## Hello Steemians! I'm Chelsea, a Circus Perfomance Artist ##

A little about me....

In college I studied Elementary Education for the first few years. I knew I enjoyed working with kids and was really good at teaching, but after learning the reality of what life is like as an elementary school teacher in Oklahoma, I changed my major to Art. After a few more years of going to college on and off while working full time at restaurants to support myself, I took an indefinite hiatus from school, not knowing what I would do with a degree if I got one. College was too expensive to keep going without a clear goal. I would love to take the few remaining classes I’d need to have a Bachelor’s in Art Education, and maybe one day I will. However, if you live in Oklahoma, you are probably aware that our public education system sadly does not value the arts, and that we are top of the list for budget cuts when it comes to art education. There didn't seem to be a clear path available to me to pursue my passions, so I made my own.

Hooplahoma is my alternative way of bringing joy to children, art to the community, and spreading my love for teaching and learning.

It started with a unicycle.

The amazing things that humans can do with their bodies has always fascinated me. I used to watch one internet video after the other of people doing crazy stunts with bikes and rock climbing and backflips and wish that I could do anything impressive. One day in May of 2015, I was watching a video where a guy rode a unicycle and I said, “I wish I could do that.”

*A lightbulb went off in my head. *

I decided to stop wishing and start actually trying. I called all the bike shops in OKC and ended up buying my first unicycle at Al’s Bicycles with the determination to figure it out!

It was slow going at first, but I kept at it. I spent $100 on that silly thing and it wasn’t going to be for nothing! I practiced every day... and by 'practice' I mean get on, fall off, over, and over... and over.

I got a little stronger every day. I would video myself and watch it to see how to correct problems. I watched every unicycle tutorial I could find on Youtube. I must say, at any other time in human history, it may have been much more difficult to learn. What a time to be alive when we have camera phones and the internet!

One day, I couldn’t ride a unicycle, but just a few weeks later, I COULD ride a unicycle.

THAT was the best feeling in the world to me.

*I felt like I had discovered a secret super power. *

Fast forward to later that year when I began living in the Paseo Arts District. One night I went to a party with a bonfire and some girls spinning hula hoops… that were on FIRE! I had never seen anything like it and I asked if one girl would be so kind as to let me try. All I did was weave the hoop back and forth in the same motion over and over, but I was hooked. I found a new thing I wanted to learn.

I had never been a dancer unless you count the video game Dance Dance Revolution. I was too afraid of looking awkward. So I very rarely loosened up enough to dance in front of other people. Until I discovered the hula hoop that is. Now with a prop, the focus was on moving the circle in interesting ways, and without even realizing it at first, I forgot about being self conscious. I was having so much fun that I took my hula hoop with me everywhere. A couple of girls I worked with at the time would even bring their hoops to work and we would play when it was slow. Before I knew it, I was dancing all the time with my new dance partner, a plastic circle. And it didn’t matter what I looked like because it just felt so good to move!

It wasn’t too long before I befriended more and more people in Oklahoma who were hula hoopers, jugglers, unicyclists, and poi spinners. I learned that these activities collectively are referred to as “flow art.” Flow is that state of mind that made me forget about being self conscious. It’s a form of focus, when you’re totally immersed in the present moment. Flow is a state of mindfulness, something we can all benefit from in this world of constant distractions and sensory overload. Every person you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about, and I’ve had some battles of my own with my mental health. Hooping and getting into that flow state of mind was like free therapy.

No matter what else was going on in my life, in those moments of moving meditation, I felt truly happy, alive, and free.

In becoming a part of the flow community, I met two performers that would inspire me to change my life. Though we shared many mutual friends, I hadn’t officially met Kelsey and Jeremy Philo until I found out about a workshop they’d be teaching called “Performing Professionally: get paid to do what you love!” These two were the only people I knew of whose full time jobs were hula hooping and unicycling! Knowing that it was a possibility inspired me to pursue this as a career, so I attended the workshop. I learned from them about the business side of performing. They had lots of valuable advice from years of experience. But the best piece of advice was to set yourself apart from other performers. “Do something that no one else is doing.”

I already had something in mind.

