Our class posse: Danielle from Colorado, Courtney from Canada, Estafania from Ecuador, Chantel from Ohio, Julie from Palo Alto, Julie from Utah, Morgan from Nevada, and Jessica from Mill Valley along with JennaLuna and Jenny assisting from the Allstars. A diverse mix of interests, abilities and dance styles!
The training took place at HoopGirl's new Mill Valley Studio... the Masonic Lodge. An amazing space for hooping and performance with great wood floors and a fantastic stage with a shining disco ball to boot!
The first day held lots of excitement and elation for all as the girls took the stage in front of an audience at least 4 times for performances which challenged them to pay increasing attention to certain key stage skills, after which we provided feedback and guidance. They were constantly challenged to step up to the art of improvisation by dancing to music which they were not accustomed to and learning new skills on the spot.
The second day, the energy soared even higher as each woman came into her own and honed her own skills with poise, presence and increasing precision. Again, each woman took the stage many times, focusing on more and more skills at once while dancing to new songs. We also had a 2 hour make-up workshop and later, a trunk show at my house by Annieland which turned into a little dance party! SO much fun.
Day three was emotional, as awareness of having to return home to "reality" happened and group work was introduced which suddenly created a new dynamic of negotiation and co-operation which brought up challenges. All sense of time seemed to disappear and suddenly it was time to go home when it felt like we could go on for days more.
A few especially fun exercises from the training included applying the Mayan concept of natural time to picking up the hoop when it fell, stepping into various emotional states while performing and embodying the message in a randomly drawn tarot card in a stage performance.
We all got to witness the performance style of each dancer evolve and become more confident and powerful. Each one began taking risks, making more profound statements through their hoopdance and interacting with the audience more and more.
I feel inspired to add to the 70 page manual even further with additional topics of interest which arose during the training. So much to share in such a small amount of time! I am also motivated to re-shape the schedule so that the whole focus of the performance training is solo skills. While it was amazing to watch the girls produce group shows with cohesion in a two hour focus shop Sunday, I realize after the fact that it took the personal growth and transformative focus which we had been building outside of each girl and introduced new dynamics which are way too complex to address in such a short time. In short, group performance needs to be an entirely different training on an as requested basis.
I'm also inspired to refine the method by which even more articulate feedback will emerge from each attendee so each performer can receive the maximum information about their shows. There is a fine line between speaking in a fluffy and universally nice, "ra-ra everyone's great" way, and a direct and precise way which clearly says what didn't work, and then balancing that with the personal growth which is also happening. A wonderful opportunity to make a good training even greater!
I am filled with awe and inspiration. I literally had a hard time getting to sleep Saturday night because I was so excited for Sunday! And Sunday night all I could do was think about how the event went and how to make it even better... So grateful to all the women who attended! And I am super excited to share the training again in it's next evolved state!