Do you ever watch a video of yourself and go “what is my hand doing”? This has been something I’ve worked on throughout my hoop journey and will likely always have to put energy towards. Often times it’s easy for us to forget about our other hand, the on that isn’t holding a hoop. What do we do with this hand? What can we do? Below is an inspiration video to get us started on some ideas.
Here are a few ideas on what we can do to create different movements, shapes of lines with our hands while hoop dancing. For one, you might wear relatively heavy/large bracelets that keep reminding you of using your hands.
Imagine you’re moving your hands through water or better yet, syrup. Feel the resistance. It makes you move your hands with more purpose and intent.
Imagine there’s a ball of energy in each hand. If you’re feeling sad, keep the balls turned towards you, shield them from the world, hold them up a little so they can catch the light and cheer up. If you’re happy, show them off, maybe toss them up in the air and catch them, hold them out so that they can fill the whole room with light.
Think of words or activities (like water, picking strawberries, sunshine, slinky, lantern, laughter, aardvark) and then of ways to make them with your hands. It doesn’t have to be recognisable, as long as you come up with some new idea!
Watch the empty space between your hands. What shapes can you make, how about “pulling about” the space, squashing it, stroking it?
And last but not least, look at videos of all kinds of different dance forms and try to learn a thing or two. Keep purpose in your hands and be aware of what you do with them!! Have fun and relax!
And remember sometimes to just dance without a hoop or sit down on a chair so you can dance only with your arms. Explore what you can do with those arms!
This video inspired me to start working on hand and finger movements. Her movements are pretty subtle but make a huge impact, love this! Enjoy Nicole from Cherry Hoops doing her best Bond Girl impression!