Plans for the upcoming Sacred Circularities Hoop Dance and Movement Meditation Retreat in Sedona are well underway! We're excited for the chance to meet local hoop and dance community, take some awesome photos and get pumped up by the beautiful energy here! The Good Stuff: Anah Reichenbach, Beth Lavinder, Jocelyn Gordon, Julia Hartsell, Khan Wong and Rainbow Michael will be sharing hoop warrior magic. Jane Carleton will be bringing the Dream space to our Sedona experience and Jaguar Mary will be guiding a Divine Sound Playspace. Jeff Botticelli will provide cacao elixirs for heart-opening and love expansion. Plus, stay in Sedona longer and become certified as a HoopYogini™ instructor during a teacher training with Jocelyn Gordon immediately following the SC retreat! It's all happening at the gorgeous Sedona Mago retreat center. This experience will jump start your entire being! Come play! Early-bird specials happening now! p.s. We just sent out our latest newsletter! Sign-up and check it out!
 Michelle Nayeli taught an amazing synthesis of hoop dance and Vinyasa yoga at the fourth Sacred Circularities Hoop Dance and Movement Meditation Retreat in Bali, Aprll 2013. Check out these two great flow sequences from her retreat workshop! We're also excited that Michelle will be teaching at next year's retreat in Bali! If Bali is too far, come to Sedona, Arizona to the first Sacred Circularities retreat in the U.S. It's going to be amazing! Get more information about the SC Sedona retreat!
April 16th, two days before my 29th birthday, I left Los Angeles to embark on a magical journey to Bali, Indonesia where the land is green, the water is warm, and the people are pure. What started off as a two week trip to celebrate my birthday and participate in a week long hula hoop retreat, ended up being a month long discovery of this amazing land and her people. Arriving Bali April 17th, I got picked up from the airport by a local Balinese friend and driven an hour to the magical art village of Ubud. In this town you will find street after street filled with wooden sculptures, beautiful statues, local art work, numerous seamstress and tailor shops, raw, vegan and organic cafe's, yoga and retreat villa's along with an abundance of coconuts, temples and tons of monkeys scampering all about! The first week I stayed in a beautiful retreat center called Ananda Cottages where Sacred Circularities is hosted every year! Sacred circularities is a three week retreat based on movement, activation for the mind, body, soul and, of course, hoops! I was fortunate to be invited for the third week of the retreat and I was honored to be the official blogger! You can find daily blog post and detailed information about the retreat on www.sacredcircularities.com The seven days were filled with morning yoga classes taught by Shakti Sunfire, NIA Dance workout guided by Saffire Bouchelion, spiritual discussions and group circles led by Jaime Powell, buffet breakfast's and three hoop workshops a day learning from the best Anah Reichenbach, Ann Humphreys, Brecken Rivara, Gail O'Brien, Ashley Jones, Malcolm Stuart, Michelle Nayeli, and Skylar Mallas-Darby. The dance party didn't stop there.... after dinner every night there was either a spin jam, kirtan circle or ecstatic dance. I never danced so much in my life. Sacred Circularities was phenomenal and thank you so much to Jaguar Mary for hosting such a wonderful heart filled event! I am excited and already looking forward to next year! After hooping for a week, I decided to extend my stay in Bali and really tap into the local community and explore this beautiful island. I headed south to a beach town called Bingin Beach South of Uluwatu which is famous for it's pristine sands and great surf. My friend Lotus was renting a house steps from the sand and with one killer view! It was a perfect two days of surf and sun! I even attempted to surf and hula hoop at the same time, which was pretty successful and I had some great laughs with all the locals! Not to mention some amazing seafood while dinning on the sand! A few days later I returned to Ubud and spent my last two weeks in Bali diving deep into an unexpected business adventure. I collaborated with local clothes, jewelry and leather designers creating custom pieces for myself along with original designed to sell here in the states, I totally went into full production mode and now have so much gear I can open a store! I will be vending at festivals, local trunk shows, and on my website www.TammyFireFly.com and soon on Etsy! Besides working and waiting for product production, I spend