Hooping all over town: Wendy talks to Streetplay
Wendy is without a doubt our Hula Hoop Queen. She's joined us at
several Streetplay events, teaching people young and old how to hoop. How did
she get so good?
"I grew up in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic," she said. "One year,
when I was about five, my cousins and I got Hula Hoops for Los Tres Reyes
Magos (Three Wise Kings day), when Christmas presents are given."
Wendy remembers being immediately infatuated with this new toy. "I would run
up and down the block, doing errands for grandma and visiting friends while
"hooping." I could do it for hours at a time. That's all I did. I didn't
like dolls, I couldn't play sports, but I could Hula Hoop."
As Wendy entered Junior High School she stopped hooping because "I got tall
and skinny and looked silly," but lately, her interest has come back. "I
didn't really start again till last year when my friends saw how good I was
and thought they could start a business on the beach selling hoops to people
and telling them that it was a good workout."
"It looks simple," she said, "but you spend some time shaking those hips and
you feel it in the stomach. I need to practice some more to really get in
shape. I'm getting older, remember I'm 24 now."
Wendy, looking at the photos, we don't think you have to worry too much about
getting in shape, but we're interested in some Hula Hoop lessons! In fact,
you can see how Wendy showed others how to Hula Hoop in our
1999 Hula Hoop retrospective.
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