Patricia Laufer
Patricia Laufer - Connecticut
I love living an easeful life and my hoop helps me do that. It helps me shift my moods, keeps me physically active and inspired, and brings community to me. I am so very grateful to my hoop, my hoop family and my hoop home here at Moodhoops!
In 2013, after 25 years of working at a desk under fluorescent lights, I left the not for profit world in New York City and became a yoga teacher in the Catskill mountains. Many years of study and training followed, after which I was called to work with energy and facilitate group and one-on-one Intuitive Guidance sessions. In my work I communicate with ancestors and spirit guides to see broader perspectives, I witness deeply for others, and I assist people in pivoting their energy around the situations in their lives.
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I am a dancer and I love every opportunity to dance with my favorite partner, my hoop. I am at heart an on body hooper and often play with my big beginner hoop. I also have a Polypro that is big (44 inches) that is fun. My off-body hooping has been focused on single hoop and recently (in the last 6 months) I've incorporated playing with doubles and I am over the moon about how I can catch the beat of a song, especially samba which is my favorite, with two hoops. I am currently a bit obsessed with twin hooping.
Ultimately my passion is creating community and inclusivity. The Hoop Dance Activation project is a great example of that. People feeling included, seen, brought together. When I perform at hoop retreats my very favorite part of the performance is the connection to the audience and more recently, in the past year, my performances have been samba pieces where I invite the community up to dance for the last few minutes of the song. That lights me up!
Sharing my work is very easy in this community because we all get how movement can shift our energy. We have all experienced some form of this shift, in our emotional lives, our physical lives, our mental reality... and on and on. So it's not a big leap to then add intention and words that we want to call into our lives while we are hooping. I love sharing Hoop Dance Activation in the flow community. And I love, love, love that so many of the people featured in the Hoop Dance Activation cards are hoopers!
I love practicing at the beach in Jamaica (I know, very specific) but my husband goes every year for a music festival and I tag along and call it my hoop residency because I just spend the entire time drilling, creating, activating! Feet in the sand and in the water! It is where I am most inspired. So, I've been playing with how to bring that energy to my everyday life (since I do not live on a Caribbean island). Sometimes it's through music, or wearing my Jamaica shirt, or going to the beach...
In 2020, as a response to quarantine, I picked up my first hula hoop. I needed something that was going to keep me sane through what I thought was going to be a month stuck in the house. Moving with this magical plastic circle has become a passion. Once I learned some moves I began to drop words into my life (energy field) as I was hooping. These words (such as Belonging, Trust, Power, Ease) began to infuse my experience and I saw incredible shifts in my perspective and in what was coming towards me. Hoop Dance Activation was born. It has become my favorite and most powerful activation tool. I’ve created the Hoop Dance Activation Oracle card deck to share this tool with the world.
Are you a part of a flow community or flow meet-up? Are there any local flow gatherings near you?
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I am not part of a local flow community yet. I live in a very rural area - one of my dreams is to move somewhere a bit more urban within the next two years - but it's tricky because I still need space and a lot of nature near me. I would LOVE to live in Colorado but I have a 2 year old grandson, Nolan Rhys, who is my heart and where he goes, I go!
The flow community (via video and Instagram) kept me sane during the pandemic and then held space for my re-emergence into the world. It gave me inspiration to create my new body of work, Hoop Dance Activation as a modality for change, and the Hoop Dance Activation Oracle deck as a tool to support whatever shifts we each want to call in.
The flow community is beautiful. People from all walks of life, all ages, all experiences, coming together to dance, move, share, inspire. I see a lot of love and passion in this community and ultimately that energy of love is what will bring more compassion, kindness and care for others into our larger communities. I see the flow community sprinkling love on everyone and everything it touches. I see my role in the world in the same way.
What advice would you give to someone just starting their flow journey? Which tutorials or guiding principles helped you along the way?
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First get yourself a beginner on-body hoop and a 32 inch polypro. DO NOT learn and drill off-body things like hand spins with the beginner dance hoop. I learned that one the hard way and had a wrist injury that took quite a while to heal. Okay that's my public service announcement (hahaha).
I spent my first 3 years hooping in my living room and in parks to Deanne Love's videos. I love her kindness and teaching style. Deanne has two wonderful free video courses for people new to the hoop, a waist hooping tutorial and 10 tricks for total beginners. Then, when I was ready, I took the plunge and treated myself to my first hoop retreat. Hoop retreats are what really brought me into the community and my very favorite is High Altitude Hoop Retreat.