Yoga means to yolk, or unite.  Hoop Yoga is a true yolking of two cultural practices that seeks to celebrate appreciate these roots.  The storytelling and symbolic nature of Native American Hoop Dance meets the modern day Asana Yoga practice on the mat. Hoop Yoga offers a 3-step approach in method and re-evaluates form & technique. I. "ChakravalAyasan" or wheel-circle-pose: Learning each pose and meaning/interpretation ​ II. Vinyasa, or Storylines: Stringing postures together to learn our Basic Storylines to become better acquainted with this practice. ​ III. Self-expression: Pick and choose a handful of poses from the 30+ ChakravalAyasan to thread a meaningful story of your own. ​ Style​ Hoop Yoga as taught by Pippa Dorfman of Sacred in the Round in northern Vermont, is a unique experience and offers a creative way to explore a Yoga practice and sacred Self-expression. Pippa is currently in the edit stage of her tutorial DVD that was filmed and captured by aspiring cinematographer, Elias Gillen. While this practice is a healing experience for those who practice it, we would also like to train other Yoga teachers to instruct this specific hoop-assisted style of asana practice, so contact us to let us know you are interested in a training. ​ Home Studio Sacred in the Round 16 Iris Lane, Jeffersonville, VT 05464, US (802) 323-9555 sacredintheround@gmail.com ​ Previous workshops:  Stepping Stone Yoga Studio Frendly Gathering, VT Vermont Dance Fest Yoga Studios in Chico, CA  Mountain Yoga, Ororville, CA Rise Yoga, Chico, CA Jenke Arts Studio Space, Burlington VT Dharma Door Retreat Center, Underhill VT West Branch Yoga Studio, Stowe VT Johnson Yoga Center, Johnson VT Laughing River, Burlington VT Jeffersonville & Fairfield community centers Cambridge Elementary & Wolcott Elementary Schools, Vermont ​ Created at Sacred in the Round in 2011, this style of Yoga is Pippa's most unique offering as a Yoga teacher.  Working intimately with her hoop dance and her Yoga practice, both as a form of meditation and as a means of positive self-transformation, she developed Hoop Yoga, the expressive power of symbolism and form. ​ Though there have been many different forms of hoop-assisted asana practices emerging in the modern world of hoop dance meets Yoga, Pippa's offering is unique in that Sacred in the Round: Hoop Yoga empowers and challenges the practitioner by adding the dynamic of a wooden hoop, the "sacred circle", to asana practice in order to remind us that our new Yoga prop is here for support, transition, growth and expansion, and, this practice offers the art of storytelling influenced by the Native American hoop dance culture. While we do not by any means seek to appropriate or take these sacred cultural practices as our own, we do appreciate the physical art form of storytelling that is portrayed in NAHD. The major similarity when merging these ideas of storytelling with hoops and Hoop Yoga as taught by Sacred in the Round, is that many of the forms created with body and hoop(s) portray somehow the Natural world. The major differences between the two practices are that in Hoop Yoga we use one hoop as a constant prop while in NAHD they typically use many; we stick with a slow meditative flow whereas in NAHD culture their movements tend to be fast-paced and quick-to-form. ​ Technique: In our form of Hoop Yoga* we bring our awareness to graceful movement in postures and fluid transitions as the breath guides us.  To find stillness in motion, the emphasis is on holding postures then opening in more fluid ways.  In this offering of Hoop Yoga*, however, we refrain from spinning the hoop as we see in modern day hoop dance, and some other forms of hoop-assisted asana, techniques.  Ultimately the hoop does not spin around our body without our guided control so that we may focus more intently on the meditative and empowering quality this particular practice offers us.  The idea is to honor our traditional Yoga practices while utilizing the hoop as a support and challenge. The flow of yoga postures, a.k.a. vinyasa, is accompanied by the hoop as a constant prop.  It is a way to inspire your asana practice and offer contemplation on the concept of the circle as a symbol for the encompassing Universe and the Universe within. ​ ​