page_title: Hooping
section_title: Today
hierarchical_section_title: Hooping / History / Today
caption_attribution_description: 2005 World Hoop dance championship at the Heard Museum Phoenix AZ USA
context_page_description: Hooping is the manipulation of and artistic movement or dancing with a hoop. Hoops can be made of metal, wood, or plastic. Hooping combines technical moves and tricks with freestyle or technical dancing. Hooping can be practiced to or performed with music. In contrast to the classic toy hula hoop, modern hoopers use heavier and larger diameter hoops, and frequently rotate the hoop around parts of the body other than the waist, including the hips, chest, neck, shoulders, thighs, knees, arms, hands, thumbs, feet, and toes. The hoop can also be manipulated and rotated off the body as well. Modern hooping has been influenced by art forms such as rhythmic gymnastics, hip-hop, freestyle dance, fire performance, twirling, poi, and other dance and movement forms.
  Hooping is a physical dexterity activity that has been described as a part of flow arts, and a form of object manipulation. It is sometimes described as a form of juggling.
  In its modern incarnation as an art or dance form, and form of exercise, the practice of manipulating a hoop is referred to either as hoop dance or simply hooping.
context_section_description: The annual Burning Man festival has also served as a melting pot and fertile ground for hoopers from all around the world to share their tricks, techniques, and energy. Ubiquitous grassroots "hoop jams" and "convergences" such as HoopCamp (Watsonville, CA), Hoop Convergence (Efland, NC), SWOOP (Bristol, UK), and Return to Roots Hoop Gathering (Medford, NJ) happen throughout the world almost every month of the year. These meet-ups, as well as various online communities, are the foundations of the hooping subculture.
  An international celebration called World Hoop Day began in 2007 and has continued every year since. Hoopers perform in many cities and countries to raise money for charity and donate hoops to people who cannot afford them.
  Native American Hoop Dance has been recognized as a cultural heritage. The most popular Native Hoop Dance competition occurs annually at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Recent competitions have drawn as many as 10,000 spectators.
  Hooping has recently become more popular as an activity in dance studios, circus skills and through its inclusion in music videos.
caption: Participant in the 2005 World Hoop Dance Championship at the Heard Museum
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