In my binge watching of hula hooping videos, I stumbled on a video of a different kind of hoop. The Cyr Wheel - a person-sized steel circle that enables the athlete inside to become a human coin. I was enthralled with how athletic the Cyr wheel artists were. Ever since the first time I had seen it, I wanted to try it. However, I was discouraged when I found out that a Cyr wheel costs several hundred dollars, and there wasn’t anyone to teach me anywhere in Oklahoma. For about a year, I kept watching Cyr wheel videos anyway. And kept thinking, “maybe one day…”

Then, when the Philos told me to “Do something no one else is doing,” suddenly my reason for not buying a Cyr wheel, became the only reason I needed to buy one and commit to teaching myself. This was April of 2017.

My custom made Cyr wheel arrived about two weeks later. And so began the greatest learning journey of my life so far.

I laugh to myself now about the bruises and scrapes I endured while learning to unicycle. The Cyr wheel has been a physically brutal learning experience. My skin got tougher and my muscles got stronger. I persisted through the physical pain from injuries and fatigue, but more importantly, through the emotional pain of self doubt, plateaus, and feeling like there was a pressure on me to prove what I set out to prove. That I could do this. Many times I thought I’d bitten off more than I could chew, that I had no business spending so many hours of my time alone at the park or at the gym, trying to nail a new move without seriously hurting myself. But when I did get a new move I’d been working toward, it was like my heart was bursting with joy. There by myself in the gym studio or at Stars and Stripes park, on many occasions, I felt a euphoria so overwhelming that I had to actually stop what I was doing and cry tears of happiness. So, this is what it’s like to be passionate about something.

In October, about 5 months into my Cyr wheel journey, I went with my Grandma on a road trip across the country. The purpose of our epic journey was to visit our extended relatives, some of whom she hadn’t seen in years, and I had yet to meet. I strapped my Cyr wheel to the top of my station wagon, filled the back with my unicycle and all the hula hoops I’d collected, and we hit the road. We visited more than a dozen cities from OKC to the tip of Florida, and each time we found a park or plaza, some public space with a flat surface where I could perform Cyr wheel.

Being a traveling street performer was always a dream of mine, and this was my chance to do it! Everywhere I brought the Cyr wheel, I’d also bring the hula hoops, and the most amazing thing happened. Hula hoop parties would break out wherever I was! I was just teaching my aunts and uncles and cousins to hula hoop, and then strangers would approach me and want to try too! I got to teach people all over the country to hula hoop!

Of course I would then demonstrate the Cyr wheel for anyone who wanted to see. Most people had never seen it before, and I like to think I brightened their day just a little by showing them something unique. Performing for strangers also gave me more confidence, and a fresh sense of motivation to keep on going, to keep getting better.

My grandma and I parted ways about two weeks into the trip. She flew home to OKC, and I continued on to visit more friends, and continue being a traveling street performer for just a little longer. The grand finale was in Chicago, where my boyfriend Blake flew to meet me so we could celebrate Halloween together. We dressed up in our circus themed costumes, a lion and a lion tamer, and took over Millennium Park for the day. We brought all the hoops and invited anyone and everyone walking by to play with us. I performed Cyr wheel for anyone who wanted to see. We hooped and danced and played the day away for hours. It was the best Halloween ever.

In March of 2018, just ten months after the first time I ever touched a wheel, I traveled to back to Chicago for Big Wheel Weekend, to compete in the National Cyr Wheel Trials.

Ten months after I began my journey, I became the Number One Ranked Female Cyr Wheel Artist in the USA.

If I have a mission on this planet, I believe it is to empower others by way of example that anything you want to do is possible. It may not be easy, but the struggle itself is one of the best parts!

Knowing that I accomplished something difficult with patience and discipline gives me a confidence I didn’t have before. The art of movement has given me a sense of self worth and a true, lasting happiness in my life. I love who I am and I feel good. My goal is to share what I’ve learned and bring more circus and flow art to Oklahoma!

I'm super excited to be on Steemit, because I truly believe in the win-win-win economy of this platform. My mom, @seaslim introduced me to #steemit and it sounded like a place where I would fit right in! I'm looking forward to getting know you!

#introduceyourself #newbieresteemday #art #performance

“No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” Socrates