CT’s new feature takes a closer look at some of VCU’s most interesting denizens – people you’ve always wanted to get to know, but haven’t.
Emily “Rogue” Adams – Senior History Major
E: I go by “Rogue.” That’s like my new … performance name. I just recently came up with that. Took me three years to figure that one out.
CT: And you’re the eponymous “Hula Hoop Girl.”
E: Yeah, I guess so. There’s a YouTube video of me that somebody took from Rhoads or something, that’s me. And now a lot of people have told me that people refer to me as Hula Hoop Girl.
(CT note: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXD_b5tkm84)
E: Or I’ve met a couple of friends who were shocked to find out that I was Hula Hoop Girl.
CT: How did that come up in conversation?
E: I would just talk about hula hooping, or I’d have my hula hoop with me, and someone would just … recognize me, from being out here (Cabell Library) or in Monroe Park. They go “wait, you’re THE Hula Hoop Girl?”
CT: When did you first learn of your new title?
E: Probably … last fall. So, fall of 2009. I had a friend that I’d known through Greg, named Sam. I’d known Greg since high school, since way before I’d started hula hooping or anything – and I think Greg told me I was known as Hula Hoop Girl, and Sam was like, “oh my God, you’re the Hula Hoop Girl?!”
CT: How did you get started hula hooping?
E: I’ve been doing it for three years. I taught myself for the most part. … I did a couple of workshops here and there, but I’ve never taken any steady classes or anything. It’s always just been personal practice time. … I haven’t started making money doing it yet, but I hope to eventually.
CT: Where does one go to make money hula hooping?
E: Well, I’ve done unpaid things, like … at First Fridays, with the Party Liberation Front, we were doing firehooping, poi spinning… all sorts of fire spinning, at Gallery5. And I knew a friend who was in a band and he finagled a way for me to be onstage with their opener, Big Gigantic, and Asheville. That was a kind of like impromptu performance. But that was really cool.
CT: Are you hoping to make this your main income one day?
E: It’s obviously not gonna be a steady income, I guess like any other, like, art. But I have other talents, and I’m trying to get a real job eventually.
CT: Something with the history degree?
E: I kind of want to do … actually nothing with history. But maybe nutrition or something like that. Be a personal trainer or dietician. Teach exercise classes.
CT: Were you ever self-conscious about hula hooping in public, or is it just better that way?
E: I actually wasn’t a very confident person before I started hula hooping. But when I made my first hoop, I was in Rhoads, and I obviously didn’t have any space to hula hoop inside. So I would just go out to Monroe Park and there’s, like, different sections of grass – I picked one that I liked, and I kind of felt like, as long as nobody was on the grass, as long as they were on the sidewalks around it, that they weren’t really there. … But as soon as someone actually walked on to the grass, I got really shy and wouldn’t do anything. But eventually I didn’t want to get my feet dirty anymore so I came to the Compass. Now I have different areas – depends on how I’m feeling. Sometimes I hoop at Maymont and the river, too.
CT: And you don’t mind people watching, now.
E: No, not at all. … I always just figured you’re gonna look silly with a hula hoop, regardless, so you might as well be badass, so then at least if someone’s laughing at you, you can bust out a crazy trick and they’ll shut right up.
CT: Are there actually people laughing? My perception is that people find you – well, badass.
E: I mean, I’ve had some people. I usually have my iPod on, so I can’t hear people. But I have had certain people yell at me, like, “Get a job,” and things like that.
CT: Lame.
E: Yeah. But I don’t mind. I like bringing smiles to people.
CT: Do you have any advice for our readers who might consider going public with their passions?
E: Just do it and be the best that you can at it. Because if you’re the best that you can be, nobody can say anything. I mean – nothing that would mean anything to you.
CT: What’s on your iPod right now?
E: The Talking Heads, DJ Rootz and Captain Harris.