Rising Stars: Meet Sirenna Beyer of kansas city

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sirenna Beyer

Hi sirenna, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started with high blood pressure & my doctor telling me I needed to change my “lifestyle”. I had enjoyed a lengthy career selling real estate but the long hours and stress had started to impact my health.
The same week I saw the doctor, I happen to see a Hula Hoop Dancing Video & I was instantly mesmerized. I was often bored with traditional exercise so that week I bought a Hula Hoop. It turned out to be a life changing decision.
I immediately fell in love with Hooping. A few months later, while on another Doctor visit, I learned that my blood pressure improved. Also, previously, my cholesterol had been quite high but this time the doctor told me that my cholesterol level was great. He said, ” You have the cholesterol level of an athlete.” and asked me “What have you been doing?”. Knowing it sounded kind of silly, I said “Ive been Hula Hooping.” I had started hooping late summer that year. When spring came & I was going to mow the lawn for the first time that season, I put on a pair of shorts I’d worn the previous spring & there was four inches of space between my waist and the shorts. All told, I had lost 40 pounds and as time went by, I continued to tone up.

All of this caused a light bulb to go off in my head. I felt like I had discovered a fun activity that was being overlooked as a great form of exercise and that held lots of health benefits. I was inspired to share it with others. It’s now been 8 years since the first time I put a hoop on & I still love it. My husband says that I always have a smile on my face when im hooping even if im just practicing and by myself.
Years before I was a Realtor, I was a Registered Nurse, but in 2017, I added to my repetorie & became a NASM Certified Fitness Instructor ( National Acamedy of Sports Medicine). Then I started a small business called KC Hoop Girl & I began offering beginner hula hoop fitness & dance classes. I formated the classes to be a full body workout and more like a fun event instead of a traditional, sometimes redundant exercise class. I included fun props and games, all done while hula hooping.
I also taught myself how to make custom beginner hula hoops for everyone to use at class. The slow spinning, large diameter hoops allowed almost 100% of the attendees to be able to Hoop on their first try. My favorite students have always been the ones who say “I’ve never been able to hoop”. They’re the ones that have the biggest smiles & are most excited when they realize how easy it is to hula hoop. And they always want to get a photo! After about ten minutes of hooping rthough, the look on their face changes and that’s when I know, that they know, that Hooping is exercise in disguise ! By then there already hooked on hooping and having a good time while getting a great workout done. The classes turned out to be a hit with lots of smiles and laughing & people ( mostly) forgetting they were excercsing. Mission acomplished !

