My First Performance at PlayThink

This weekend was PlayThink Movement Festival and it was amazing.  Fairies, love and movement abounded everywhere.  This was also my first performance.

I want to walk you through it.  My song was New Kids on the Block "Remix."  So I walked onto stage acting all scared, nervous, wall flower, etc.  I was dressed in an ugly outfit.  As the music started and I started my pantomime, I thought, "I'm glad I'm supposed to act all nervous and stuff.  Cause I am!"  My heart was beating like a drum.  I love to speak in public but hooping in front of hoopers....most much better than me...was terrifying.  A random speech is something that isn't abstract.  But art is so much more raw.  Something that people can either connect to or otherwise.  I was scared I'd drop the hoop, no one would understand my story or more.  I "tripped" over the off LED hoop in front of me.  I turned it on and started.  Once the hoop was in my hands, my worries dissipated slowly.   The big part of my performance was transforming into a confident, sexy lady.  Which involved removing the ugly dress and sweater.  Have you ever removed clothes while hooping? It can be hard!

 There was still that nagging in the back of my head but I just tried to feel the music and move.  I hadn't practiced or hooped in weeks due to a new tattoo.  But I had been telling myself just to do my thing.  Nothing super fancy at least.  I dropped the hoop multiple times and parts of my costume fell off in the middle of it (a hair bow I borrowed).  My palm spins weren't as fast as I usually can get them.  I remember the entire time that I was dancing around that I can't step on this girl's hair bow.  Afterwards, I was gulping down water so fast and my heart was racing.  My lungs were burning and I couldn't get my breath fast enough.  I did try to give it my all.

Someone asked me how did it went?  I'm not really sure because I'm my worst critic.  I don't know what the audience thought overall.    And I am hoping someone will post a better version of this soon!  Half of my PlayThink friends missed it!

Although I do have video of my performance, it is very dark.  You can't really see much.  But here it is:

Here was my home test which you can see much better in my very messy living room (I made home tests of every version of performance I was thinking of and showed two people for their input.  These were people that I trusted to give me feedback that this was worthy to perform.  One was a veteran hooper and the other was a baby hooper):

In the next few days, I'll post more about PlayThink.  I honestly can't right now.  In the last week, so much crap has happened to me that I just need more space.