Hula hooping at the roller derby

Sometimes I don't know how I get involved with things. Hula-hooping at halftime at the North Star Roller girls, however, was not one of those times. I agreed and planned to be a part of the halftime entertainment at the North Star Roller Girl's Bout 2 "Lei'd Out on the Track." It was a luau themed bout, so of course they needed hula dancers (real ones) and hula-hoopers (mainly real ones and then there was me.)

I got involved with this magical event, through a friend who is a very accomplished hooper, she was organizing the halftime hula hoop dance party and needed more hoopers. As someone who is always up for a chance to do something weird, I said yes, even though my hooping skills have not developed past grade 1 (even though I started hooping two years ago). She said it didn't matter how good I was, they just wanted fun people on the track. Well, I can do that. Oh, she added, and dress for a luau. That I can do!

I spend most of yesterday planning my luau outfit instead of sharpening my hooping skills. I also took a lot of time to apply bronzer to my legs and even longer removing most of it when I got overzealous and ended up looking like a third place Olympic medal on my knees. I even wore giant fish earrings, I had two lei (I don't know the plural if lei. Leis? Leies? Leix? Leia?), and a bikini with a scarf wrap. I as so ready for this.

Cleaning up at the MCAD Art Sale

Since this was a dance party, the audience was invited to hoop on the track with us. So extra hoops were needed. Fortunately, yesterday was the last day of the MCAD art sale, where I had hoops for sale. I swooped by the end of the sale and grabbed my unsold hoops and was ready to spin crazy at the Minneapolis Convention Center (where the derby girls skate).

A North Star Roller Girl Bout is part sport, part biker bar and all parts party. Instead of warming up and practicing for halftime, I did what any hipster would do and took photos (This is incorrect, a hipster would Instagram instead of take photos.).


 Like this:

Look at how fast they are going! Zooom!

We also learned it is important not to spill your beer on the track. It is dangerous to the skaters (also a party foul). If you do spill beer, you have to get the attention of Moppa Mia and she will come and clean it up. I bet she will make fun of you too, this is an event that has Jeerleaders, so they aren't going to coddle you.

This next photo is of Laura. She's the one in the middle, this one is also blurry because of how fast she is going. Watch out!












When I wasn't watching the bout, I was taking other pictures. Still not practicing my limited hooping skills. I posed and took this photo:

Which I think is awesome because the roof of the convention center is circular and Laura (not derby Laura, hooper Laura) was hooping beneath it. Yeah, I win the photography award of the year.

Notice I am still not practicing my hooping.

Halftime finally happened and it as a total dance-o-rama! Dudes and duddetes flooded the track, LED hoops were lit, children were running around and Elvss gave me a high five and a compliment. I swtiched between perfroming the two tricks I knew to pretending to invent new moves to being a hostess when total newbies eagerly approached the track. I found that if I set them up with the basics, they thought I was an expert!

And my clothes stayed on! (I was worried my bikini would become untied because of all of the hooping, not because I have a tendency to rip my clothes off in public. [hmm...there might be proof that disagrees with this statement]).

So that was performing at halftime at the roller derby.

Now to go practice my hooping tricks.