The Hooping Life Documentary comes to Courtenay!

The Hooping Life Documentary is coming to Courtenay!

It's a film about community.  It's a film about living your dream.

“You will see masters of the hula-hoop like you’ve never seen before. The sensation is back!”- Shaquille O’Neal

  THE HOOPING LIFE, a feature-length documentary that invites you into the making of a cultural phenomenon that unabashedly loves something silly, will be premiering Sat. May 5, 2012 at 7 pm at the Courtenay Museum and Archives, hosted by Island Hula Hoopla and presented by this community-culture-loving-festival, Elevate The Arts.

This unique film screening will also feature HoopDance performances by Jenny Hoopnosis (Campbell River), Chelsea Rae (Courtenay) and Island Hula Hoopla (Comox Valley).  Admission is free, with donations being gratefully accepted to cover the film licensing fees.
Much like breakdancing and skateboarding, the modern-day hula-hooping subculture brings people together.“Hoopers” i.e. someone who lives to hula-hoop, have brought hooping to rough neighborhoods giving kids a chance at being kids; they practice hoop meditation to lift depression;  and fire-hoop to heal trauma.
Whether it is Karis who brings hooping to the runway, or HoopGirl who spearheads a  fitness trend, each hooper risks it all to make a life they are passionate about. And it pays off twofold. Eight hoopers over eight years, from Johannesburg to South Central, transgendered to southern Methodist, create a hooping movement that’s vibrant, edgy and infectious.
Hooper Shaquille O’Neal and 50s hoop-maker Art Linkletter introduce these interconnected stories.
“In THE HOOPING LIFE, real life is more fantastic than anything I could have scripted,” says veteran Producer-Director Amy Goldstein. “If something invigorates your soul, you’ve got to give it your all. Many hoopers are surviving these times as hopeful entrepreneurs, teachers and performers with a more colorful life that they ever imagined. THE HOOPING LIFE is an entrepreneur’s guide to happiness.”

Read The Province's article about how our community comes together to share our passion for the arts in the day-long culture crawl, Elevate The Arts.

Check out The Comox Valley Echo's article, about Elevate The Arts, which calls it a "Dynamic grassroots cultural uprising" , April 27 2012.

And on April 10 2012, this article in the Comox Valley Echo calls Elevate The Arts "a celebration of all things weird and wonderful"!