun transitions allowing us to integrate our new explorations into multi hooping. For this workshop, you will want to bring three hoops that are roughly the same size and weight. Ideally, the thinner the tubing the better as you'll be needing to grip more that one hoop at a time.
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Brandon Huston
www.thespinsterz.com
Brandon, owner of The Spinsterz has been practicing circus arts for the past 10 years and has been traveling the world providing fire and circus shows at small and large events, vending his wares, and teaching workshops in all manner of circus arts. He currently resides in Bend OR , where he runs his business and teaches weekly Hula Hooping & Poi spinning classes and also offers monthly Acrobatic Partner Yoga workshops. Brandon is here to teach, inspire, and get Bend involved in circus arts!
Workshop
In the first hour of this workshop you will learn all aspects of fire safety, including: What to wear, fuel info, lighting, extinguishing, precautions and local laws. You will also learn about performance and ways to make your crowd say "WOW". In the second hour we will all go outside and get a chance to fire hoop as well as learn to be a responsible safety/spotter.
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Groovin Megzz
www.thehoopingbody.com
GroovinMegzz grew up in Virginia and always had a passion for artistic expression through music and dance. She approached these practices with a bright personality and positive attitude. When she discovered her passion for the hoop during the winter of 2005, she immediately felt the connection and knew she belonged inside the circle.
Since arriving in Portland , she has expanded her hoop practices by spending time within the circle and attending workshops and jams around the town. Eventually felt the urge to share the bliss the hoop has brought her so she began teaching classes within the community. Incorporating elements of Yoga and aerobic rhythmic exercises to create an extremely unique, centering, and fun style of dance. She always focuses on inspiring those around her and educating them on proper hooping practices.
GroovinMegzz has been fortunate enough to perform with Kaivalya Hoop Dancers and around the country with EOTO, (Michael Travis and Jason Hann from String Cheese Incident), Shpongle, Random Rab, Beats Antique, Railroad Earth, Keller and the WMD's, Vibesquad, Surrounded by Ninjas, as well as at many private events. She is constantly pursuing performance opportunities where she can push the boundaries to create exciting new visual productions. She performs locally with her new performance group, Elemental Flow-Portland's HoopDance Collective.
Workshop
"The Hooping Body" is about embracing the fact that we are athletes of the circle. It's a practice that requires time and dedication to our bodies! My goal is to inspire all Hoop Dancers to work on their physical conditioning outside of the hoop and in turn feel the benefits of this inside the hoop. In this workshop we will be going over specifics in flexibility and strength training targeted to hoopers of all kinds, and elements of Hoop Yoga. We will finish up the workshop learning GroovinMeGzz specialty tricks and choreographed pieces that are dramatic and exciting!
Plus! Special guest...
Patrick Deluz of www.psihoops.com will be here with tons of brilliant psi hoops to play with!
