Horning's
Hideout
The String Cheese Incident
The Big She-Bang
July 28, 2007
Horning's was such a rich and fun
experience. Looking back after a week, some
of the sparkle has faded, but all of the fun and
connecting times are still being absorbed.
I went not really knowing what to expect, and found
myself smiling at what I received while
there. First there were the peacocks
wandering the land, looking beautiful and sounding
like cats crying in the night, then there were
smiling people, bodies of water, and open
air.
We spent the first day at a brief rehearsal,
getting the gist of how things would go down.
It was exciting to learn of all the things they
planned to unveil on Saturday evening for the big
She-Bang! I realized then that we were part
of something larger, a vision that was way beyond
anything us whirlies could do on our own. We
have all yearned for co-creations like this, and
here we were doing it!
The second day's rehearsal was more involved.
We worked out the kinks in the technical aspects of
our show, which required a little skill. We
had to push buttons on a dangling rope of lights,
while hooping and looking graceful. It seemed
like an easy task, but we soon discovered we had to
put our minds to it to make it work. We were
roaring in laughter much of the time as each of us
tried to navigate into the arena of grace.
For a while we were stuck in awkwardness.
That's one of the things that is so great about the
whirlyGirlz - all the laughter!!! We have
plenty of that!
Then that night we ate, rested, and started to get
ready. Glitter, hair, makeup - this is one of
our favorite parts. Getting ready with
girlfriends for a show is such fun! There is
a quiet that descends as we focus, and then there
are little bursts - do you have eyelash glue?
how does this look? where's my water?, and on
like that. It is somehow very comforting and
exciting at the same time.
We headed down to the venue, which was rocking with
thousands of people by that point. We went
backstage and got our bearings, and not too long
afterwards we heard "it's time to go
whirlyGirlz!" Then we rushed out onto the
field with our hoops unlit, feeling the largeness
of the space, the energy of the crowd. I
think we all love the hugeness of a crowds like
this. In many ways it's easier than a crowd
of 20. We grabbed the light ropes after some
struggle with the wind, and lit everything up and
hooped away. It was a rush of fun and
exhilaration as the hoops spun around. We
were only out for a couple of minutes, then the
crowd was let in to dance amongst all of us
performers. We put our hoops away and became
part of the crowd, dancing hard and long to some
really great music.
Whew!!! Then we just couldn't go to bed, so
went all around the hideout hooping it up. We
had some memorable moments that night, and the next
day as well. That was our workshop, which was
so well attended we ran out of hoops. There
were probably about 50 or 60 people there.
How fantastic to have so many hoopers in one place,
all absorbing and learning new things. That
was one of the high points - sharing the love of
hoop with others. It somehow brought
performing into balance by being of service to the
community. I found that very fulfilling, and
hope to do it again at another
festival.
Jasmine