Aspiring hoopers everywhere can rejoice! Diana Lopez, of BodyHoops.com, has released the first comprehensive instuctional hoopdance DVD. In Hoop Dance Fusion, Diana and a cast of hoopers demonstrate warm-up exercises, hoop basics, knee hooping, shimmying, transitions, hand hooping, and the hoop orbit. There are lots of fun hoop videos that demonstrate how to create your own creative hoop dance with the foundational movements of hoop dance.

I appreciate the balance on the DVD between the instructional hoopdance techniques and ample footage of hoopers getting creative and dancing. In the free-style hoop footage, the cast is hooping in a park, by a pool, fire-hooping on the beach, and Diana performs a tribal-style hoop performance. I loved seeing both men and women hooping in this video, and hoopers of varying ages all smiling and grooving.

At a few moments, while watching the instructional hoop class, I thought that new hoopers might get discouraged with seeing the graceful agility of Diana performing techniques when they try the techniques for the first time alone in their homes. Diana performs with ease, moves that I remember struggling with for weeks. Sometimes it takes lots of practice and persistence to master a move. Then I watched my a bsolute favorite part of the DVD: the outtakes. I know that novice hoopers will have faith when they see that even experienced hoopers drop the hoop in the bloopers.

In the very special outtakes, you get to watch Diana and the hoopers fumble their hoops, throw their hoops, and bonk themselves. Sometimes everyone drops their hoop to the group simultaneously. Diana a djusts her clothes, and even accidentally hits the cameraman with the hoop during a close-up. It’s fantastic! It completely humanizes hooping.

In learning to hoop everyone drops the hoop, and by editing a video of hooping, those human elements can easily be glossed over. I really appreciate that Diana choose to add those human elements, because having a sense of humor and learning through the process are essential elements of hooping. I recommend this DVD to anyone interested in hooping for fitness, creative dance, or to just have fun.

Hello Diana,
I love your DVD. Just watched it for the first time through, a few minutes before midnight in my living room! I am a senior marine biologist who took years of dancing, and this is just great for my 50s. I can’t wait to go out in the yard in the daylight and try hand-hooping. Your instructions on the DVD are so clear, that I can already do most things kinda, although the shimmy up still evades me (but hey, I just started; I certainly hadn’t figured it out on my own). Thanks again and I am so glad that the internet has little surprises like hooping waiting for us to discover.

Claudia Mills

Hello Diana,
As a store manager in a well known, well established company at a VERY BUSY store, taking your hoop class was a breath of fresh air. It included not only the physical part of exercise, but more importantly, exercise of the mind. You helped us relate our hoop to our lives and our character, and with the way we deal with each on a daily basis.
I would highly recommend your sessions to anyone looking for a fun, refreshing way to get outdoors and get some much needed "me time", and I look forward to utilizing your classes for future teambuilding exercises with my managers!

Thank you so much!!

Caralyn de Jong

Diana,
I want to say thank you for taking the time with the group in teaching us the wonderful world of the hula hoop. I had a fantastic time and not only did I enjoy myself, I also found out some things about me which I felt enhanced my scope of thinking. You had provided us with some good insight about ourselves in relation to the activity and I know that all of us walked away feeling very good considering we all had a 2 tough months. Lastly, you helped us build some good teamwork which we will utilize in the high energy holiday season to come.
Thank you!

Mercedes Dakay

hey all. i just want to put my 2 cents about bodyhoops. I have ordered hoops from 4 different vendors (ok, i like toys). All the vendors and hoops that I have recieved have been great, good service and good quality. But… their is definatly something magic about diana’s hoops. I can’t recommend enough ordering from her!

