How hoops create happiness: MyFoxTAMPABAY.com

“Kacey Douglas, a traveling nurse, showed me how to hoop,” said Albaum, 31. “I was totally inspired, but two months later, she moved away. It was the summer of 2007. I had a million questions, but no one to teach me.”

Albaum turned to the Internet to learn twirls, jumps and spins. She searched for other hoopers and found them at Treasure Island Beach Drum Circle gatherings. While she worked in marketing full time for a Sarasota restaurant company, she made and sold hoops on weekends at the Saturday Morning Market in St. Petersburg.  Before long, word spread: Albaum was the go-to person for the scoop on hoops.
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It may come as a surprise that hooping wasn’t a favorite childhood activity for Hoola Monsters founder and lead instructor Abby Albaum. In fact, she says it wasn’t until she was 27 years old that she picked up her first hoop.

“I saw my friend Kacey hooping and was mesmerized that it had evolved into this gorgeous performance art, movement meditation practice and form of holistic health and well-being,” says the Florida native.

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Outdoors, under a clear night sky, MAM patrons and other guests were treated to drinks, DJ music, a documentary called The Hooping Life projected onto a wall, and performances by the Hoola Monsters, a troupe that excels at twirling toy hoops around waists, limbs and necks.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Flash back with me to the days of pigtails and velcro tennis shoes. I’m pretty sure that’s the last time I picked up a hula hoop, and it didn’t go well.  So I ask you, if I couldn’t handle those elementary school hoop-offs, what made me think I’d be any better at the highly evolved hula hoop dance art?  Here in the Bay Area, there’s a group known as the Hoola Monsters , helping even the most grace-challenged folks like me find the fluidity and (dare I say) beauty in hula hooping.

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Abby Albaum leads a class in hoop dancing at Sunken Gardens last week. “Part of the joy in hoop dance is to lose yourself in the moment and experience ‘flow,’” she said.

Albaum and members of her dance company, Hoola Monsters, teach introductory, intermediate and advanced hoop dancing classes at dance studios and recreation centers throughout the bay area.

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In the 1950s, Hula Hoops became all the rage. Today, Hooping has reemerged and is quickly becoming more popular than ever as a form of exercise and art.

Abby Albaum is the founder of Hoola Monsters, a company dedicated to the art of Hoop Dance. According to the Hoola Monsters website, Hoop dance is often described as a meditative healing art. While there’s no doubt that it’s great for fitness, the “rocking in a cradle” soothing sensation provided by the hoop also helps to calm the mind…
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Abby Albaum is a 29-year-old hooper who is the owner of Hoola Monsters, based in St. Petersburg, Florida.  A Marketing Manager by day, on nights and weekends it’s all about her hoop life. 

“I was living in downtown St. Petersburg at the time and I became good friends with a girl named Kacey Douglas who moved to the neighborhood from South Carolina. She was a traveling nurse who took a few months off to attend music festivals and sell her hand-made hoops. I had never seen hoop dancing before and I actually made my first hoop before I ever even tried it.”  Having been impacted by hooping prior to ever even trying it, it made an even bigger impression on this woman with a history of depression once she did. How? Find out more as we interview Abby Albaum, our Hooper of the Week!
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