most nights in ceremony or at a dance jam. From cacao ceremonies, to kirtan jams, and five element dances I seriously danced so much in a way of enlightenment and guided trance dances. It was a powerful experience and a great way for self expression and release. Before every dance, we sat in a circle releasing what is not serving us and calling it what we want to dance for. Using dance as a healing tool! A highlight of this whole journey was the day a few friends and I took 40set of poi and tons of toys, games and face paint to a village school an hour outside Ubud. We spent hours singing, dancing, spinning, drumming and painting each others faces! It was magical to see the smiles and joy in the young balinese children. It inspires me to continue to reach out to children around the world and bring joy into there lives through circus arts! The weekend before I left, a group of us of around 20 people decide to jump aboard and head to the Gilli Islands for a weekend of R&R, snorkeling, sun bathing, bright orange sunsets, yummy foods and of course plenty hooping and playing! We chartered a boat, snorkeled around the island, swam with turtles and neon colored fish. The Gilli's are known for it's coral reefs and great diving! Back in Ubud I extended my flight another few days.. Way to much to do before leaving. Shopping and gathering last minute items, running around to all the tailors and seamstress picking up last minute gear, meetings with the jeweler organizing luggage and saying my goodbyes. Finally Thursday came, my last night in Bali, I decided to hike a volcano to watch the sunrise, say my goodbyes, and leave my offerings. The shuttle picked me up outside my guest house around two AM, we drove an hour, hiked for two hours, watched the sunrise for an hour and hiked another two hours back. I arrived back to my guest house at 10am right in time to grab my luggage and meet another cab driver and take me to the airport! It was a perfect ending to this magic carpet ride around Bali and the islands. Feeling blessed and uplifted from the month long journey. I thank my life, thank my friends, and thank my family. So much yumminess around the world and momma Bali, you will always stay close to my heart! I will see you next year and will return for more of your sweet nectar! Check out photos of this journey! Abundance of Love, Tammy FireFly www.TammyFireFly.comwww.facebook.com/TammyFireFlywww.youtube.com/user/TammyFireFly/videos
Follow Sacred Circularities on Facebook & Instagram.Begin your Spirit-Infused Hoop Practice Journey at our upcoming retreat in Sedona, Arizona in the United States! Find out more about this 6-day immersion into hoop dance, movement meditation, inner alchemy tools and fantastic community!
Skylar illuminates her Sacred Circularities Bali 2013 Experience!What is Sacred Circularities? Sacred Circularities has been a deep and profound recalibration for my hooping practice as well as my spirituality. It was an opportunity to completely drop in and let go of outside baggage that may hinder me from stepping into my highest version of myself. SC holds a container of sacred support for which I felt held to show up in my true, authentic, vulnerable, raw real and radiant self. SC Bali provided an amazing opportunity for me to take my healing and hooping to the next level through participating in all of the amazing workshops, and going to and being surrounded by the powerful energy centers and temples and ceremonies in Bali.Highlights from your SC Bali 2013 Experience:- I had a beautiful breakthrough facilitating the twins workshop with Ashley this year, and that is, we all have something powerful and profound to share with others, especially when we are coming from a place of humility and authenticity from our heart. This is the medicine people will receive and that will stick with them in the long run...not so much what hoop tricks or technique they were taught, but rather, how they experienced and felt about themselves. It was a humble honor and I bow to everyone that took our class and held us in support. I Iearned so much from everyone there.
- SC was an amazing opportunity to build community and deepen friendships and soul hoop family. I feel more connected to my hoop tribe than ever and truly can not wait for next year to continue to deepen into the expansive awareness we are all gaining through this mirror we are holding for one another. OH,...so much more than a hoop retreat. My spirit is filled, my heart bursting and ecstatic and inspired to go home and share and spread this sweet & profound feeling. MAHALO SC FAMILY!!!!!!!