Colleen

Hello Diana & BodyHoops!
Just a note to share the hoop’s awesome power in my life! Hooping is a way for me to ground and center, breathing in and out with joyful awe & gratitude. I love to groove into that sensual, circular motion that moves like the spirals of our lives, of our soul’s journeys. Sometimes it is calming, at other times invigorating; we are Present in the moment, expressing through our dance while we surrender to all that is. Hooping lets me feel like a child, spinning, smiling, laughing, and learning new tricks, always amazed at the possibilities. Hoop dance, like all dance, opens me up to the infinite, the divine, that place we can all find, in wholeness and at peace. I would recommend the daily experience of hoop dancing to ANYONE! Let loose, be silly, have a blast, it will heal you! Many Blessings,

Emily Violet

my life has changed drastically. ever since i saw "the pink panther strikes again" clip on youtube. i purchased your video, a hoop & broke up with my girlfriend…things just have not been the same.
warmest regards,

kadri

Hi Diana!
I received my new hoop this morning and I just wanted to tell you how GORGEOUS it is!!!! Thank you!!!
The reason I ordered a new hoop was that I wanted a smaller hoop than the one I already have (43"); I’m 5′1 and when I’d hoop vertically, the hoop would bump on the ground and it would kill the flow. As soon as I opened the package this morning I immediately tried hooping at an angle and IT’S PERFECT!!!!!
I ordered the DVD a few months ago, and once again, the shipping was fast and everything is of high quality.
Just wanted to let you know how much a difference my hoop has made to my waist line. I run 4-5 days a week and I own an Ab Lounger, have had it for about 3 years… since I have had the hoop for about a month now I have actually been losing inches and toning my mid section, the ab lounger was not doing what the hoop has done for me in only 1 months time…
I have friends using it also…
Great idea, thanks…

Valerie Creighton

Diana has worked with the Girl Scouts of Tres Condados 3 times so far and a fourth program is in the works for the fall. Diana’s program includes action, music, art, and even evokes a bit of nostalgia for the older hula hooper. Diana has created a fun program for an indoor classroom and also has an exciting outdoor evening program for a larger audience that ends in a 3-person performance with fire hoops and more. She’s been a big hit with the girls and moms and gets just about everyone up and moving!

Marti Tucker

Property Director
Girl Scouts of Tres Condados

My name is Kelly Weiss, a woman who happens to be blind and loves to hula hoop. I started hooping October 13, 2004 when I became a new member at Curves for Women in Santa Monica. Since I tried hooping just that one day, I learned that I will continue doing it forever. I did not have a hoop for a year, so I would go to Curves and used theirs. Then a year later, I got two of my own which were the metal ones, and then I had a lesson with our Diana Lopez in April of this year, and I got two of her hula hoops which I absolutely love better than the ones I got before. Because of one of her lessons with her that was so beautiful, I started teaching hula hooping at the Junior Blind of America, a school for the blind in Los Angeles, California where blind children and adults learn how to become independent.
Since my first class on June 7, 2006, I’ve been teaching the adults how to hoop, and they have kept coming back. This hooping I have done in the past is the reason for this, and not only has this given the students confidence, but it has given me even more confidence. The feeling of hooping and teaching it to these wonderful blind people could not be a better feeling. This is so great, because I am able to have the people imagine different things such as sailing on a boat, and dancing on a beach in hawaii.
I started the first class teaching them the stretches and moves that Diana taught me, the first time I met her. These people told me that they are sleeping better since they have been hooping. My experience of hooping is so rewarding because this gives me a childlike feeling, and this has made me feel better about everything in general. I am still teaching at the same location today, and would like to start teaching it to the sighted community as well.
So you hoopers out there, keep it up. You’re the best.

Kelly

Hi Diana,
I’m emailing from Toronto. A small group here has been meeting twice a month for a few months now for some hoop jams. I brought your DVD to practice with and its a hit! I’m still working on the knee to hip…
I really love your DVD and the instructions. Its very easy to follow, I wish I could come to Ojai! I would love to move up a level and start teaching it. I’m pretty shy, but the hoop does something to my confidence!
Anyway, just a note to say thank you!

Cindy Filler