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Hooked on hoops

>>Hula-hooping is good for
your heart, brain and ass

GOING ROUND AND ROUND: Rebecca Halls (r)
with fellow enthusiasts Kiani del Valle (l) and Forty Nguyen

by MARITES CARINO

Think back to your youth—way back. Have any fuzzy memories of a circular thingy whizzing around your waist? Chances are, at one point in your life, you picked up a hula-hoop and gave it a whirl. The first time Rebecca Halls tried one out, she probably didn’t suspect it would take over her life.

If you’re looking for a quirky, physical alternative to the humdrum Friday night 5 à 7, why not swivel your hips at the YMCA du Parc instead? This fall, Halls launched a drop-in hula-hoop class where she heads up a group of hula-wannabes. Halls says hooping is infectious and that “everyone has the curiosity to see if they can do it.”

Halls, who mentions it’s not unusual to find her making coffee or chatting on the phone while hooping in her loft, says most people are interested in learning the basics. This means hooping on the different parts of the body like the waist, neck, feet and hands. “Once you’ve mastered this, the trick is to transfer the hoop from one part to the other,” she explains. In the all-level class, you choose the hoop based on the desired degree of exercise—such as a heavier one for a more cardiovascular workout.

The toy, whose popularity peaked in the late ’50s, is not as easy to find these days, so Halls fashions her own. Her circular accessories are made from plastic piping of different weights. And because of her frequent visits, “the people at the irrigation department at Home Depot know me well!” she says, laughing. On average, Halls’s hoops use 10 feet of pipe and can be simple, or decorated with anything from glitter to ribbon.

HOOPING AND HOPPING:
(l to r) Nguyen, Halls and del Valle

When one of her former students, Nathalie Veilleux, first picked up a hoop at a house party in Los Angeles, she thought, “I’m never going to be able to do this. This is ridiculous, I’m almost 30!” When she discovered she was able to keep the hoop in motion, she was hooked. “This is too much fun. I don’t want to do this alone. I want hula-hooping friends.” Last summer, Veilleux shared her enthusiasm by giving outdoor hula-hooping classes in Parc Lafontaine and has since moved her classes indoors. “You sweat a lot, you forget your problems, and it’s good for your heart, brain and ass!”

Halls, who has been dancing since the age of five, discovered hooping later in life. She moved to Montreal in 2005 to study contemporary dance and was disappointed that a hooping community, like the one she had been a part of in British Columbia, didn’t exist. So she formed a company, and gradually made a name for herself doing festivals and corporate gigs. Halls says that since the move, she’s been able to make a living through her passion.

She recently performed in p.r.squared, a piece she choreographed that transports the hoop into a different realm. “I felt limited by what I was doing. I was living two lives: My contemporary dance life and my hula-hoop life. I wanted to find a way to merge these two worlds.” She does this through physical work, where dancers draw circles in space with and without the hoop. “I’ve always wanted to explore the possibility of the movement that exists within the hoop. It’s not just about tricks. It’s using a vocabulary to create a bigger picture.”

In the big picture, Halls says hooping is not only about saying au revoir to the love handles: “It’s a great opportunity to get in touch with yourself. It’s meditative, fun and accessible to everybody.”