What are you "taking home" from your Sacred Circularities experience?I am taking home new inspiration in its truest form. I am so excited to create and dance and expand my practice, my hoop community and myself. How do you stay inspired with your hoop practice? I stay inspired by pushing my edges, trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone. I also love to be around other inspired hoopers and take workshops because I am always learning and I see the unlimited potential that this sacred circle holds for me to step into in all aspects of my life. I like to use my hooping practice as a metaphor for my spiritual state and as my Blissometer. If I am not happy, or feeling in a rut, I am probably not hooping enough!What would you say to your 70 year old hooping self? "WOW, you look so healthy and vibrant and your aura is beaming. You are so grounded and connected yet light and free."What would this 70 year old hooper say to you?"Hooping keeps me YOUNG, centered and HAPPPPPPPPPPPPY!"Learn more about Skylar:www.soulfireproductions.comFacebook - Hoop Dance Hawaii Facebook - Soul Fire ProductionsTwitter
Jaguar Mary decompresses during a practice flow after three amazing weeks at the Sacred Circularities Hoop Dance and Movement Meditation Retreat in Bali. She's currently organizing another retreat gathering to help people connect with the healing power of hoop dance in Sedona, Arizona this October. You're invited. The music is "Fossil Fuel" by Ex-Friendly. Download his album. The hoop is a 5/8" outer diameter, 35" Quad (four sections) poly-pro hoop by Trinity Starr. Follow Sacred Circularities on Facebook & Instagram.Begin your Spirit-Infused Hoop Practice Journey at our upcoming retreat in Sedona, Arizona in the United States! Find out more about this 6-day immersion into hoop dance, movement meditation, inner alchemy tools and fantastic community!
Ann Humphreys illuminates her Sacred Circularities Bali 2013 Experience!What is Sacred Circularities? Ann: Sacred Circularities is a hoopdance and movement retreat that takes place every year at the Ananda Cottages in Ubud, Bali (and soon, twice yearly--Ubud in the spring and Sedona, Arizona in the fall). Movement artist and visionary Jaguar Mary is the organizing force behind this one-of-a-kind event. Using her superpowers of discernment and utter calm, she chooses four hoopdance instructors, as well as a handful of other pioneering facilitators--among them practitioners yoga, dreamwork, ecstatic dance, Nia, and ThetaHealing® --who bring the freshest ideas in hoopdance and meditative movement to attendees from all over world. It is a singularly special event, drawing inspiration from its unique setting--a land of unmatched beauty and mystery.
Highlights from your SC Bali 2013 Experience:- At Sacred Circularities, I experienced a truly astonishing and totally unexpected healing of my right ankle, which had been arrested in its range of motion and clicking unremittingly for six months. I had received traditional Western physical therapy for this injury, which was cumulative but had a sudden onset about two months before a major dance performance. I had been practicing the stretches and exercises from this rehab for the last five months--I even brought my rehab bands to Bali. One of the attendees, an osteopath, massaged my ankle one night, which felt great but left it still clicking. The next afternoon, there was a guided Five Elements dance with Malaika, a Canadian woman who designed this distinctive ecstatic dance experience. In that workshop, I felt a force enter my body that was truly beyond comprehension or explanation. In the dance, surrounded by a community of women, my body lifted itself from the floor without effort, like a dream of flying. I opened from the center out, a physical unraveling that began as soon as the dance started and continued, totally effortlessly, throughout the 90-minute movement meditation. The leaping, bouncing, and shaking felt intensely good, but I had no idea of the effect it was having on my ankle. It wasn't until the next afternoon, as I was walking up some stairs on the way back to my room, that I realized--the click was gone. Totally...gone. And it hasn't come back.
