Participant Info

Thank you for registering for the Harbin Hoop Jam! Please read this information about getting set up and comfortable at the jam.

Jam begins 3 PM Friday September 16th, 2011. The first meal will be dinner on Friday, at 6PM.
and ends at lunchtime September 22nd, 2011. The last meal will be breakfast on Thursday. We can stay in the conference center all thursday, but many people will be going on to the santa cruz hoop camp and so our closing circle will be Thursday morning after breakfast.

You may arrive earlier on the 16th (officially at noon, but I think anytime in the morning would be fine) and stay on Thursday September 22nd until 10PM. There is also the option of staying for that following weekend as a regular guest at Harbin, for $25/$35 per day camping or at any of their regular rates for rooms or dorms (Please see the Harbin website… http://www.harbin.org )

Contribution, responsibility, work exchange....

As we are charging only just enough to cover most of the costs, we will all have to take responsibility to help the jam run smoothly and we will all have to contribute something (around 3-5 hours I would think). There will be a list of duties and jobs that need to be handled - like setting up, registration, grooving people in, turning off lights etc at night, keeping the hot pools covered and temperature regulated, helping back up the DJ when she needs a break, looking after and keeping the LED hoops charged, being a counselor as needed, etc etc. Nearer the jam date we can send out a specific list and have people sign up for these things. The jam is a community effort.

What to Bring
•Your playful, creative self!
• Personal bedding, e.g., sleeping bag and pad/ air mattress if you like, tent if you are camping out
• Days can be hot, and evenings cool, so bring layers, and bring an assortment of hooping gear
• Towels for hot pools
• Toiletries
• Flashlight
• Slip on shoes/flip flops, hiking shoes
• Personal items, journal
• Musical instruments and/or ipod/CDs to share
• Sun hat, sunscreen, non-toxic bug repellent
• Water bottle
• Blindfolds
• Costume for the performance/dance evening if you like
• Goggles and nose clips if you want to play underwater (Facilitators may bring some waterhoops)
• A quiver, array, stack, deck, string, palette, set, scoop, wardrobe or assortment of hoops (whatever word you want to use for several hoops carried into a jam) - .at least one fairly large and trashy one for stretching and general mayhem, one special one for performance/play, a set of twins, different sizes and weights of hoops for different moods/rhythms etc, and a partner hoop if you have one, perhaps an LED hoop for the night jams.
• In other words, bring some hoops. If you are flying in, or cant bring several hoops, please let us know at merlin@playahoop.com so we can provide extra.

Arriving

Registration begins 3 pm Friday September 16th 2011
You may officially arrive at noon on Thursdayy, but I am sure it will be fine if you arrive earlier, and you can make use of the pools at the main resort. The first weekend of the jam will be at a new space that Harbin just aquired, 10 minutes from the main resort by car. Its situated on 4000 acres of its own land, with a couple large houses, hooping space indoors and out, hot pools, no one else around, we can make as much noise as we want all through the day and night.
• Please register at the Gate house and pick up your parking pass and tent tag if you’re camping. There will be directions for you there to get to the Diamond J ranch.

Sleeping Options

At the Diamond J ranch:

There are numerous beds ( bring your own bedding ) and literally thousands of acres to camp on if you like. We will be there friday, saturday and sunday nights.

At the conference center:
• Tent: You can camp in your own tent. There are campsites along the creek; most spaces are upstream from the conference center. Tie the pink tag to your tent.
• Sleeping deck: There is a covered sleeping deck along the side of the conference center where you can set up your pad, mattress and sleeping gear.
• Dance floor: Inside sleeping is available on the dance floor after dancing/hooping quiets down.
• Private room: Private rooms are available at the main resort. Make reservations separately with Harbin Reservations at 707 987 2477 or 800 622 2477 (within California).

Facilities

At the Diamond J Ranch ( Firday, Saturday and Sunday nights):

There are two houses, the main one we will use for the jam and for soaking and eating, the other house will be basically a dormitory for most of the participants and it is around 3/4 mile away, so most likely we will drive/carpool back and forth as necessary, though you could walk.

The main house has a large high ceilinged room ( about 1/3 the size of the conference center) which open up onto a large deck ( similar size ) and lawns which could accomodate many more hoopers than you can imagine! So we will be able to have plenty of outdoor hooping day or night, if we so desire.

There is a large pool, larger than at the conference center, and I am assured that they will have it at 103 degrees, so we can soak and play in the water as much as we like.

