Often the very best place to hoop (where there is 20,000 watts of bass, or in your own home) does not afford you the luxury of unlimited space. There may be drunk people on all sides of you, or your furniture. Topping my list of qualifications that make a venue hosting live music excellent is space, both floor space and ceiling height. I got rid of my coffee table and most of my furniture a long time ago. Even with these considerations, I often find myself hooping in four square feet of space (or less).
There are so many moves and combos you can pull off on a crowded dance floor, or in your trailer. I recommend drilling these tricks, so that when the time comes (i.e., winter) you can still have an ample supply of motions to flow with. You want to think about all the moves you do that keep the hoop on your body, or close to it.
#1. Core hooping on the waist, chest and knees. This is your bread and butter for confined space hooping. Duck out, duck in. Get low with it. Breaks and paddles. One legged hooping. Moving the hoop up and down your body without using your hands. Play with your foot work, and use your arms expressively. I'd say 50% of my time in small space hooping is spent with the hoop on my body.
#2. Vertical torso hooping on the chest and waist. This type of movement is amazing to dance with, and also looks very impressive. It takes a while to learn, so that's probably why.
#3. The vortex. Continuous vortex, one-handed vortex, vortex breaks, vortex from the knees. If the space you're in has a high ceiling but you're hemmed in by people, vortex pizza toss.
#4. Isolations. With each hand individually, in both directions. With both hands. Vertical linear isolations. Ghosting. You can usually ghost-pop above your head unless the ceiling is really low. In that case, angle it above your head and to the side. Pushing and pulling isolations that occur directly in front of your body in short wave format. Drive the bus. Arcing. Bouncing. Body spin isos. If you get right up next to the stage or a wall you might be able to do horizontal linear cat-eye isolations.
#5. The smear. Smear for days. Smear in between all these other tricks. Smear to change planes. Add sustained spinning to your smear for the gyroscope globe effect.
#6. The escalator. Escalator up, escalator down. Catch your failed body hooping and turn it into an escalator. Pause for drama with the beat drop and whip that thang.
#6. Chest rolls and back rolls. If you're in the club, migrate to the front or back row, against a wall if possible. If space is really limited, perform these from a stop. You can even do half chest rolls from flow which require very little space (provided you catch it).
#7. Coin Toss. What, you can do a toss in the club? I use this one all the time. It is visually effective to have the hoop airbound in a small space. People will wonder how you became a ninja. By practicing the coin toss until you have it so tight, you can get a few full hands-free rotations happening directly in front of your body.
#8. Step-Throughs. With the hoop spinning forwards, with the hoop spinning backwards. Continually, or just one to change sides or punctuate how awesome you are. From an isolation, you can lower the hoop, do a step-through, break it to reverse direction, spin around, and isolate on the other side. Step-throughs and isolations are best buds when hooping in the club.
#9. Elbow hooping and passing. In front of your body, or behind the back. Vertically, or horizontally, in the bunny ear style. Forearm in, forearm out can be a great addition to your dancing.
#10. Shoulder duckouts. On the horizontal and vertical plane. The vertical ones are so much easier to do when you're nice and sweaty, which is bound to happen when hooping in the club in your sexy, skin-exposing outfit.
TIPS FOR CLUB HOOPING
The best time to hoop in the club is as soon as the dj starts. This is usually between 9 pm and 11 pm. Dance floors take a while to get going. Most people don't like to be the first one dancing so it takes a few confident souls and usually a certain amount of alcohol consumption before the dance floor fills up. THIS IS YOUR TIME TO HOOP. You have your own private dj and lighting, and all the space you could want. Once a few people start dancing, the lemming effect takes hold in the group consciousness and your available space to hoop dance rapidly diminishes. You can always reserve your four sqaure feet of space in the back corner, unless the club is at or over capacity, in which case it is polite to put your hoop away. At that point you might as well join in on the sardine dance.
Have an LED hoop. This is going to save you so much trouble. Drunk people are far less likely to walk into your hoop if it's brightly lit. And if they do, well, LEDs are heavy, so it will teach them to watch where they are going. A hoop is a great personal space enforcer in an alcohol saturated environment, which is usually also where the best live music can be found.
Share the love! Make friends! You will inevitably have to take a break, because confined space hooping is work. I guarantee you there have been girls or boys watching you with longing, wishing they could play with your LED hoop to this amazing music. Maybe they didn't think club hooping was possible until they saw you. Find these people if they are too shy to approach you and let them rock it out while you drink water and catch your breath.