- I have been surprised and delighted by how much my friendships with my fellow facilitators and returning attendees have deepened. We spinners meet in different corners of the world, often only for a few days, but what we share is so rare and special we end up bonding in profound ways. I'm so powerfully inspired by my colleagues as movers and as friends, it endlessly amazes me.
- I found many new shapes with my hoop taking class with my dear hoop bro Malcolm Stuart. He's so wildly creative he's like a source of magic. So grateful he was able to come to SC this year.
How do you stay inspired with your hoop practice?Ann: I try to view my practice time primarily as an opportunity---which I know how lucky I am to have--- just to explore the possibilities of my dancing and moving body. Since I was 35 when hooping came into my life, and I already had 8 years of yoga under my belt, I had cultivated some patience, which has helped me a great deal with the transition to hooping in my 40s. I view my practice time as utterly sacred, a precious chance to dance while I still can. I really do. It keeps me humble and keeps me more fully engaged in the present. I also allow myself to be moved and inspired by all the brilliant younguns out there-- Brecken, Nick, Tiana, Gail, Emma-- and always set small, attainable goals of new things I want to try. Shoulder duck-outs, for example, have taken QUITE a while, but after years of dipping my toe (shoulder) in, I'm pretty much there!What are you "taking home" from your Sacred Circularities experience? Ann: I'm taking home a sense of humility as a movement artist. There is so much to learn from my colleagues, so much to be inspired by--my mind is so expanded. All of the facilitators this year have contributed meaningfully to that. I've never been so impressed by the classes.What would you say to your 70 year old hooping self? Ann: "I hope you're still thanking all the gods and goddesses for Grandmama's athlete genes! Remember how she played soccer with you when she was in her 70s! Share that goodness with the children around you."What would this 70 year old hooper say to you? Ann: "Now aren't you glad you have up alcohol and coffee?!? Way to go! You did, after all, make some good decisions along the way...even your boy-craziness led you to hooping. Trust yourself a bit more."Sacred Circularities: Thank you Ann for expanding us into new territory. You're like our Hooping Astronaut - exploring outer (and inner) space! You illuminate the world! Learn more about Ann:Launching this summer! Sign up now for the mailing list and receive discounts on online classes:www.lineandcircle.com
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Anah "Hoopalicious" Reichenbach illuminates her Sacred Circularities Bali 2013 Experience!What is Sacred Circularities? Anah: Sacred Circularities (SC) is a unique event in the world of hoop retreats. It holds a beautiful space for deep connection with yourself, other hoopers and of course, your hoop. It is a place where all parts of you can be expressed in new ways and you will find yourself growing in unexpected and long lasting ways. It is a place where we are truly all in it together. Instructors and participants alike find themselves transformed and uplifted. SC is my fave event of the year and one I look forward to again as soon as I leave.Highlights from your SC Bali 2013 Experience:- One of my highlights of the week was Christabel's amazing Breath of Bliss journey. It completely turned my inside out (in a good way) and I got a real sense of my purpose and how supported I truly am.
- I also just had such a wonderful time hooping in the beautiful wantilan with everyone and learning some new moves to share on my next stop in Australia. I find myself re-inspired in my hoop practice and walking away with a new solidity in myself and excitement for the next phase of my life!
