Listen to PART I of the interview (note both of these are audio with a collage of still photos!):

And then PART II of the interview:

I got up at 5am this morning, filled with excitement and a bit of nervousness about being on the K-FOG Morning Show...

Last night's celebration of the release of Hooping was a precious, heartwarming, a rockin fun good time with the super tight hoop community of San Francisco! Ariane and I arrived at the Make-Out Room before the event started and prepped the space, books, hoops and our outfits. We toasted a glass of pink champagne with Annie, who had also come early to set up for some Annieland vending she was doing. Even before anyone arrived, there were surging feelings. Joyfulness at our accomplishment of the book done and selling at bookstores. Relaxation that this project was finally done! Excitement about the evening and who would come play. Contentment with how the morning's interview had gone. Anticipation of the coming 15 city tour! Amazement at how things have grown and evolved over time. Gratitude for everyone who contributed their thoughts and pictures to the book... surges and surges of astonishment...

The new Hooping book got a mention in this issue of the Minneapolis Star Tribune Newspaper

After a lovely night's stay at the Heathman Hotel in Portland, I started the today early at 4am to get to my first tv show on time - I was met by Joe of KPTV-TV "Good Day Oregon", a super enthusiastic chap who was amped and ready to give hooping his best shot. And he did! By the end of the of the segment he was ripping and roaring two hoops while whooping and hollering. Sweet! It was so nice that he pushed the book right up to the camera at every opportunity. There were 6 separate segments filmed over the course of 2 hours and then I zipped off to the second media opportunity with KATU-TV "AM Northwest". Traffic was tough, but I blazed in just under the wire to hang out in the green room for a moment with another author who wrote a book on knitting, then went into the studio and basically leapt onto stage and away we went with no preparation or discussion. It was great fun. I love being on tv! I am SO lucky to have gotten these wonderful opportunities, to have been able to write this book and to have been sent on tour. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen!

If you live in the area, be sure to join me tonight at 8:30pm at Studio Nia, 918 SW Yamhill in downtown Portland, where I will be doing booksignings. Note that the 7:30pm class is already full with a waiting list. See you then!

What an amazing honor! I was chosen as member of the month for Conscious Dancer's June issue!

Here's what the award said:

"Conscious Dancer directory Member of the Month:
Christabel Zamor, Founder of HoopGirl

Hoopdancer extraordinaire Christabel Zamor, the founder of HoopGirl, has brought the hoop fitness sensation to the masses since 2001. Check out the article "Hoops are Happening" that she co-wrote with fellow HoopGirl instructor Candice Schutter in the new issue of Conscious Dancer. She offers classes and workshops, a busy schedule of show-stopping performances at events around the world, a certified HoopGirl® Workout teacher training program, instructional hoop fitness DVDs, and is the author of a new book called Hooping: A Revolutionary Fitness Program . Learn more about HoopGirl on the Moving Arts Network, Conscious Dancer's global directory of movement and see how she uses our directory to promote her practice. Find out how you can benefit with a listing and become a distribution point for Conscious Dancer magazine. Email deborah@consciousdancer.com"

Dear friends,

I would be sooooooo grateful if you could help.

I'm so proud to say that my book about HOOPING is in stores now!

HOOPING is The One and Only Guidebook to the 21st century's version of the 1950s hula-hooping fad: a hot form of transformational, integrative fitness and dance.

Can you help make HOOPING a bestseller? Spread the joy! Because even more than the many benefits like total body fitness, meditative calm, or amplified libido(!), above all what hooping brings me and so many others, is joy...magic, delight, mirth and laughter. Who doesn't need JOY RIGHT NOW?

Here are 5 easy ways you can help:

1. Buy books.... by Monday June 15 if at all possible. (In your local independent bookstore, or online at Powell's. Buy one for everyone you love, get a jump on your holiday- and special occasion-shopping, because everyone loves HOOPING!

2. Forward this email to everyone you know (and keep forwarding, friends of friends!)

3. If you have a blog, mention HOOPING. If you're on a social network like Facebook or Twitter, post about the HOOPING book. Add a link to the book website, www.hoopingbook.com.

