Everyone’s tried to hula hoop before, right? Can you imagine how good you’d get if you dedicated years of your life to it? Well the people in this post have done just that. Here are my top ten favorite/most impressive things I’ve ever seen done with hoops (in no particular order). Some are a specific trick or event and some more of a general style of hooping that I think is amazing.

The 15sec video to the left (or above if you’re on a small screen) gives you a little taster and then you can scroll down to see a slightly longer clip of each one and find out a little bit about them. If you don’t agree with my ten then why not comment underneath with your version? Enjoy!

1. Jin Linlin’s Giant Hoop Slinky

Jin Linlin can apparently spin 305 simultaneously. That’s pretty insane. I don’t think this video shows quite that many but it’s definitely a lot of hoops and she’s turned them into a giant slinky which creates a beautifully hypnotic effect when it’s in motion.

2. Howard Nichols Spinning 11 Hoops on Various Parts of His Body

I have no idea how he worked out he could do this. He’s got two going on each leg, three on each arm and one on his neck. Imagine being able to bust that out at a party. If I could chose just one move from this list that I’d be magically able to do, it might very well be this one.

3. The Teslenko Jugglers Passing 16 Hoops Between 4 People

Dang that’s a lot of hoops in the air. No wonder this extremely talented Russian family has performed all over the world and in the Cirque du Soleil show “Corteo”. They’re called Dmitry, Victor, Anatoly and Elina Teslenko and they hold multiple ring passing world records. You can find their facebook page here.

4. Native Hoop Dance

Modern (native) hoop dancing originated in the 1930s by Tony White Cloud who starting using five hoops instead of one. It’s evolved greatly over the years and now the intricate formations involve numerous hoops and the whole thing is spellbinding to watch. The specific dancer in the video is the amazing Jasmine Pickner-Bell and you can check out her facebook here.

5. Bencirka’s Triple Body Roll

What with the what now? Ben does an epic flippy roll thing and does it three times in a row just to prove his point. Fair play. You should check out his videos because he does lots of crazy spinny flippy rolly things with hoops. Here’s his Book of Face and his instagram is @bencirka.

6. 100s of Synchronized Hoopers at the Arirang Mass Games

The sight of this many people performing hooping in near perfect synchrony is breathtaking. It’s just one small section of a two hour spectacular that kicks off the Arirang Festival in North Korea. However, North Korea has a horrifically bad track record when it comes to human rights violations which puts this in a slightly dodgy light and raises many questions like: are people participating freely or have they been coerced and what conditions are they training in?

7. Aleksandra Savina Rolling 7 Hoops on the Floor

Aleksandra is from the Ukraine and this little clip is from her beautiful video called “Ring-o-graphy” which you should definitely check out here. Word is that she can do 9 like this and a video will soon be appearing on either her instagram (@aleksandramotherofrings) or her facebook. 

8. Aleksandra Soboleva Juggling 9 Hoops

Another Ukrainian and she’s also called Aleksandra. Something suspicious is clearly going on, but until we work out what, we should just marvel at the jaw-dropping sight of 9 hoops in the air. She can also juggle 7 large hoops and do a bunch of other crazy things with them. Check out her instagram @aleksandrasobolieva.

9. Rhythmic Gymnastics Five Hoops Routines

Watch any 5 Hoops Routine from an international rhythmic gymnastics competition and you’ll be blow away. Five gymnasts doing near flawlessly choreo, flipping about the place while throwing and catching hoops in a continually more improbable fashion. This video is of the Azerbaijan Team at 2017 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup. They didn’t win as it happens but if I’d have been judging I’d have given it to them because I thought they were the best. I’d be prepared to judge the 2018 Cup if the money was right.

10. The Alegria Brothers Spinning 14 Hoops On Two People

Four arms each spinning two hoops, two feet each spinning one and two mouth sticks each spinning two hoops gives us a pretty memorable end to the list. This wonderful act comes from a family with four generations of jugglers in it. The only thing that could possibly make this better is if Howard Nichols (number two on this list) was standing on top of the reclining gentlemen’s feet. 

So that concludes my top ten. I hope you liked it. If you completely disagree or think I left something obvious out why not show me the error of my ways by leaving me a comment. If you’re in San Diego and you ever want to book a hooper for an event then check out our site. Right, I’m off to practice some hooping.

About Steve Bags

Bags has been teaching and performing circus skills since before the beginning of time. He has a love of circus that borders on obsessional. His claim to fame is that he once juggled on an episode of Dr Who. He can also balance a flaming bike on his chin while hula-hooping which is an exceedingly useful skill. He's generally to be found spinning, juggling or balancing stuff on his face at mostly inappropriate times and places.