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For Sara Munro, what comes around goes around. And around and around ... The Joshua Tree resident makes and sells hula hoops, performs with hoops for special events, such as Village Fest in Palm Springs, and teaches others the art of the hoop. One thing first. Stop right now and purge your mind of all preconceived notions you might have of the hula hoop. We're not talking flimsy circles of pink plastic. Things have come a long way since Wham-O launched the fad in the 1950s. The contemporary hoop is a piece of exercise equipment, a meditation tool, a dazzling means of expression. "It seems kind of silly, because it's just a piece of plastic, but hooping really gets to people on a deep level," said Munro, 43. "The circle is so profound. We live in circles. Life is a circle." Munro has found that most people protest the notion of entering the circle at first. "Oh, I can't ... I haven't since I was a kid ..."
But the modern hoop is heavier and more substantial than what you remember from childhood. The heft and the large diameter make the rotation slower, making the hoop easy to use, even for amateurs. "It's a great vehicle for getting people back into their bodies," Munro said. That's because the movement of the hoop is infectious. As it spins, the body effortlessly responds - a swish of the hip here, a swivel of the waist there. The energy builds as the rotation quickens. There is speed, force, velocity. The combination is breathtaking and dramatic. "This is a really easy way to give people a positive experience," Munro said. "When people realize what they can do with their body, it's hugely empowering for them." There's strength in the movement, but also a primal femininity, which can explain hooping's popularity among women. "In everyday life, you can't really move your hips this way, but the hoop requires this kind of movement," Munro said. "It's sensual, but it's also really freeing." Modern hooping was sparked in part by jam band The String Cheese Incident, which began tossing hoops to their fans in the mid-1990s. Now you'll find hoopers wherever music is thumping, from clubs, raves and parties to the Burning Man festival. Munro became entranced by the hoops during a party in the middle of nowhere, where she saw men hooping together on the roof of a house. "It was something that struck me immediately," she said. "There was something about the hoop." Munro learned how the hoop moves, how an extra shimmy can bring the whirling circle from her knees to her neck, then back down again. She discovered how to move the hoop from a horizontal to a vertical axis, on her body, then off again. She mastered the art of swirling with several hoops, like a tornado of plastic. And then she discovered fire. "Honestly, I don't know what inspired me to start hooping with fire," she said. "It was just the natural progression of things, I guess." Before the performances, Munro sprays her clothes and hair with a chemical flame retardant. She clothes herself in tight cottons, or just leaves a lot of bare skin. The hoop is lit from several wicks that protrude from the plastic frame. Once the hoop begins spinning, the flames bleed together as one. "I was much, much more fearful of fire when I began," she said. "Now I have a tremendous respect for it." Munro has the tight, lean body of a performer, the result of years as a figure skater, dancer, gymnast and rock climber. But it is here, inside her hoop, where she feels most at home. "It's something that is not competitive," she said. "It's about my offer of myself in that space at that time." This is inertia at its best. "The hoop is spinning, going around you, so the experience is that of being inside the fire," she said. "It's pretty intense." As Munro writhes inside the blazing circle, the dance becomes as hypnotic for her as it is for the crowd. "To engage an audience from a place so deep within yourself, well -," Munro paused. "That completes the circle." Maggie Downs is a features reporter for The Desert Sun. She can be reached at 778-6435 or maggie.downs@thedesertsun.com. Photo: Michelle Yee, The Desert Sun Sara Munro of Yucca Valley performs with flaming hula hoops at the Yucca Valley Community Center. She also perfoms at Palm Springs Village Fest. Glances: Give it a whirl For more information on hoop dancer Sara Munro, visit www.flamefatale.net. Munro will perform at Palm Springs Village Fest at the Arenas intersection on July 13 and at the Tahquitz Canyon intersection on July 27. She will be selling hoops, dancing and "being a hoop instigator - getting folks to move their hips," she said. History of the Hoop Ancient Greece: The Greeks swing a hoop around the waist for physical fitness. 1400s: "Hooping" becomes popular in England. The British sail to Hawaii and witness hula dancing, then decide to refer to "hooping" as "hula hooping" because of the similar hip actions of the two activities. However, hula hooping is soon banned in England after the practice is blamed for heart attacks and back problems. 1957: Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin, founders of the Wham-O company, are inspired by bamboo hoops used in Australia for exercise and decide to create a "hula hoop" made from a new plastic called Marlex. 1958: Wham-O releases its Hula Hoop. Late 1950s: Japan bans hula hoops because the rotating hip action seems indecent. The Soviet Union bans the hula hoop, calling it an example of the "emptiness of American culture." 1960: Wham-O notches 100 million Hula Hoop sales. The company makes more $45 million in profit, but the fad begins to fade. 1994: "The Hudsucker Proxy," a Coen brothers film starring Paul Newman and Tim Robbins, is released. It does not tell the story of the real history of the hula hoop, but is a fictional account of its invention. May 25, 1999: American Ken Kovach sets the Guinness world record for the most revolutions of a hula hoop while jumping on a trampoline. Oct. 28, 2000: The world record for simultaneous hula hooping is achieved at Chung Cheng Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. A total of 2,290 hula-hoopers keep their hoops going for at least two minutes. June 4, 2005: Australian Kareena Oates sets the Guinness world record for hula hooping the most hoops simultaneously, with 100 hoops at once, sustaining three full revolutions of all 100 hoops. (Twoop.com)
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