There will be no one else on the property except us hoopers, so belonging should be safe.

Noise at the Diamond J is not an issue, we can put out unlimioted volume at any time of the day or night we choose.

Kitchen space is limited, so the food will be brought in by the caterers. Snacks will be available at all times. Some of the food will be organic and it will all be up to the standards we have come to expect and enjoy at the harbin ham.

There will be 6 bathrooms total between the two houses and probably some portapotties in case of need. As the plumbing there is on septic system we ask that you be conservative with showers etc till you get to the conference center.

At the conference center ( Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights)

• We gather in one large room for eating, hooping, dancing, and meeting. Please do not wear shoes on this floor and keep it clear of your personal belongings.
• There are restrooms on each side of the conference center. On the pool side, one for women and one for men. On the kitchen side, the two restrooms and shower areas are usually coed. Lockers are available in these restrooms.
• Keep your belongings either near your sleeping area, in one of the restrooms, or in the hallway cubbies on the deck.
• We can have the pools heated to our requirements. One of them (the top one closest to the main room) could be at their recommended max of 102 (or higher if we can get it) so we can soak in heat..and the bottom one could be at 96 so we can swim and play and maybe do watsu/waterdance etc.

Food
One of the pleasures of this Jam is that we get three large, varied and delicious meals a day, served within feet of the dance floor / hooping space. Some of it is organic, all of it fresh and good, from local farms etc. It’s a treat! Please give us your dietary preferences on the registration form.

Snacks, water and juice and teas are available at all times. Midnight munchies? No problem.

Main Harbin Resort
Up the road from the conference center is the public area of the Harbin Resort, which you are welcome to visit and enjoy. Please do not bring any friends who are not registered at the jam onto the conference center grounds, except for on Tuesday and Thursday nights for the communal jam.
The quiet and restful hot springs area includes two warm pools, a swimming pool, a cold plunge, a very hot tub (114 degrees), and a sauna.
There are also restaurants, café, library, movie theatre, food store, cooking kitchen, hiking trails, massage and body workers, and classes such as yoga.

Jam Schedule
This is not set. We welcome your input, let us know your ideas. We will post your emails on the
Participant Bios page.
Basically we will hoop till we p-hoop!

Form of the jam:

There will be a circle morning and evening.

There will be group pow-wows
An inquiry into intention
An awareness of emergent properties
An appreciation of some sacred geometry
Some somatic education.

There will be times for bodylove, stretching, massage, possibly acroyoga, warm ups and so on. These will be structured around meal times.

There will be times for soaking and playing in the pools. We may find ourselves developing (cultivating, stimulating) a real appetite/appreciation/enjoyment of the hot springs and the surrounding land.

There will be an evening jam on Tuesday that will be open to the community at Harbin - we may share the space with dancers.

Thursday night there will be the opportunity to participate in some creative group performances.

There will be plenty of jam time, hours and hours and hours!!! Days and days!!! A whole week if we like!!!

Each jam may have a loose “score”…..or not (score being a word taken from contact improv dance, where its used in the sense of a musical score, a theme, a guideline). Some possibilities include working with breath, with rhythm, with the chakras, using blindfolds, having no music, having live music, working with different tempos, using different sized hoops, working in groups, partnering, taking turns as leader and follower, visualizations, meditations, expression, emotions, spinning, twins, hooping at all hours, interacting with dancers, focusing on various principles, etc. There are no end of possibilities.

Labs (smaller groups with a similar interest) can form, we can share skills and tricks (especially in the first few hours!), or we can have no rules at all. Part of the exploration will be for us to sense what is available and flow with it, to use the energy of the hoop practice to dig deeper into the personal and collective. Any one of us may take the lead at any point, as in a flock of birds, or there may be no leader at all. The facilitators intent is to hold the space, to provide the possibility, perhaps at times to act as the voice of the whole. From there its up to each and all of us.

Perhaps one of the first things with such a tribe of hoop teachers will be to acknowledge, play with and defuse the ego…let us impress one another and be at our best and get noticed and maybe evaluate others, and put things in a hierarchy and do the whole territorial monkey ape thing, and then lets go beyond that both with each other and within ourselves, and see what emerges ….

We may enjoy:

extended flight time, moving with other hoop dancers, encouraging the emergence of new relationship to each other and the community… an opportunity to deepen into the spiral practice, the living hoop, the awareness of the qualities and essence of life symbolized in Ouroboros …Love in the Hoop…