Hooplovers

It was never just about the tricks.

You didn't fall in love with a skill. You fell in love with who you are when you're moving.

Are you also feeling nostalgic this week? Like where does the past end, where does now begin, what even is the future? I had a big dream last night, about the origins of my hooping and I woke up in tears. But maybe I will keep that for another post.

As I strolled back from my mail box this morning (a new book had arrived) my mind was fluttering with hooping imagery. Thinking about hooplovers all over the planet, our connection with each other, with the hoop, with our selves.

A question that I often put out into the space struck me again. What if it was never about the tricks? What if every single one of them, the isolations, the on body, the off body stuff that took you months and made you want to throw the hoop across the room, was never actually the point? (all of it fun and challenging though...so absolutely worth it)

What if every moment of it was bringing you back to yourself? What if it is one big spiral path of self discovery?

I think that's the part nobody warns you about when you pick up a hoop for the first time. You think you're learning a skill. A trick. A thing to get good at. And then six months in you realise the hoop's been quietly teaching you something else the whole time.

How you talk to yourself when you drop it. Whether you can stay in your body when something's hard. What it feels like to keep going, slowly, clumsily, on purpose, unpolished. How you celebrate yourself. What regulation feels like for you. Where self soothing resides.

That was never a trick. That was the evolution of self.

I built every ​Hooplovers course​ around that, even when I called it a tutorial. Even when the thumbnail says "learn this move." Underneath every single one is the same actual offer: come find out who you are in your body, with your body, for yourself. The tricks are just the gateway.

​The Solstice Sale's still open​, 50% off everything, no code needed. It ends today. https://learn.hooplovers.tv/pages/solsticesale

If you've been telling yourself you'll start once you're "good enough" or pick up your hoop again once you "feel good" let me gently remind you that it is not a destination that exists somewhere in the future. You get to discover yourself now and come as you are.

​Come find out who you are in there.​ https://learn.hooplovers.tv/pages/solsticesale

Your hoop has been waiting ✨

Your body remembers how to play. Let's rekindle our flow.
Solstice Sale | 50% off everything.
Ends Sunday.
https://learn.hooplovers.tv/pages/solsticesale

"My posture has improved, my neck and back pain has decreased, and I've gained so much strength and flexibility back into my upper body and shoulders. You are an inspiration." — Sweet Cardamom 💛

Next Somatic Dream Circle (live online)
Grab your spot on deannelove.com

Saturday April 25, 2026
11:00am Melbourne, Australia (AEST)

Time zones: (please double-check your location)
Melbourne — 11:00am (AEST)
Auckland — 1:00pm (NZST)
Tokyo — 10:00am (JST)
London — 2:00am (BST)
Berlin — 3:00am (CEST)
New York — 9:00pm Friday April 24 (EDT)
Los Angeles — 6:00pm Friday April 24 (PDT)

Bring: a journal, pen, and any collage treasures you love, scissors, glue, scraps, magazines or simply your words if that’s what you have.

Why?
- remember your dreams more easily
- feel closer to your inner world
- unlock creative insight and imagination
- soften into your animal body

What happens in a dream circle?

We move through three creative phases:

Somatic Arrival

We begin with a gently guided (with voice and music) moving meditation to connect with body and sense to create space for listening.

This helps us to gather close to ourselves and the collective. We shift into a slower, more receptive state.

Dream Contact

We explore a dream, fragment, mood or image through guided writing and somatic inquiry.

You do not need to remember a full dream.

Even a small fragment, emotion or image is enough.

Creative Integration

We give shape to what emerges using journaling, collage, drawing or creative reflection.

This helps the dream move from a fleeting memory into moving mythology

My partner said to me before we left for a party on Saturday night:

"I bet you run into people you know."

I laughed it off. "I don't know anyone up here."

I was wrong.

We were in the Northern Rivers/Bundjalung Nation for a few days visiting friends and family, a little trip away. And it just so happened that one of my favourite parties was on. Nudge Nudge Wink Wink. Back of a pub, surrounded by trees, under the stars, dance floor open to the humid night air, the kind of party where everyone there genuinely loves to move. A banger. One of those nights that reminds you why music and bodies together are essential medicine.

About an hour in, someone comes running at me through the crowd.

An old friend. We've done gigs together. She hired me to teach hooping at events. She was one of the major organisers of The Biggest Hoop Workout on the Gold Coast years back, an event I created, funded by YouTube. I haven't seen her in ages, and she is beaming.

I know immediately that if she's here, another friend is close by. I find her in the bathroom. She is a Hoop Love Coach, a flow friend and as close as family. We are shrieking in that way you do when you find your people somewhere you didn't expect them.

On the way out of the bathroom, a woman in the queue reaches out and touches my arm.

"Are you hooping tonight? I follow you on Instagram."

I give her a cheeky grin and tell her I'm just here to muck around.

