It’s Monday night. At the top of a flight of dark stairs, in a typical 1900-something San Francisco building, eight women form a circle on the floor, under the vast ceiling of a dance studio. Each one sits inside her own sparkling circle. From an aerial view they must look like sacred geometry.

These are the HoopGirl Allstars, a sassy, sultry troupe of Bay Area hoopdancers who have in common their devotion to (hula-)hooping and their willingness to Play in public. They are no Rockettes: Each Allstar has her own distinct style and way of interacting with her hoop…

Satise moves like a doe you’ve surprised in the woods, only occasionally touching the ground between her lightning leaps. Nanette communes with Spirit, before seamlessly switching into thrumming high gear. Annie grooves and flirts and pops in hot electric funkyness. Jess radiates joy and teases sensual arcs from the music. And regal, powerful Christabel—HoopGirl herself, Troupe founder—she spins one irresistable dervish web around her, enthralling everyone watching.

In August 2007, the Troupe expanded to include Natasha, Claudia, myself(!), and Frankie, who is the first-ever male Hoopgirl Allstar.

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The Allstars fuse theatrical world dance and gritty urban moves with exhilarating hooping, using LED, prism, and fire hoops that fly on and off our bodies, around legs, arms and torsos, and catapult in elaborate flips, tosses, jumps and rolls.

Like the whirlyGirlz in Portland, GrooveHoops of New York, or other hoopdance performance groups springing up all over the place, the Allstars perform at premieres, nightclubs, and corporate and private events, large and small. We can be hired as solo dancers, in duos and trios, or as a full troupe. Because hooping is such a taxing aerobic workout, sets are offered in lightning increments of five minutes per dancer. The Allstars can also provide hooping instruction at events.

In fact, most of the Allstars double as teachers for HoopGirl®, the company that Christabel founded in 2001 to spread the joy of hooping by offering classes, instructional DVDs, and adult hoops for sale. (I don’t.) Christabel’s story of creating an exploding business from her passion for hooping is an inspiration to many. Meanwhile, the world headquarters of the internationally-active company was until just recently still based inside her home, and her husband and her mother play key roles in the business.

Christabel is effervescent and zealous in describing the vision of Hoopgirl®. “Inside a hoop,” she says, “you can get to a place of bliss. For that precious moment you feel so centered, connected and perfect in every way. By teaching and performing hoopdance, we want to motivate others to discover that gem in themselves, that awareness of perfection, and learn to protect it from fading into the mundane distractions of the everyday world.”

Allstar Annie is one of those who have been inspired to follow Christabel’s entrepreneurial lead. Annie is the mastermind behind most of the Allstar troupe’s magical, electrifying costumes. Hooping poses particular challenges to clothing design, with most existing dance performance wear made of materials that are too slippery to grab the hoop. Annie and her newly launched house of fashion, Annieland, were recently featured in Craft magazine.

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Back in the dance studio on any given Monday night, the Allstars rise from the circle after having checked in with each other about everyone’s state of mind. Someone turns the music up and the hoopers begin freestyle hooping in order to warm up their bodies, moving from mellow waist and upper arm hooping into leaps and step-throughs, tosses and breaks. Occasionally, although not often, a hoop clatters to the floorboards, an intimately familiar sound that breaks no one’s concentration except for that of the hoop’s handler.

For half of the remaining hour plus, the Allstars drill moves in sets of at least twenty or until we can’t go any more, depending on the move’s level of complexity. In the second half we take turns performing one at a time, swirling and bowing and arching and stomping in pace with the music. We close by offering each other critiques about what worked and what didn’t, and appreciation.

In sacred geometry the nature of forms and their relationship to one another provides insight into the scientific, philosophical, psychological, aesthetic, and mystical laws of the universe.

You could call that the aspiration of the Allstars, right there.