What are you "taking home" from your Sacred Circularities experience? Anah: I am taking home that we are truly all in this human experience together and there is never any reason to separate yourself from the beauty of connection. What would you say to your 70 year old hooping self? Anah: "Keep rocking it! You will never be as young as you are now!"What would this 70 year old hooper say to you? Anah: "Keep rocking it! You will never be as young as you are now!" ;)Sacred Circularities: Thank you Anah for your Body Rocking inspiration and embodied wisdom! You illuminate the world! Learn more about Anah:www.HoopRevolution.com
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Tammy Firefly shares her journal entry on the last full day of the Bali 2013 Sacred Circularities Retreat ...... Today brings us the last full day of Sacred Circularities. We started the day with Shakti Sunfire's One Love Yoga Class which always leaves me feeling great! Following breakfast was Ann Humphrey's Technique as Meditation: Part Three. Ann offered a deepening class which focused on meditating while exploring fundamentals within the hoop. After lunch was another amazing class taught by Shakti Sunfire ~ One Hoop, One Love: Co-creating Hoop Dance, Movement and Skill. Shakti taught us body rolls, tosses, anti spin variations and lots of fun sequences! I've learned so much in her class and I'm excited to explore these new techniques in my daily practice. Following Shakti's class was a new experience led by Christabel Zamor. She guided us in a three hour breath work ceremony ~ Breath of Bliss™. At first I was a little apprehensive and feeling a bit resistant, but as Christabel guided us in group activities, the tension in my heart relaxed. We started in a circle with a community discussion and Christabel explaining in-depth about breath work and the emotions we may experience. After the discussion, she had us stand and explore different dances, starting with freestyle just to loosen up and settle in our bodies. The next dance was a laughing session where we danced, jumped and laughed for twelve minutes. This led into more laughter which opening into crying. We then reconnected with the circle and experienced a crying ceremony to release built up energy and emotions. For an hour straight, we laid in a circle with our heads facing inwards around a flowered alter, our eyes closed and an inward focus on our breath. Within the hour, lots of shifts, emotions and experiences occurred. I'm not going to go much in depth right now, but I definitely had an awakening. I highly recommend participating in a breath work ceremony if given the opportunity. After breath work, it took a minute to come back into full awareness, but once grounded, we had a great skill share. We played, danced, ate and went over what we learned during the week. It was so much fun to simply play and be with everyone on the last night! The skill share rolled into a group of us going to a party. We took a cab out to the jungle to a beautiful museum where a Russian Psy Trance party, was pretty full on. (Russians definitely know how to party! :) The energy was a bit intense for me but it was fun dancing and stomping around with a bunch of new faces from Goa, Israel and Russia along with some of the Sacred Circularities crew. This was an all night experience ~ a perfect last night cap on the week!  Tammy Firefly is an internationally acclaimed performance artist whose unique and refined style is rooted in modern dance, theatre and circus arts. Inspired by creativity and self expression, with a repertoire ranging from fire dance to aerials and acrobatics, her performances fascinate and entrance viewers with decadent magnificence. In early 2007, Tammy FireFly embarked on her first world tour and has since captivated audiences across Asia, Europe, Australia and North America. Her refined and unique style has been enriched by each stop around the globe, providing new inspiration and creative progression to her diverse range of acts. In addition to performance, Tammy Firefly offers a wealth of experience in teaching technical and performance classes, from private instruction to group workshops. www.tammyfirefly.com
Gail O'Brien illuminates her Sacred Circularities Bali 2013 Experience!What is Sacred Circularities? Gail: Sacred Circularities is a phenomenal in-depth, intimate, all encompassing hoop retreat in Bali. Highlights from your SC Bali 2013 Experience:- Looking out across the rice paddies in the sunshine in my hoop fundamentals class and thinking how lucky we are to be able to gather in such an amazing space to learn. Then looking back at my class and realizing the beginner hoopers were all casually doing anti-spin flowers and isolations like they had been hooping all their lives.
- Swimming in the infinity pool in Ananada in the pouring rain.
What are you "taking home" from your Sacred Circularities experience? Gail: A huge host of new friends, deeper connections with old friends, massive amounts of inspiration, a meditation practice and an addiction to mangosteens (personal best of 11 mangosteens eaten in one day).How do you stay inspired with your hoop practice?Gail: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE, repeat a move til you break it then build something new from the partsWhat would you say to your 70 year old hooping self? Gail: Nice work on the four hoop anti-spin turning rollsWhat would this 70 year old hooper say to you? Gail: Practice more :) Sacred Circularities: Thank you Gail for making the extraordinary accessible! You illuminate the world! Learn more about Gail:www.hoopspin.co.ukFacebookTwitter
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