Rebecca Lane Walker is addicted. Addicted to hooping.

It’s a big step for someone who just started two months ago.

“Mostly it makes you feel so good and it’s so good for you,” Walker said.

Hooping, according to hooping.org, is a term for the modern version of hula hooping. Hooping is different from hula hooping because it uses bigger, heavier hoops that are customized to fit the individual hooper. People do it for different reasons, including exercise, relaxation, socializing or meditation.

Walker, who lives in Tupelo, said one of the main reasons she does it is for exercise. So far, she’s lost two dress sizes in two months. The self-described hoop dancer practices up to three hours every day. According to hooping.org, 10 minutes of “waist hooping” – keeping the hoop rotating around your waist – burns 100 calories.

The term “hoop dancer” may be unfamiliar to many people, but the activity is gaining popularity across the country. It’s especially popular at outdoor festivals and concerts.

Incorporating the hoop

A hoop dancer, Walker says, is a person who incorporates a hoop into his or her dance form. As a hoop dancer progresses, more tricks are added into the routine. Some of the advanced ones include hopping through the hoop and rolling the hoop across your back.

Walker said she gets a lot of inspiration from hooping videos on YouTube.com and from Gabrielle “Soulhooper” Lott of Oxford.

Lott started teaching hooping classes in Tupelo this summer through the Link Centre. Walker, who is the community development director at the Link Centre, said she saw Lott perform and was intrigued.

Walker said she couldn’t hula hoop as a kid, but she enjoyed dancing.

“I thought I was just challenged,” Walker said. “I’m not very coordinated. I did ballet as a kid, but I wasn’t a prima ballerina by any sense of the word.”

After talking with Lott, Walker wanted to give it another shot.

So she asked Lott to teach hooping classes in Tupelo. The free class meets every Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Frances Reed Fountain in front of City Hall in Fairpark. If it’s raining, the hoopers meet in the reception hall at the Link Centre.

Lott, who has been hooping for three years, provides the hoops and teaches everything from the basics for waist hooping to more advanced tricks for seasoned hoopers.

Walker said the class has drawn women of all ages and occupations, but the class is open to men as well.

‘Go for it’

The trick for beginners, Walker said, is “you can’t be ashamed. You just have to go for it.”

Added Lott, “Don’t take yourself too seriously. You’re not hooping for the people around you. You are hooping for yourself. If you can just step past that point of where you are concerned what people will think of you, you’ll open a whole new door to your life.”

Walker said she practices during her lunch break on the grass in front of the Link Centre and in the front yard at her house with her two girls, Morgan and Molly Cate.

“The neighbors probably think we are crazy people,” she said, laughing.

Walker said she doesn’t care, though, saying hooping is about self expression. When she hoops at concerts and festivals, she like to wear colorful accessories like scarves and sunglasses. Lott is known to hoop in sequined Converse tutus.

“Some people call it a hobby,” Lott said. “Some people call it a lifestyle. For me, it’s definitely become a lifestyle. I’m a hooper. Yes, I have other passions, but as for what makes me tick, it’s hooping. No question about it.”

Contact Carlie Kollath at (662) 678-1598 or carlie.kollath@djournal.com.