Planet Hoop was born in April 2018.
It all began with my desperate need to find a space to dance with my hula hoop during the cold winter months. If you know London, you must be aware of the miserable weather that takes over from November all the way to March or April.
Everything started happening when I decided to access the tools and platforms that were our there for me and everyone else to use: I wrote a post on I love SE4, a Facebook community group and, soon enough, I ended up at an amazing Handstand workshop run by Kitty (now in Brixton, check her out here) upstairs at the Fox and Firkin pub in Ladywell.
Kitty and I were going to chat about finding a space to train together over the winter. Instead, I met one of the pub owners who, before I even asked, offered me the exact space we were in.
I spent January to March hooping every Thursday and even started a Facebook page called Winter Hoopers. I was dragging my friends to this room every week, we used to dance for a couple of hours, have a beer and some food and enjoy some chilled time with each other.
But this had to turn into something bigger and while I was preparing to quit my current job and try something new, my boss said that I should stay and start a real thing. A real HOOP thing. That's all I needed to hear.
I started working on this Hoop Thing immediately and I came up with Planet Hoop really quickly. Planet Hoop has come to life thanks to these tiny but meaningful connections that created and are still developing into a large network of people, passion and circles.
In April 2018, Winter Hoopers turned into Planet Hoop and by August, we had to move the free hula hoop workshops from the Fox and Firkin to the Ladywell Fields park because we simply couldn't fit in the room anymore.
In the last few weeks of August I had about 13-14 people joining me in the park.
I ordered a batch of 10 beautiful dance hoops from Lottie the Hoopmaker.
Things were happening really quickly, so I got the website done, I started putting playlists together and I created and booked in my first Beginners Hula Hoop Course at the Fox and Firkin. 7 people pre-booked the 10-week course.
In October, when the course had already started, I took the Fridays off from my other job in order to dedicate myself to Planet Hoop for longer than just the weekend and I started contacting community centres, studios and church halls in hope to find a FREE or affordable space to hold the free hula hoop workshops again.
After a month's research and wait, the Deptford Lounge got back to me and booked me in for the 10th of December.
It only took a couple of posts on Facebook and Instagram on a grey Friday morning to get this even fully booked, if not slightly over-booked, 3 weeks in advance! :-O
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People want to hula hoop. They want to dance, to play, to engage with the community, to share, to help and to feel good in their bodies and all I want is to enable this, through Planet Hoop.
I want to turn the space around me into a planet where everyone can join, provided that they have a hula hoop in their hand :) Everyone is welcome!
Most of my sessions have limited spaces and they go really fast!
Please subscribe on https://www.planethoop.co.uk/ in order to stay up to date with the MANY future Planet Hoop classes and events.
Alternatively, find me on Instagram or on Planet Hoop Facebook.
I am grateful and in awe at everything that has happened this year. This is still just the beginning of our hoop journey together and I look forward to meeting more and more of you on the dance floor.
Clara xx
Planet Hoop