Symoné

Bio: Symoné is a professional hula hoop artist and instructor based in the U.K. from Washington D.C., most known for integrating multiple skills together, such as rollerskating with multiple hula hoops (from 3 to 30 at a time) and hoops with various club dance styles. Hula hooping was her first love, but she continues to learn other skills and perform between circus and live art shows. Her favourite expression is, "you can be a masterpiece and a work in progress at the same time".

1. Tell us your roots - where were you born and raised?

I was born in Virginia, USA, but because my family worked for the Embassy I grew up in different countries, mainly in Europe/UK.

2. Why hooping? How did your journey begin?

I'm self-taught hoop artist and started experimenting with circus skills while involved in the underground party scene. I vividly remember the moment I saw hooping for the first time. I was at a forest party and I walked up to the DJ booth and saw two women hula hooping and I thought, "Wow, I've never seen anyone manipulate an object with their body with an object so gracefully". It was so surreal to me and I knew I had to learn. I spent my first year playing with a hoop from Toys'R'US (I know, shameful) and learning hoop tutorials from Youtube. Lisa Lottie and Tiana Zoumer were the first hoopers that inspired me to see the potential hoop dance has. I found hooping empowering, so I became addicted. I was going through depression and hooping was a method of healing. A year later, I moved to London for University. While there, I auditioned to be in a hoop performance troupe and got in, so that second year of hooping I started circus style hooping and performing professionally which is so wild to think about. My first show was at the London King's Cross Torch Relay for the Olympics in 2012 - again so wild! In 2016, I was doing a degree in Anthropology and in my second semester I was invited to do my first international solo show for Machel Montano and OMI (the artist that sings "Cheerleader"), in the Caribbean. I had to decide in a matter of days if I wanted to stay in university that year or go on tour, and I chose the latter. I started my solo performing career and never looked back.

3. What has the hoop taught you about life?

Three biggies:

a) There is no end point to learning and "I can't" no longer should exist in your vocabulary.
b) No limits, just endless possibilities.
c) You can fall in love with an activity and make it your full time job (and be sustainable) if you want to.

4. What's next? How is your hoop life evolving?

I'm currently developing a live art and circus theatre production, called UTOPIAN. It's been so far an 18 month process and I look forward to continuing this year developing it. Using the hula hoop in a number of inventive ways is one aspect of the show I'm largely exploring during this developmental period. I'm also working on two world records (I'm keeping the titles a secret for now) with hula hoops. I've been spending time training these in preparation to attempt them later in 2020. Then overall I'm continuously advancing my hoop journey - teaching, finding ways to recreate new movement with the hoop and integrating it with my other skills :)

5. What aspect of the hoop community do you value the most and what do you hope to contribute to the future of hooping?

I love how there is a unified passion all over the world and how eager people are to share with other hoopers. There are so many different styles and it's exciting to see how inventive everyone is getting with how to use this object, I'm constantly mesmerised!