I get back on the dance floor. Humid air, driving bass, bodies everywhere. And then off to the side of the stage I notice a little gathering. Poi, a hula hoop, a circle of people leaning in.

A hooper begins to flow.

Trick after trick. The group erupt. She's fluid and free and completely in it. And as I watch her move I start to recognise things. Combinations. Transitions. The particular way she moves from one sequence into the next.

I have taught those. Maybe not to her directly, but I have shared many of these moves that she is captivating us with.

I have stood in a room, or in front of a camera, and broken those exact moves down for someone who didn't know them yet. And somehow, through some invisible chain of sharing and practice and joy, those moves found their way into this woman's body and onto this dance floor on a humid Saturday night in the Northern Rivers.

The hoop gets passed around. The cheers get louder. I am standing there completely mesmerised, feeling something I don't have a perfect word for.

My friend comes up behind me and wraps her arms around me.

"You have taught so many of us," she says. "Reminded us to keep dancing. Keep moving. I am just so grateful."

I do what I always do. I shrug. Play it down.

She gives me a little shake. "No. It is true."

And then she does something I won't forget. She holds up her hands and traces the shape of a tree trunk, branches spreading wide, the gesture of something that has grown far beyond what you can see from the ground.

"You are too humble," she says.

I bounced off into the middle of the dance floor and just... soaked it in. The music, the movement, the warm air, the faces of people completely lost in joy.

This has been my life. This IS my life.

I'm sharing this because I want you to understand something about teaching.

You don't always get to see the branches of the tree you're growing. Most of the time you just show up, share what you love, and trust that it's going somewhere.

And then sometimes, on a Saturday night at the back of a pub, you catch a glimpse of it. And it is more than you ever dared to imagine.

That is what teaching hooping gave me. And it is available to you too.

​Hoop Love Coach Training​ is where it begins. We start together April 20 >> ​ hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc/

Come plant your tree.

okay, but what IS the Hoop Love Coach Training, actually?

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Let's dive in and take a look at exactly what is included. Because I think sometimes when we imagine "doing a training" we picture sitting in front of videos, feeling vaguely overwhelmed. This is not that.

​Hoop Love Coach Training is interactive with 8 modules that take you by the hand and walk you, step by step, from "I love hooping" to "I am ready to lead." https://hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc/

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Module 1 Setting Up for Success - the one hoop teachers come back to again and again, even years after finishing. This is where we get clear on who YOU are as a teacher. Your message, your brand, your unique offering. Not a copy of anyone else. You.

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Module 2 (this one is big) Tricks, Transitions and Technique. Over 100 video lessons that don't just show you the moves, but teach you how to teach them. How to break a trick down so a complete beginner can get it. How to troubleshoot. How to read a room. This is the knowledge that separates a great hooper from a great teacher.

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Module 3 is about Flow - 40 choreography sequences across all levels that you can use in your classes straight away. On your very first day of teaching, you will not be staring at a blank plan. You will have 40 sequences ready to go.

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Module 4 is where it comes together in the room. 8 complete class videos. Everything included: warm-up, tricks, sequences, dance activities, cool-down, and playlists. Actual examples you can learn from and build on. Add your own style, mix and match.

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Module 5 is The Art of Teaching - How to hold space. How to support a room full of people with different capacities, different abilities, different fears. How to make every single person feel seen and supported.

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Module 6 Hoops! - how to make them, price them, and where to sell them.

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Module 7 is Creating Abundance. This is the business module. Pricing, marketing, building a community, creating workshops and retreats, and turning your passion into a genuine income. Real, practical strategy.

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Module 8 is your Resource Library. Done-for-you email templates, class planners, punch cards, workshop plans. Use them as inspiration for your own community or copy and paste.

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When you finish, you receive a certificate of completion. You get listed in the global Hoop Love Coach directory. You get invited to join the Hoop Love Coach community.

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And you have unlimited access to all of it.

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The whole training takes 12 weeks (or longer if you need more space). Most people spend 4–8 hours a week. You go at your own pace but will be guided by me each week. You don't need to be an advanced hooper to begin, you just need a love for this and a desire to share it.

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We start together April 20...all the details are here https://hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc/ , including sign up. You will receive a Preparation Pack and access right away.

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​There are three payment options on the page, including a payment plan, because I want this to be accessible to everyone who's meant to be here. https://hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc/

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If you have any questions, let me know 💕

Yesterday I told you about the woman I was before the hoop. Today I want to tell you about a moment I knew hooping was more than just something I did after school or on the weekends.

There have been many BIG moments in my hooping life and this is one of them.

I'd been hooping for a little while. Enough to begin to feel fluid and free. I was practising in my tiny Tokyo lounge room, classroom or park most evenings after school. Just me and the hoop and whatever music made me feel alive that day. It had become my favourite part of any day. A spinning ritual that was entirely mine.

And then one afternoon, a friend I worked with came to the park with me to hoop. She brought her poi, we had planned to practice together, maybe share some moves.

