The Resurgence Of Hula Hooping at Ignite Portland 7

I gave this presentation in front of 600 people at Ignite Portland in the Bagdad Theater on November 19th. Ignite presentations are 20 slides and 5 minutes long with the slides automatically advancing every 15 seconds, and I decided to do one about the Resurgence of Hula Hooping -- while hooping.

I talk a bit about the performance branch and meditative branch of hooping, and since I tend to lean more towards the meditative branch, then a lot of my focus was on my experiences and ideas on the more spiritual aspects of hooping.

It was also my first public 'performance' per se, and I had a lot of feedback from people that they were inspired to take up hooping and explore some of the more spiritual aspects that they weren't even aware of.

There is certainly a lot more stuff that I could have talked about, but the Ignite constraints really get you to focus down on the essential big ideas.

This is how I pitched the presentation before I had even created it: "For the past year, I've immersed myself into the resurgence of Hula Hooping as a modern dance form and spiritual practice. I'll give an overview of the evolving landscape of Hoop Dance from the branches of fitness, spirituality, and performance. I'll give a few beginner tips, and show some photos of how people make their customized, adult-sized hoops. I'll talk about some of the therapeutic and healing benefits that people have experienced from hooping, and how people are fusing together insights from ancient wisdom traditions to make hooping something much more of a fad. I'll talk about the Hoop community, their national gatherings and the different extremes of what people are doing with the hoop. You might also see me demonstrate some hooping throughout the entire talk."

This video is a compilation between the footage shot by Strange Love Live at http://techlovelive.blip.tv/file/2882438/ and @linuxaid at http://blip.tv/file/2875374

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ignite
• hooping
• hoopdance
• portland

[lbsunfire]

Sweet Kent! Love it...this is now the second (that I know of) presentation on hula hooping for ignite. I gave one of hula hooping and branding last April at Ignite Boulder. :) Infiltrate! Great job!

[kentbye]

Oh nice! Yeah, I had no idea that you had done one as well. As far I knew, I was the first, but apparently not. :)

Yes, please dig up that video, I'd love to see your 5-minute take on hooping. :)

[DizzyHips]

Nice presentation. You have a good rapport with the audience and the visuals are well-organized. ...but, I guess it's a tribute to the power of the southern Californian cultural machine to have stolen the modern history of hoop dancing from the people of Colorado , washington and oregon- all of whom had hoop dancers long before Anna, hoopnotica and Christabel.

[kentbye]

Thanks! And yeah, I realized that there were some gaps / missing links in my quick hoopdance history recap after reading your website.

There was an NPR report titled "Hula Hooping Gets Groovy Again" that did some digging into The String Cheese Incident, but failed to trace it back to any definitive source.

I also only had 5 min/20 slides & had to cut out a lot & said something different every time. I had meant to say Anah was "one of the first" rather than THE first.

Would love more history!

[HealthyHoopers]

Excellent work Kent! Your videos are the BEST EVAH :)

[pinksmelee]

Get your own copy of the new MW2 map pack "Resurgence"! Watch this video and learn how to download it FREE and save $20! /watch?v=QKSOClFTtR4

[psywanderer]

I love your explanation of hoop meditation. May I borrow your words for my next Hooping meditation workshop? Love this:))))))))

[FunkyKDizzle]

YAY! Great job!!!

[rszrama]

Way to go, Kent!

[MsBHoopingAllure]

You surely delivered! Very good presentation and I am glad you included the spiritual aspect/potential of hooping! (which has always been my focus)

[hoolamonster]

Wonderful job! I love how you converted the crowd (from what I could tell, based on the audio). This presentation was well-thought out and delivered with conviction. Love it :)

[corduroycoat]

Wonderfully engaging presentation! I love the idea that every hooper has their own story of transformation.

[krstnhth]

Very nice presentation.

[lavinder5]

"closed loop of rhythm" Brilliant, Kent. I really enjoyed this and feel like it touches beautifully on so many important aspects of hoopdance. Great job. I favorited this.