DoYouRemember.com names Hoola Monsters one of the best companies for hoop dance classes in the country!
Who can forget the feeling of accomplishment one has after successfully spinning a hula hoop for the first time? For many, this was a childhood achievement akin to riding a bike without training wheels or going for a spin on new roller skates without crashing onto the pavement. Fast-forward several decades, and now grownups can get in on the retro craze as hula hooping has graduated from playtime to exercise. The newish fitness fad, which counts Kelly Osbourne and Catherine Zeta-Jones among its circle of fans, promises to tone, tighten and help people slim down.
Bummer! They took the story off of their site – but we were happy to be featured.
Read moreABC’s “The List” talks with Hoola Monster’s Abby Albaum about World Hoop Day 2012.
TAMPA, FL – The good old-fashioned hula hoop has made a comeback, and now it’s being employed, not only as a good work-out tool, but also a means of self-expression. Abby Albaum owns Hoola Monsters, Inc., the first full-service hoop company in the area. Abby designs handmade custom professional hoops, she has a performance troop which works parties and festivals, and she offers sessions where you can learn the art of hoop dancing and get fit, too…
Read morePublished in the Saint Petersburg Times
Abby Albaum’s climb up the corporate ladder began with a global public relations job in New York and ended with a Hula Hoop lesson in Tampa Bay.
“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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Featured in Skirt! Magazine
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.
Read morePublished in the Miami Herald
Hula hoops and art — an unconventional pairing of the silly and the serious — were the life of Miami Art Museum’s “Party on the Plaza” at the Cultural Center in downtown Miami Thursday night.
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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