She didn't say anything for a while. She just watched. And then she said:

"I want to feel what you look like you're feeling right now."

I've thought about that moment so many times since. And I have heard similar desires from so many others over the years.

She didn't want to learn a trick. She didn't want a workout. She wanted to feel what I was feeling. There is a particular combination of freedom and full-body joy that the hoop delivers.

And I realised: I wanted to be able to share that. I wanted everyone to feel what I was feeling when I hooped.

I'm a teacher. I have always been a teacher. I know how to break something down, meet people where they are and walk them toward something new. I'd been doing it for years in a classroom. And suddenly, here was something so precious to me that I wanted to share with others. Something that didn't just fill the mind but filled the whole person.

I taught my friend that afternoon. She unlocked some new hoop movement freedom. She cried a little, actually and laughed at herself for crying. I completely understood and this would be a process I would get to witness in countless others. Watching someone try something they thought they couldn't do and then the wave of joy or emtion when it unlocked for them.

And I thought: I want to do this every day for the rest of my life 🥰

That was the beginning of everything you see now. https://hooplovers.tv/ The classes, parties, performances and workshops. The teacher training. The global community of hoopers who found their way to themselves through a circle (and a really good playlist)

I tell you this because I believe moments like that are available to you too.

Maybe you've already had yours, that flash of knowing that you want to share hooping with others, supporting someone else discover what this feels like.

If that knowing is in you, I'd love to help you act on it.

The next Hoop Love Coach Training begins next week 💕 You can find all the details here https://hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc/

Before all of this, before https://hooplovers.tv/ , before the performances, connections, hooping friends, before all of the workshops, classes, parties and hoop community, there was a version of me that was quietly, persistently unfulfilled.

I was 30. I was a primary school teacher. On paper, I had everything sorted. Stable job, good at what I did, living in the city of my dreams (Tokyo, Japan), ticking the boxes. But inside? I felt like I was waiting for something. I just didn't know what that something was.

I wasn't unhappy exactly. I was... hollow. Like the real version of me hadn't quite shown up yet.

And then, almost by accident in 2007, I picked up a hoop.

I remember it so clearly. I wasn't graceful. I wasn't a natural. The hoop hit the floor over and over again. But something happened in those first few minutes that I can only describe as recognition. Like some part of me went "oh THERE you are".

That feeling didn't go away. It grew.

The hoop became my meditation, my creative outlet, my fitness, my freedom. And slowly, so slowly I almost didn't notice it happening, it became my purpose. I stopped being a teacher who hooped on weekends and after school. I became someone who used everything I knew about teaching to share the most joyful thing I'd ever found.

If you've been following along here for a while, you know what came next. Hooplovers.tv. Classes, workshops, retreats, parties. A global community of hoopers. Tens of thousands of students around the world. A life I genuinely couldn't have imagined when I was standing in that classroom, waiting.

I'm sharing this today because I wonder if any part of my "before" story sounds familiar to you.

Maybe you're not bored exactly. Maybe you're just... ready. Ready for the next thing. Ready to take something you love and do something more meaningful with it.

If hooping has changed something in you the way it changed something in me, and you've ever had even the tiniest whisper of a thought that maybe you could share that with others...

I'd love to invite you to look at the April 2026 Hoop Love Coach Training https://hooplovecoaching.com/

It's where I pour everything I know about teaching, hooping, building community and creating a life around what you love into an online hoop teacher training designed to take you from "I think I want to do this" to actually doing it.

The next round starts April 20. Come and have a look 💛
hooplovecoaching.com

Teach Hula Hoop. Hula Hoop Teacher Training You love hooping. You’ve thought about teaching. Now there’s a path. Hoop Love Coach Training is the most comprehensive, heart-filled online certification available. Designed to take you from “I’m not sure I’m ready” to leading classes, building community, and sharing joy for a living. T...

You've picked up a hoop and loved it. Maybe you've even had someone ask "omg can you teach me that?!"

That's your sign.

Hoop Love Coach Training is the most comprehensive online hoop teacher training and the next round kicks off April 20, 2026.

Here's just some of what is included: (see here for more details hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc )

✨ 100 trick & technique teaching videos (with troubleshooting tips!)
✨ 40 Flow Sessions you can use straight away in your classes
✨ 8 full example classes, warm ups, playlists, the lot
✨ Done-for-you class plans for 4, 6 & 8 week courses
✨ A certificate of completion
✨ Unlimited access to ALL content
✨ A global community of hoop coaches who actually have your back
✨ Free listing on the HLC directory once you graduate
✨ Bonus: Expand Your Online Circle course (worth $97)

This isn't just a certification. It's the confidence, the tools, the community and the roadmap to actually go out there and do the thing you've been dreaming about doing.

Ready to go from hooper to hoop teacher?
Enrol now at hooplovecoaching.com/2026hlc spots are open and April 20 is coming fast!