Check out this fabulous article on the front cover of the Style section of the San Francisco Chronicle today! Check it out!

Paste the below link into your browser:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/03/LV28UOA2F.DTL

First, gratitude for being alive! No matter what is ever happening, I feel so happy for the gift of life and wellbeing! So many gifts surround me.

The highlight of my day was teaching. I got to leave my computer behind and just immerse myself in a whole new atmosphere of students at intermediate level. There is a sweetness of inspiration that emerges from working with intermediates. Quite simply, I love it. I love how eager they are to learn. I love how readily they absorb information and personalize it with their own creativity. I love their energy level and how much they push themselves. I can push my own edge while helping them to do the same. I can give them sneek peeks of moves and combinations which are fascinating me too. Its like a community of hoop geeks which get my crazy lingo. Truely, my students are one of my greatest blessings. I wish I taught intermediate and advanced students every day. I think it would be good for me! Bring it on, Universe!

HoopGirl Special Edition Sassy Pants now available in Turqouise in our online store! Enjoy!

Photo by Sheri Gilblin. Thank you!

Today was the first day of the first Level 2 HoopGirl Certified Instructor Training.. what an amazing gathering of hoop leaders! I feel so honored and excited that every single one of these women came all the way to San Francisco to study with me and share their brilliance.

Everything flowed as if I had done it dozens of times before and it was quite remarkable to watch each teacher refine their skills and absorb so effortlessly. I am so glad.

Today was a gift. A day that showed me I am on the right path! Just watching the radiance and excitement of every teacher move to the next level was such a joy. I love teaching and I specifically LOVE teaching teachers! With attendees from Utah, Washington, Canada, Oregon, and all over California, I really see how our community is growing. Thank you!

It's monday morning and I still feel caught up in the training which took place over this past weekend. Wow! It feels amazing to have an inspiration to do something, and then to take a risk by going out on a limb to see it through.... and have it succeed! Thank you! What I really loved about the training was...

This afternoon I had a two hour private lesson with one of the most angelically pure beings I have ever met on the planet. She arrived with beautiful flowers for me and a 3 page handwritten letter of thanks for the level 2 teacher training.

Her soul radiated love and she was so determined to learn! She was so observant of my dance and tried with every ounce of her being to create the same movements in her body. I was so touched! As a teacher, having a student so eager to learn and absorb from me in every way was a complete honor! I poured out everything to her. She was asking me about nuances in my dancing style that no one has ever asked to specifically learn.. so it was sweet to also realize that I can actually teach something which is my signature.

While I drove her to her next destination afterwards, she shared that my training has helped her hooping, but also helped her become a better person. She said when she is a bad mood and wants to act mean, she stops and asks herself, "what would Christabel do?" I felt like I was going to cry all over the place! I am just so darned human with all the same angers and hopes and fears and bad days and good days as everyone else, but her belief in my innate goodness as a human being made me want to become that person even more!

After dropping her off, she smiled broadly and waved as I was walking away. I had one of those tingley sensations that told me I would remember this day always. Her absolute purity and genuine sense of wonder has restored something within me. What a gift!

All I've had for the last week has been excuses about why I haven't put in the private time, so this morning's 40 minutes were sweet! I had fun freestyling to the music, exploring Dolphin variations, all kinds of vertical twirls through the hoop in all directions, lots of outflow, some Swans. My buff was on my head and I impulsivly pulled it down over my eyes -- I never hoop in the buff at home since my practice space is about 4x5 with a big tv and other breakables on all sides... but suddenly I backed against the couch and realized that if I can just keep one leg against the couch at all times, there is no way I can bump into anything else breakable in the room! It was a huge revelation for me because I usually reserve sightless hooping for the studio... which takes away a lot of spontaneity around it. It felt really nice to get into a rhythm of playing the hoop back and forth and combining that with the sensation of stroking my pant leg in rhythm with the music between swings... almost a 3 dimensional sort of hoop experience.. those precious moments of feeling, breathing, connecting feed me so much now! The edge of "performing" has softened and now it is a sweet letting go to breathing and touching and all the happy potted plants surrounding me with green leaves.

Woke up at 5:15 and my mind was racing. An aftereffect of overwork... sometimes this happens when I haven't taken a day off in too long. Decided today to break the cycle, so I picked up my hoop and began quietly hooping the livingroom to silence. My long flannel jammies started to get quite hot after a bit... since my husband was asleep in the bedroom where most of my movement clothing was, grabbed some burning man bootie shorts and stuff from the hall closet. Fun! As the sky has been getting lighter and lighter, I've just going back to basics for an hour. Lots of Plays, leg lifts, balancing, slo motion Dolphins so my landings were quiet, and basically just dancing. When Kramer woke for the gym, I turned on some music and it carried me through the last 20 minutes. My ankle has been feeling tender, so I've been lessening the impact on that foot and holding off on pivoting for the moment.... Enjoying sensation! I am so grateful to have a body!

Wow what an adventure! Tonight we held HoopSexy at the Women's Building in the Mission District. Twinkling lights, chocolate, berries.. and fun! I had been stuck in the house all day on business calls so it felt so freeing to dress up, put on a sparkling wig and cruise out to play. A whole crew came from Santa Cruz to support and participate which was sweet. Allison came all the way from Davis and met her mom there from Sacramento! And lots of lovely locals... Karen, Amanda, Julie, Paige, Adriana, Piper and many more. It was a flowing journey through practice and play... lots of metaphors.. a dancing journey. An a real experiment in co-facilitation! I co-led with Heather from MoveHoops and we learned together what works and what can be improved. I am so grateful for all the dance lab participants who came and allowed themselves to get swept away in our tide of music and exercises. HoopSexy is so freeing and unleashing for me as a teacher. It is wonderful to have structured classes, but also sweet and so very poetic to lead a journey of flowing awakening. I am so glad that it feeds those who come, because it also heals something within myself too. Thank you!