4. Post a review of the book on Amazon, here.

5. Please ask friends in related businesses to buy multiple copies and sell the book themselves! If you own/work/have a strong relationship at a cafe, yoga studio, fitness center, boutique, spiritual center, bookstore, etc, encourage them to sell the book. If you teach hooping, you can sell the book too! Have those interested email for the ordering information.

Thank you for making this dream come true and helping to spread the joy of hooping!

xoxo,
Christabel

The Hooping Book tour continues! It was a spectacular journey to Oregon. Portland is a wonderful city. I love the energy. The creativity, the health consciousness, the way the elements of the earth with trees and the water in streams and rains saturates the air. I love how popular books and coffee are there and I love the craftiness, coziness and welcoming vibes. There is a feeling of deep authenticity for me in this city. Perhaps because I first came that way via the Whirly Girlz, soulful dancing goddesses that they are. Perhaps because I returned so often to visit with Candice, an incredible visionary of change and hope. Perhaps because it is the headquarters of Nia, one of my major influences in movement and in life and spirit. Yay for Portland!

It was so wonderful to teach in Studio Nia and share an introduction to the HoopGirl Workout with the nurturing and skilled hoop community there! An honor to be in such an intentional space and playing with students who value the experiential journey over the move accumulation....

There were 20 women, along with myself and Candice and Sylvia assisting. Lots of familiar faces and many new ones too. I taught a modified Intermediate class where we focused on the emotion of Appreciation while exploring the hoopdance principle of Pleasure. What a delightful combination! We did a freestyle warmup dance to activate the heart and circulatory system, played with Pulsing, learned two versions of Dolphin, Disco and Bullroar, vocalized, did a Body Temple activity and an air element inspired cool down. It was so short! Only 50 minutes... I found myself longing for more time to play.

It felt so good to be "back in the driver's seat" of a class since I have been spending so much time training teachers. It reminded me how easy it can be to get caught up in the business of hooping and pro training... but that both are so distinct from teaching an hour long class. I LOVE TEACHING!!!! It so deeply reminded that it is the medicine which originally brought so much healing and connection into my life as a part of my personal practice. So excited to start teaching again towards the end of this month in my new home town Mill Valley, btw!

Anyways, the class was glowing, smiling, reaching to new edges and expanding into brilliance. I could tell the depth of their presence had been cultivated by the amazing Candice as their primary hoop guide. Neat. Afterwards I did a spontaneous performance to a Tina Maila song, "Surrender", which I love. Then we had booksignings.

I feel my heart expanding while signing books. It really makes me smile and feel so honored that people are excited to read what I think about and have experienced. It is almost like signing copies of my personal journal! I think it is one of the most delicious experiences ever. And I am so grateful to have it! Thank you!

Wow. North Carolina. Humid, sticky, hot and super real hoop flow. Tonight was the first day of the Hoop Path retreat. I am sort of at a loss for words because whenever I hang out with Hoop Pathers, particularly Baxter, I just feel like there is nothing more to be said. It is a sensation of deep meditation, presence and love. I still remember a workshop with Bax which started with us all sitting on the floor, holding a flower blossom and simply taking it in wordlessly. This is how I feel pretty much every moment here. I am just soaking up the beauty. Moment after precious moment.

The evening began for me with some dinner and lots of familiar faces to reconnect with, a wonderful and witty opening from Kimowan and welcoming words from Baxter, and then a flowshow and hoop jam. Baxter is such a brother. Again... where did the words go? The silence seems to have more spaciousness.

I performed a slow heart transmission piece which has been on my mind but has yet to find full expression in rehearsal and choreography and it felt so good to share it... The jam was pulsing, hot and sweaty and felt fantastic. My body felt a rememberance of why it all matters so much. The feeling of surrender in the performance coupled with rocking out was delicious.

SO many wonderful and familiar faces here!!! Hoolamonsters Jessica and Abbey, Firefly Hoops Ann Delinger, Lisa Browning from LA, the Sf peeps~ Joy, Rich, Lauren, Rosie and Khan, the fantastic Spiral, Geoff from Canada, the legendary Brecken, HoopNectar Nyali, and many, many more!

