Bellingham woman carries hula hoop wherever she goes

DANNY GAWLOWSKI

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Hula hooping is a constant part of Jaimie Berg's life. She carries a hula hoop with her everywhere she goes, teaches classes and performs at events, on stage and in random locations.

According to Berg, who is also known by the stage name Ms. B Hooping Allure, she has not gone a day without hooping in five years.

Here is her story, in her own words:

| DANNY GAWLOWSKI | THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

"When you step into that hoop and start spinning around, you create your own little world. It's a meditation tool for me. It gets me very centered. It can help me out on a stressful day. It's an amazing workout, but also a spiritual connection. It's a feeling that's hard to explain in words, but it's something about connecting deep within and the hoop can just put me in the right place. The type of hoop performance I enjoy doing the most is a spiritual style of hoping, where it feel like a prayer when I'm hoping. I always feel like that fundamental base for me is that spiritual connection. It just puts me in a present moment.

So, everywhere I go, I take my hoop. Even if I'm going up to Lynden or down to Seattle, even running errands around town, I take my hoop with me. I took my hoop to Shanghai, Paris, Amsterdam, I took my hoop with me everywhere I went and hoped and it was a great way of sharing a moment with friends and a great way of meeting people.

And, also, I have a hoop partner. I dress up in a pink wig, she dresses up in a blue wig and we do random street hoping. It catches a lot of people by surprise. Hula hoping still isn't something that people are familiar with, so it just takes them by surprise. I've had some 90 year-old men come up and grab the hula hoop and were amazing with it.

You really do awaken your inner child. It's fun and it also makes your body feel better, so it is a bit of a high. It catches people's eyes and makes them happy. It's unexpected and surprising and colorful. So that is the essence of random hooping.

It's definitely something that's not only a hobby to me anymore. It's something I want to take into my professional realm and see how far I can go with it."