A few nights ago I dreamt about a big hall and a stage and a group of women putting on a performance of some kind. This dream reminded me of my teenage years, coming down to the city with a dance troupe and performing in suburban town halls together. It was such a buzz and one that has never left me. This was long before the internet of course, and I spent hours after school rehearsing with our group, and weekends too. Here we are together below - a tribe with our animal skins on!
In my days as a young mum I also found a tribe of women who I hung out with in the early days of learning the hoop, and for a few years I felt that wonderful sense of camaraderie and belonging.
These were glimpses of ‘tribe’ that have shown up a few times in my life, but which I have never managed to sustain in an ongoing way.
In our culture, that opportunity for connection around a hobby, ritual or a practice of some kind, has to be very deliberately maintained, it does not just happen, and as I have got older, it has fallen by the wayside.
When looking at this longing for tribe, what I see is that even though there are times when it appears as if I made stuff happen in my life and I got what I wanted or needed to be happy, this is not actually what took place.
I see that I have never been in control of my life, or the one directing it or making things happen, and that instead life has unfolded as one continuous flow and that there has been an ongoing waking stream of both pleasurable and painful events, and my attitude to the flow of life, as it unfolds, has determined my level of happiness or contentment.
I have not been in control of this attitude either, but gradually life has provided a new conditioning that has come in and made this obvious.
Going with the flow is really the only thing that has ever been happening - control was always an illusion.
Throughout the ebb and flow of each day, there are cranky moods, there are aches and pains and feeling flat or blah, but then there are times of joy, delight and easy satisfaction. More than any other experience, that which is most obvious in life is change and movement.
Even in the deepest stillness and quiet, there is subtle sound and always the rise and fall of the breath which travels with us as our life long friend.
So, returning to the hoop…
My motivating challenge that has inspired me in the past couple of weeks is a new pattern called 4 Petal Antispin Flowers. It is a series of moves that are done with twin hoops and each one can flow into the next in a seamless pattern that once learnt, and committed to muscle memory, I sense will open up a new pathway of creative movement.
The practice of spinning two hoops is very different to the single hoop. The hoops are smaller and lighter and because there are two, symmetry is the main game. There is something inherently pleasing about making symmetrical patterns. To begin with though, mastering these patterns can be very technically challenging and mind bending, but once they ‘lock in’ it is a joy to repeat them to music.
To get an idea of the technical nature of learning this twin hoop move, view this diagram below teaching the anti spin flowers sequence. It kind of reminds me of computer or electrical wiring diagrams.
I am not at the stage where I am ready to record and share these patterns, as it takes a long while for them to be ingrained enough to become part of the flow, but it is very enjoyable to have a new and quite different pattern to learn; always being a beginner keeps it fun and fresh.
I have also got some new hoops ordered to give to a couple of the women in my class who now want their own smaller, off body twin hoops as well, so I will have these to dazzle them with on Tuesday night. I have been toying around with putting together a beginner routine, a small sequence for us to practice as a group - yay!
Here is a recording with twin hoops from a few years ago in the backyard of our old rental house, where I spent many, many hours in the evening hooping barefoot on the lawn.
I enjoyed reading your reflective account of life's journey - and the hoop-dance is maybe serendipity at work, since I am looking for a new skill-challenge to keep me supple - and it appeals to my dim and distant training in the Alexander Technique. It reminds me too of mime.
We have no-money-involved community here (Portugal) around weekly weaving (I used to make hand-weaving looms) and monthly food & plant swops.
Lovely performance. Mesmerizing!
I can totally relate to what you are saying about tribe. There is a deep longing for community, many people are feeling it, but it's not so easy to 'get it going', apart from in small momentary connections here and there.