Hoops spring eternal: Marawa Wamp launches pop-up shop

Marawa Wamp. Photograph: Russell Parton

A craze that swept through 1950s America with its name taken from Hawaiian hula dancing is making an unlikely comeback in Hackney.

Marawa Wamp, 31, is a performer and circus artist who for the past month has been running a  pop-up shop on Kingsland Road dedicated to her great passion: the hula hoop.

The ‘hoopamarket’ sells all things hula, including sparkling and glittery tapes to decorate the hoops, which come, like bowling balls, in a range of sizes and weights.

It also has enough room to practise hooping in (albeit in the full view of passers by outside). According to Ms Wamp the shop has proved a hit with children as well as adults – including drivers from the next door taxi firm.

She says: “It’s been fun to have lots of kids come down – especially if they are a little overweight, because with hula hooping anyone can do it.”

Parents bringing a son or daughter into the shop often shy away initially from having a go themselves.

“They say ‘I can’t do it any more’ but if you pick up a kid’s hoop as an adult you’ll find it hard because the hoop is too small. Once you explain that to them they have a go and find they can do it quite easily.”

Ms Wamp, whose stage name is Marawa the Amazing, moved to the UK in 2007 after graduating with a degree in circus art from the National Institute of Circus Arts in Australia.

She has appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and boasts the ability to keep 133 hoops spinning around her body at once. More people, she says, should hoop their way into shape and gain “abs harder than diamonds” in the process.

“It’s a great core workout so you can work up a really good sweat. And also you can do it at home in front of the TV – you don’t even have to go outside,” she says.

“Something like running or jogging has impact on your knees and ankles so you end up injuring yourself. With hula hooping there’s no impact because you’re standing on the ground.”

The shopfront sports the words ‘eternal youth’  left over from a previous tenant but fitting enough for her drive for hoop-based fun and fitness. Although the shop is too small to fit more than a couple of hoopers at a time, Ms Wamp runs weekend classes for 10-15 people at Shoreditch Town Hall.

“It’s like an aerobics class, with a lot of crazy dance hall music,” she says. “Some people come every week and some come who have never hula hooped before. Usually the beginners are cursing their friend who’s dragged  them along and worried they’ll not be able to do it.

“We do things like lunges and squats and standing on one leg. Most people learn to spin two or three hoops in the first class.”

Having hooped her way around the world, performing with cult circus outfits such as La Clique, Ms Wamp is no stranger to crowds. This month she’s leading a 150 person hula hoop disco rave in the ballroom of Shoreditch Town Hall.

As for the shop, Ms Wamp will be at 378 Kingsland Road until at least 17 November, after which time she’ll pack up and look for somewhere permanent to house her hoops.