Hoop / Lyra
Improver Hoop 
/ with Polina Shapkina (2024)
Skilled Hoop Lab
/ with Polina Shapkina (2024)
Evoke your essence on the aerial hoop
A workshop for the curious.
For those who love beautiful shapes and slick choreography but are ready to reach beyond it. Let’s explore the alchemy of expression. What is it you want to say? How do want to say it? If making work for an audience, what do you want them to feel?
In the lab, I invite you to:
Play with impulses and see where they take you.
Look at exercises to uncover different flavours of movement to your favourite hoop choreo.
Experiment with embodiment of character archetypes, opening the door for aerial storytelling.
This exploration is perfect for:
Those who feel they have a fluent grasp of their apparatus, a broad vocabulary of sequences but crave discovery of their personal style.
Those who feel confident in their personal style but want to discover other personalities.
Those who are excited to dedicate time developing and/or enhancing their performance and aerial theatre skills.
Please bring a notebook and if you have in ear headphones they’re great too! If you are taking the class and don’t have in-ear headphones let me know asap I might have a set or two spare.
The prerequisites are:
A broad vocabulary of hoop repertoire.
A strong confidence on the apparatus.
Hold stamina to execute at least 3 minutes of material in the air.
Looking forward to exploring together!
Skilled Hoop
/ with Jenna Ciotta (2024)
Static Hoop: Snaking, Rolling, and Dropping Like It’s Hot
This course is ideal for anyone with bar experience (hoop or trapeze) who has focused on shapes and spin but has shied away from dynamic skills. We will discuss the basics of generating and utilizing momentum from a variety of positions in order to create the potential for safe, consistent release skills, and dynamic movement. We will work progressions for skills such as: elbow circles, pop to back balance, penny drops (knee beat release to standing), and more upon request and based on collective skill level. We’ll also explore snaking/sneaking/rolling pathways on the hoop- pathways that encourage constant, circular movement of the body around a static hoop. Not every student will be offered the opportunity to try every skill, but everyone will walk away with a clear, progressive training path towards any of the skills we train.
In the interest of safety, you will not be allowed to participate in this course without the following prerequisites:
- feel comfortable in single knee hangs on both sides
- be able to invert under the bar multiple times in a row without tagging feet
- hang comfortably from one arm for ~10 seconds on each side
Advanced Hoop
/ with Jenna Ciotta (2024)
This course is for the accomplished hoop artist who has a great level of comfort on the bar, but isn’t sure how to approach training for large, dynamic skills. We will discuss beat theory and how to generate momentum from various hanging positions, including some less common positions (ankle hang beats, anyone?). We will work progressions for skills such as elbow circles and inlocates, cutaways, casting from bottom bar to top, knee beat half-twist to hand catch, and more upon request and based on collective skill level. We’ll also explore snaking/sneaking/rolling pathways on the hoop- pathways that encourage constant, circular movement of the body around a static hoop. Not every student will be offered the opportunity to try every skill, but everyone will walk away with a clear, progressive training path towards any of the skills we train.
In the interest of safety, you will not be allowed to participate in this course without the following prerequisites:
- have some familiarity with basic beats, including knee beats and beats from hanging
- be able to invert under the bar with straight arms without tagging feet
- a minimum of 2 good pullups
Hoop Lab
/ with Aisling Ní Cheallaigh (2024)
Welcome to the dizziest class at the IADF (well, maybe apart from spiral!). If you don’t like to spin then please scroll by now! If you love to spin and spiral through the air then have your antiemetics and join me for an exploration of spinning choreography. This class will be a mixture of choreography rep from my own work as well as choreography generation and creation. Together we will explore ways to find and encourage our own movement and pathways in the hoop. This class is for intermediate students who have a strong hoop practice and are ready to find their own voice and movement style.
Note: This is not a technique class, Aisling won’t be demonstrating.
Prerequisites:
1 – 3 mins of choreography (a string of tricks or sequences together) while spinning.
Please include an entry into the hoop while spinning fast
Hoop Lab
/ with Aisling Ní Cheallaigh (2024)
Welcome to the dizziest class at the IADF (well, maybe apart from spiral!). If you don’t like to spin then please scroll by now! If you love to spin and spiral through the air then have your antiemetics and join me for an exploration of spinning choreography. This class will be a mixture of choreography rep from my own work as well as choreography generation and creation. Together we will explore ways to find and encourage our own movement and pathways in the hoop. This class is for advanced students who have a strong hoop practice and are ready to find their own voice and movement style.
Note: This is not a technique class, Aisling won’t be demonstrating.
Prerequisites:
1 – 3 mins of choreography (a string of tricks or sequences together) while spinning.
Please include an entry into the hoop while spinning fast
Group Hoop (2 weeks – Perform July 27th)
/ with Rachel Strickland (2024)
“Taking up hoop together is good for the soul!” We will conceptualize, choreograph, and create a group hoop piece together over the two weeks to likely show on the final night. If you’ve been itching to create in a collaborative environment with other like minded hoopers, you’ve come to the right place.
While you will certainly learn from the choreographies of your peers in this class, learning tricks is not the focus of this session. Rather we’ll be exercising our muscles of creativity and collaboration, benefitting from the whole group’s brains as we create a piece of work together from the viscera of our lizard brains.
Video submissions are required for admission. Participants should be at a high level, and be comfortable with fast spins, flares, single knee hangs, and be able to do 3 pull ups from a dead hang without riding the struggle bus. This is not because I need you to do lavishly difficult choreography (I don’t), but to ensure all participants are at a similar strength level so all can operate together safely.
Note: This is not a technique class, Rachel will not be getting on a hoop. Two week class, you must attend both weeks. The group will ~probably~ perform on Saturday 27th.