Spiral

Hey there NC friends! I’m delighted to announce that I’m returning once again to perform at Charlotte SHOUT!, Charlotte, North Carolina's annual music and arts festival, with free entry to experience all kinds of arts throughout the beautiful Uptown area.

Catch me spinning smiles with my magical toys in First Ward Park this Friday-Sunday, April 18-20.

I’m looking especially forward to the Hip Hop Celebration at Victoria Yards tomorrow night, starting at 6pm. If you’re out and about in the Queen City, please come say hello!

lovely pics from last year's Charlotte SHOUT! by Patrick Schneider

Hello friends! I’m making a trip back to my home state of North Carolina soon and am delighted to announce that I’ll be starting my visit by performing my signature circus magic at Charlotte, SHOUT! on April 13 & 14, 2024.

Charlotte SHOUT! is a multi-week, immersive arts festival held in Charlotte’s Uptown; showcasing the Queen City's creativity and innovation through art, music, food, and ideas from around the corner and around the world.

You can catch my circus sorcery at the Levine Avenue of the Arts, near the Sonic Runway light installation.

I’ll be closing out the festival with performances on Saturday and Sunday night, April 13-14: Showtimes at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30 pm. 🪄⭕️🌈🌪🪩

Come on by, say hello, and enjoy this lovely, wonderfully curated arts festival in downtown Charlotte ☀️👑✨

photo by the amazing RJ Muna

Those who know me, know that I’m a sentimental fool. I collect and hold on to countless little treasures that hold special memories and meaning for me.

Mementos that are small in size (but large in significance) are practical treasures for one as nomadic as I’ve been over the years. At this point, after moving and traveling so much, I have a few objects I carry with me that have been anchors for my heart for 20 years.

One sentimental thing I’ve been holding on to for nearly as long, that’s always been ‘small’ in size and therefore easy to ‘carry’ along and not let go of, is my first real website as an artist: spiralhoopdance.com

I had one or two (embarrassingly terrible!) versions of this website that I cobbled together before the one you see here. This lovely (albeit stylistically outdated) version of Spiral Hoop Dance was designed by me and built by Adam Apollo back in…2005, (I think?!), and has been online ever since.

I was so proud of this site when we finally got it up, and I always have been. This website represents such a potent and powerful time in my early hoop dance journey; artistically, professionally, aesthetically, and spiritually.

During those early years, I was experiencing hoop dance as a somatic healing modality for the first time, and in a very deep way. I was beyond inspired, which led to undertaking a deep dive into researching the connection between dance and divinity, between movement and healing.

I’d discovered yoga in the same month as the hoop, in July of 2001, so the chakra system and associated energetic properties were top of mind.

As I was so drawn to spinning (especially once I took the diameter of my hoops way down in size) and was always able to whirl without end, I eventually learned about whirling dervishes, an order of Sufis sect and their spinning sema ritual, which led me to discover the incredibly beautiful, poignant poetry of their founder, Rumi.

I was eager to share the healing and transformative power that I was experiencing with the hoop with as many people as possible. I was on a mission to inspire and spread the magic of the hoop as far and wide as possible.

I’d chosen my artist name, Spiral, in May of 2004 (back when hoopers all chose ‘stage names’ ;), based on the helical trails I saw in photos from my first time ever fire hooping. The choice of that powerful name turned out to be revelatory and inspiring in ways I could never have predicted.

Researching all things ‘Spiral’; their pervasive presence in nature from micro to macro; from the structure of DNA to the swirling of the Milky Way, learning about the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Mean; how that ratio was present in so many examples of ancient art, as well as the human body and the growth of plants. It was all mind blowing and life changing for me.

The more I learned about spirals, the more it seemed like proof of Divinity, a cosmic wink of beauty and order amidst an otherwise chaotic Universe, hence the prevalence of them throughout the design of this site.

The photos on the side bar are from my very first photoshoot ever, shot in Studio 1212 in Charlotte, NC by Jim McGuire, who is still a dear friend and occasional creative collaborator. I made them darker and changed them to a more silhouette style, in order to bring focus to the lines of the body and symbolism of the hoops.

The photos in the white dress (one of several flamenco style costumes I bought, the moment I had the inspiration to combine my spinning, whirling, style of hooping with voluminous skirts) were shot by Jim soon after that first shoot, and remain some of my favorite hoop images.

Although it ceased being my main site well over a decade ago, sentimental fool that I am, I just couldn’t bring myself to take it down. That is, until the monthly hosting fee was recently doubled :(

This treasured internet time capsule of mine will be up for a few more days (through December 7), so please do check it out if you’re curious for a glimpse into hoop dance history and aspects of my origin story.

And please let me know if any of y’all remember this site! I know I’ve got some long time hoop friends (on Facebook in particular) who might still remember this bygone, precious era of the early years of hoop dance, and the origin of Spiral 🧬