I am honored to be staying with Beth in her wonderful crafty wood home. I adore Beth. Her warmth and beauty are so amazing to behold. Her skills, an inspiration. Erica and Beth showed us their amazing handmade fashions and all the girls tried on skirts and tops and pants, swirling and modeling ruffles and glimmering fabrics while we wound down in the living room and had chocolate.

Somehow I was gifted what looks to be the nicest sleeping place here~ in a castle turret gorgeous wood beamed room filled with guitars and other instruments, lots of windows and a skylight. Crickets are singing, it is pitch black out and awesome warm air is keeping my skin moist. Ah! My Caribbean blood is happy. What a magical life I lead. Thank you!

Yesterday was the first full day at the Hoop Path retreat here in Carrboro, North Carolina. Baxter presented the theme of the event as the Vessel, the Mind and the Mystery. Yesterday was all about cleansing the vessel, the body, as a portal to receive inspiration through challenging drills. Our 2.5 hour class was a "hooper detox" training session where we were all, literally, pouring sweat throughout and afterwards. In San Francisco, the weather doesn't support the body releasing that level of water from the heat. It was almost like Bikram Hooping! This aspect provided such a sense of satisfaction to the practice...

Another day at the Hoop Path retreat.. on the path back to wholeness.

It has been so wonderful. Yesterday's theme was The Mind and Baxter started his class with a mantra, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay" while we hooped blind. The whole theme was about accepting ourselves as we are and releasing the chatter of the mind, comparisons to others, worries about needing to be anything other than we are, etc.

We played with breaks and paddles and the paddling was a nice review for me since I have resisted using them for a long time...

Yesterday was the last day in Carrboro at the Hoop Path. The morning began with the usual wholesome breakfast around the farmhouse kitchen table at Beth's home. Beth has an amazing Craftsman house which she designed with her husband... expansive, lots of neat subdivided rooms for different purposes, full of crafty art projects and good vibes. Surrounded by a meadow, a pasture with a goat and mini pony, chickens, trees and a magical "barn"/dance studio. Nyali, Brecken, Katherine, Michelle, Suprise, Beth and I nibbled toasted olive bread slathered with coconut oil, sliced avocado and ground salt, munched mangos and other fruits and sipped teas before launching off for the day.

The workshop with Baxter was wildly different than any other...

This Friday I will be doing the bulk of my national radio Hooping book tour! I have included information below about what times I will be on which shows (all are in Eastern Time). I will post additional interview times as they happen.

I have to admit, the idea of being on the phone from 3:30am until 12:30 noon in 28 non-stop, back-to-back interviews is pretty amazing. This is the most ambitious media challenge I have undertaken to date. Wish me luck, send loads of good energy, tune in and call in to the show near you! I'll be broadcasting sparkling, joyous hoop love! Also, if you have a specific hoop topic you want me to talk about in my interviews, please leave a comment on my blog and I will address it.

xoxo
Christabel

7:10-7:20AM XM SIRIUS RADIO MARTHA STEWART LIVING RADIO MORNING LIVING WITH KIM AND BETSY!

7:20-7:30AM STATE COLLEGE, PA WOWY-FM MORNING SHOW WITH MARK!

7:30-7:40AM RALEIGH-DURHAM WCBQ/WHNC-AM MORNING SHOW WITH ALVIN (This is being taped to air later...)

7:40-7:50AM STATE COLLEGE, PA WBHV-FM (hooping contest will be going on outside station) MORNING SHOW WITH ERICA

7:50-8:00AM NEW YORK WCBS-AM NEWS FEATURE WITH TOM

8:10-8:20AM BOSTON WMJX-FM MORNING MAGIC WITH MIKE

8:20-8:30AM NEW YORK-LONG ISLAND WLIU-FM-NPR IN THE MORNING WITH BONNIE

8:30-8:40AM NATIONAL ALL STAR RADIO NETWORK MY NEXT GUEST WITH RIK (This is being taped to air later...)

