Photo courtesy of Alexandra Malone.
Throw out your antiquated ideas about pig tails and pinafores: today’s hoops aren’t just for little girls.
“Today there are lots of different types of hoopers: club hoopers who wear glow in the dark tops, really mellow hippie hoopers who are really into the whole spiritual side of ‘being in the hoop’ and circle geometry.”
Alexandra Malone, pictured above, identifies herself as a “fitness hooper with dance elements.” She is on the forefront of a growing trend in Ottawa: the hula hoop. For the last couple of years the iconic loop has been making its way out of the toy store and into gyms across the city. Along with Roller Derby, hooping is one of a number of retro trends being revamped for the new millennium.
While playing with hoops has been around since at least the days of the ancient Greeks, the modern hula hooping started in Australia, when a toy company started to manufacture bamboo loops. In 1958 Wham-O, a Californian toy manufacturer, started to marked plastic hoops in the USA and by 1959 had sold 100 million. While its glory days as the must-have toy soon faded, over the course of the coming decades the hoop traveled from the sidewalk to such stages as circuses, dance troups and later fitness videos. http://www.hoopgirl.com/
From what my limited internet research skills can tell me, hooping was reincarnated in Ottawa around 2007, as enthusiast like Hooperella started teaching classes or holding performances around town. Hooping classes are now held at various venues around town, including Dovercourt in Westborough and the Glebe Community Center and the Ottawa hooping community has set up its own Facebook group (can someone help me out with the link?). There’s a strong DYI element to the movement, since the hoops used in fitness classes can’t be bought in stores, but are usually homemade with rubber tubing and decorative tape or are produced by local hoopers like Siren Hoops.
Malone, who has been hooping for a year and a half, will also be teaching a class this fall at Florida Fitness this fall.
