Bengaluru to groove to first-ever Hoop Jam Party this week

Bengaluru to groove to first-ever Hoop Jam Party this week

Think hula hoops and little girls in pig tails trying to keep brightly coloured hoops circling around their torsos come to mind. Or its the Cirque du Soleil and lithe ladies in sparkly tights defying gravity and the bounds of human anatomy.

It’s not what a regular joe or jane would do for real, right? That’s what Supriya Srivastav thought a couple of years ago after a fun weekend in Goa where she hooped effortlessly for the first time ever.

“I had so much fun with it, I ordered one for myself on the way back, but to my surprise I seemed unable to hoop again,” laughs the Bengaluru-based founder of a marketing agency.

A little bit of research later, Supriya realised there were different sized hoops and she took it up as a hobby. “I soon realised hooping had a lot of benefits — in terms of weight loss as well as a stress buster for the business I was starting. I soon began working out to different songs and adding to my routine.”

Supriya says she eventually morphed from “enthusiast to addict” — a progression she’s now come to recognise in the lives of most hoopers.

Despite its many merits, Supriya noticed there wasn’t much of awareness about hooping; it also carried the stigma of being a circus event. “During the lockdown I started making tutorials on social media as I felt like I had learnt enough to share with others and soon quite a lot of people were taking up hooping. Around the same time Eshna Kutty, the sari hooper, went viral for her videos which boosted the popularity of this activity.”

Supriya says before she realised it, hoopers had become a community and she was a part of it. “I wasn’t part of any community before this and its a wonderful feeling to belong. It’s now been seven years and the Hoop Jam Party is my way of giving back to the community,” adds the flow artist who has introduced concepts such as zula (zumba + hula) and hoop yoga to the exercise form.