Wednesday night at Hoop Lounge I did a first run of a new act that I plan to take up to Tohoku next month to entertain kids who were affected by last year’s earthquake and tsunami. I’ll be going up with Guy Totaro and the Smile Ambassador program, a part of the Tyler Foundation’s children’s charities.
I have been wanting to bring more character into my hooping, and this is a great chance. In some of the Tohoku shows, I’ll be the “lovely assistant” and this routine will be my “solo” in the larger comedy show. This act is more physical theatre than hooping, though it requires the hoop to work.
I have no training in physical theatre so I struggled to figure out how to work emotion and a storyline into my hooping. I watched a lot of videos, pulled faces in the mirror to discover my range of expressions, and every time I practiced the routine, I found a new way to refine the storyline. I know I will be performing this routine many times and learning more about it each time I do.
The performance on Wednesday wasn’t perfect but it was fun. The audience laughed and that was encouraging. I got positive and helpful feedback from friends; thank you all so much for boosting my confidence and also giving me some things to work on.
And most helpful of all, I can see the act myself. Trine captured video of both Hoop Lounge performances that night – first mine, then a gorgeous LED choreography from Kana, who always wows the audience with her grace. We made a good show of opposites.
