My Story

I bought my first adult sized hula hoop back in 2016 after being inspired by a video I saw online.  I can't remember what video it was, because that moment of motivation only lasted a couple of weeks, before the hoop was abandoned into storage. 

It wasn't until a cold winter's night, three years later (Nov 2019), where I was with my friend Tracey and we were discussing doing a hobby together.  It was then, that I remembered my hoop and got it out for a play. We had such a laugh and we started to watch some videos online and decided to start learning together. 

We booked our first workshop in London with Project Hoop and See Ying Yip.  We were lucky to attend that workshop because soon after the Covid pandemic hit and we were in lockdown. During this time, I took many online classes and workshops as well as entering Instagram competitions and won a few prizes.  I also won the over 40's beginners category of the World Hula Hoop Championships, which was such a big hoop achievement as I had to create my own 3 minute choreo.  Since then I have completed two hula hoop teacher training courses to give me all the valuable tools to teach.

Tracey came up with our name 'Hoopsea Hoopers' and once lockdown was over, we started our first hoop class in Folkestone in September 2021!  Since then Tracey has moved away and I have continued to teach classes as well as provided hoop entertainment to 8 local festivals this summer (2022).

Prior to finding my love for hooping, I was a single mother to my amazing daughter and worked as an IT teacher and Assessor. Bored of IT, but still with a passion for teaching, I changed careers and joined the fitness industry where I taught Zumba to adults, Zumbatomic to children and chair based Zumba to the elderly.  I also gained qualifications to teach Pilates, Exercise to Music and GP Referral Exercise, as well as gaining a L3 diploma in Holistic Massage.  

I always had a passion for dance, but didn't have the confidence to take classes until I turned 30 and started training in Latin Jazz and Samba and soon after joined a performance troupe.   I also performed in the Olympics closing ceremony 2012.  I then went on to train and perform in Belly Dancing and qualified in Suhaila and Jamila level 1 Belly Dance.  

They say you always meet like minded people when you are following your true path and I did! I met amazing friends through dance and also my partner with whom I have two more children with.

I'm so glad I had the opportunity to try different forms of dance before finally finding my true passion in hula hooping.  My journey has given me so many experiences that help me in putting together performance pieces as well as planning my classes so that they are fun, easy to follow, varied and inclusive. I absolutely love to hoop and want to share my passion with whoever wants to join me!

 

Original Hoopsea Hoopers: Laigh & Tracey

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