8:40-8:50AM LOS ANGELES TO LAS VEGAS KHWY/KRXV/KHYZ-FM MORNING SHOW WITH CORY

8:50-9:00AM BOSTON WORC-FM MORNING SHOW WITH ADAM (This is being taped to air later...)

9:00-9:10AM HARRISBURG & CENTRAL PA WQXA-FM PEOPLE'S MORNING SHOW WITH EARL, NIPSEY & JEN

9:10-9:20AM SAN ANTONIO WOAI-AM FIRST NEWS WITH CHARLIE

9:20-9:30AM SOUTHERN NJ also reaches NYC and PHILADELPHIA WOBM-FM THE OCEAN COUNTRY BREAKFAST SHOW SHAWN & SUE LIVE

9:30-9:40AM PHILADELPHIA WNUW-FM THE MORNING SHOW & WEBSITE GLENN & JENN (This is being taped to air later...)

9:40-9:50AM REGIONAL OHIO, WEST VIRGINIA & KENTUCKY WRVC-AM VIEWPOINT WITH JEAN (This is being taped to air later...)

9:50-10:00AM FT MYERS-NAPLES WWGR-FM MORNING SHOW VAL & SCOTT (This is being taped to air later...)

10:00-10:10AM SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA KKUP-AM MORNING SHOW WITH MARIO (This is being taped to air later...)

10:10-10:20AM MEMPHIS WREC-AM MORNING NEWS WITH DEBBY (This is being taped to air later...)

10:30-10:40AM CINCINNATI WAKW-FM MORNING SHOW WITH BARBARA (This is being taped to air later...)

11:15-11:30AM ST. LOUIS KTRS-AM MORNING SHOW VICTORIA (This is being taped to air later...)

11:30AM-12:00PM BOSTON WZLX-FM COMMON GROUND WITH KIMBERLEY (This is being taped to air later...)

12:10-12:20PM REGIONAL ILLINOIS WLPO/WAJK/WKOT-AM MIDDAY SHOW WITH LOU ANNE (This is being taped to air later...)

1:00-1:15PM SEATTLE KOMO-AM LIFEBEAT WITH KRISTIN (This is being taped to air later...)

1:30-2:00PM SACRAMENTO KSAC/KAHI-AM POP OFF RADIO SHOW WITH MARY JANE (This is being taped to air later...)

2:15-2:30PM REGIONAL IOWA & NEBRASKA KMA-AM MIDDAY SHOW WITH TIM

3:00-3:10PM DENVER KBPI-FM AFTERNOON DRIVE WITH UNCLE NASTY & MATT (This is being taped to air later...)

Please click here to vote by Tuesday June 30 at 5pm!

If you love HoopGirl classes and products, please vote in the following categories of the Bay Area Guardian's Best of the Bay Competition! With your help, we've won "Best Personal Trainer" 3 years in a row. Let's make it 4!

Best Personal Trainer Christabel Zamor of HoopGirl.com

Join me at Movement Play! I have been added as a presenter at this fabulous festival. I will be facilitating a soul-full collage making workshop ~ create textural art representing the essence of your dance practice to amplify focus and intention! Additional information is below.

The Movement Play "micro-festival" is next week, and tickets are only on sale until July 4th! Only 30 tickets remain for this incredible 4 day music and dance event happening July 9th-12th! Ecstatic Dance, all types of movement workshops, organic food, and a stunning setting make this event one of the most nourishing festivals of the summer. Music: Beats Antique, Tropo, Dragonfly, Neptune, and BombGoddess. Performances and classes by: Jill Parker, Deb Rubin, Hoopalicious, Christabel Zamor (HoopGirl), Miss Rosie (Hero Hoops), Rich Porter (Isopop), Glittergirl (Temple Of Poi), Aaron Jessup, Tyler Blank, Donna Carroll, The Shamanic Cheerleaders, Brian O'Connell, Jamie Luv, Diane Waye, Philippe & Paget, and more! Vending by Melodia Designs and Miss Rosie's Hoop Couture... Join Us! Tickets are $299 for 4 days with all food included! No day passes available. 18 and over, no pets allowed. www.MovementPlay.com