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Hoopologie Ambassador
Nicole
Nicole
Goss
TheePlaybae · @blackgurlhoopin
Chicago, Illinois
"Play is important — even for adults. The hoop activated my body, my mind, and showed me that it's the small things in life that connect us."
01
Play Enthusiast. Flow Artist. Teacher.
Nicole Goss — known online as Blackgurlhoopin and on stage as TheePlaybae — is a multi-prop flow arts performer, teacher, and lifelong advocate for the power of play. Her work lives at the intersection of movement, joy, confidence-building, and community.
Before she ever picked up a hoop, Nicole spent years as a reproductive rights activist, working with sex education coalitions and nonprofit organizations fighting for people's autonomy over their reproductive health. Today, when she's not performing or teaching flow arts, she works as a Professional Nanny — helping raise children who, in her words, "grow into adults that don't suck."
02
How it Started
Nicole was raised in Chicago, Illinois — moving throughout the city with her mother, a single parent of five. Most of her childhood was spent on the Southside. As an adult, she moved North for work, and it was there, at her local YMCA, that a hula hoop changed everything.
After a Zumba class, an instructor called out: "Hula hoop class this Thursday, come back!" Nicole's daughter was instantly on board. They returned — and Nicole was terrible. She couldn't keep the hoop up at all. A woman with giant hoops walked over and handed her one. Her daughter's coaching followed: "Mom, I can't have you out here looking like that." It worked.
"I left that class sweaty, feeling happy and accomplished — so much that I went home and started researching what happens to your body when you hula hoop."
She discovered that hooping is equivalent to a treadmill workout, fights anxiety and depression, can relieve menstrual cramps, and boosts mood. Within weeks she was hooping with her daughter, her sister, her aunt, her brothers — and strangers on the street. She took to Instagram as @blackgurlhoopin and the journey that led to the Play Enthusiast you see today was underway.
03
Mission & Community
Nicole's mission is clear: to inspire people from all walks of life — and especially people who look like her — to discover the joy, wellness, and community that hooping and play can bring.
"What I value most about the hoop community is that even though we hoop for different reasons and our paths are different, we are still on the same journey. We are able to relate and find joy in our differences."
"Just like the hoop is connected and begins the same place it ends, so do we — everything begins and ends with how we think and act within ourselves and others."
04
What's Next
Nicole is actively training to attempt a Guinness World Record for bun hooping — and plans to pursue further records beyond that. She is growing in her hoop and play journey every single day.
Her exploration of play continues to expand into different props, movement forms, and new ways of bringing people into the circle. The hoop was the beginning — not the ceiling.
05
Props & Teaching
Nicole is a multi-prop flow artist whose practice spans a wide range of movement and wellness disciplines:
- Hula Hoop (all styles)
- Multi-prop flow arts
- Bun hooping
- Hoop wellness
- Dance & movement
- Confidence coaching
Nicole currently offers one-on-one beginner hoop wellness and dance classes online — welcoming hoopers of all levels into her world of play, movement, and joy.