It started out with one class a week but has evolved to be six classes a week that include the Prairie Village, Mission , Shawnee & Tonganoxie areas of Kansas, and the Brookside area in Kansas City, Missouri. Overtime, I’ve accumulated 58 mother & daughters who come, 14 mother/daughter/grand mothers, and 8 husband/wife/son or daugher teams that come. I’ve learned that boys absolutely love hooping until their about 12 years old. Then they start thinking Hooping is a bit “sissy”. So most guys who come to classes have to be coaxed by a family member, but their attitude changes about Hooping after a class & when they realize what a great workout they got.
During this time, I started getting request from Hoop students wanting to workout between classes asking if they could buy a hoop so it lead me to get into the Hoop selling business. Since then I’ve sold hundreds & hundreds of hoops & Im always excited knowing Im spreading a healthy & fun way to exercise. I like to say that I spread “Hoop Love”.
Shortly after I started the business, I happen to be making a purchase at Macy’s Department store. I mentioned Hula Hooping and the store manager loved the idea of me performing Hoop Dancing as well as engaging customers to Hula hoop. That was my first step towards becoming a professional Hoop Dance Artist & Entertainer. I loved entertaining others with my Hoop Dancing & I soon became a regular at Macy’s.
Macy’s was the beginning of many Hoop Dance performances. Since then I’ve performed for oodles of public events including the, Plaza Art Fair, First Fridays, Parade of Hearts & Alzheimers & Breast Cancer Walks, Shawnee Days, Dance in Park and more. As well as performing for private & corporate parties for Ameristar Casino, Indian Hills Country Club, Schloegal Remodeling, Acertus Corporation and others. During all this, my husband Gregg has been my biggest cheerleader and Hooper Helper. Gregg records videos of the events, shows off his hooping skills to inspire new hoopers, lugs 50-100 hoops around, & promtoes me constantly. He attends most the parties and events & I think he has as much fun as I do. Sometimes when Im watching a video he recorded of a hoop party, I can hear him laughing in the background of the video at whatever silly fun were having.
In the mean time, the classes became so popular that the students started asking me if I would host hula hoop parties. So in 2018 I added Hula Hoop Party Event Planner to the list of services I offered. Its been one of the funnest parts of Hooping & while hosting the parties I laugh so much that my eyes tear up and nore runs. Everyone has fun! Especially Me!
It’s easy to imagine that the parties would be a big hit with kids but I started getting calls from individuals, groups & business wanting a Hula Hoop party too. So I do as many parties for adults as I do for kids. The Hoop parties included all kinds of occasions such as birthday paties, block parties, wedding receptions or employee appreciation parties. And whenever I host a party for kids, the adults watching instantly want to sign up for one too!
The frequent request from adults and groups inspired me to add another service called “Team Building Workshops” . The work-shops are a cross between a mini class & a Hula Hoop Party with a slant on the activities that promote interaction & teamwork between the participants. One of the funnest ones I did last year was for the American Theatre Guild at Chicken & Pickle when I included one of my favorite games that instantly transforms adults into kids. Basically whether its a class or a party, we have “silly fun” & it’s all positive and healthy. For me, it’s intensely rewarding to see people feeling the joy that I do while Hooping
One day, I got a call requesting me to tell my story & talk about Hula Hooping to a womens group. I created a presentation that included details of my journey & interesting info about Hula Hooping such as the history of Hula Hooping & the 5 kinds of Hula Hoops & how there used. I added a demonstration of the various impressive tricks you do with a hoop. I talked about what Hoop Dancing is & how to use a Hoop as a fun form of exercise. I called the talk “All about Hula Hooping Presentation & Demonstration. “. It was a big hit with the group and I received some wonderful thank you notes so I decided to add the presentation to be one of the services I offered. Since the first time, Ive modified the presentation to sometimes include 10-15 minutes of guest Hooping.

The KC Hoop Girl business has conintued to evolve so that I currently offer 6 services. Pretty much, all of services have been inspired by people asking for me to either Hoop with them or Hoop for them. The most recent service happened five years ago when I was asked to do a three hour continous performance for a member appreciation party for Indian Hills Country Club in Mission Hills. Hoop Dancing is incredibly aerobic and I knew hooping continously for three hours would be challenging. So I asked a couple of my Hoop class students if they would like to assist me during the event.
That event lead me to organize a Hoop Troup called the KC Hoop Girls. We perform all over the city for public & private events. The number of Hoopers in the troup has gotten bigger and bigger. So has the scale of the events and each year we continue to get more request.
Last year the KC Hoop Girls performed for 5 parades in Kansas City & surrounding areas, 4 Senior Living community, 5 schools, as well as the Village Shalom 5 K, the Breast Cancer & Alzheimers Walks and lots of street fairs and festivals. We also performed for the Brookside St Pats Day Parade. It was our 4th year as a group. The first year I was in the parade, I was a parade group of one! It was just me Hoop Dancing alone as part of the parade but it got the attention of a local magazine who did a nice feature article. It was a real bonus in helping to promote my business. Last year for the St Pats Parade there were 52 KC Hoop Girl participants. Everyone loves “Hooping it up” at all the events but the parade is one of everyones favorites.

I can’t speak highly enough about the power of a Hula Hoop & what it’s done for me. It changed my “outside” by changing my body, improving my health, toning up and loosing weight. But it also changed my “inside” & allowed me to find joy. Another unexpected big benefit of Hooping has been the “forever” friendships Ive gained. The Hoopers enjoyed the classes so much that they wanted to extend the fun to be outside the classes and include social events like parties and dinner gatherings. So thats what we did. I started hosting gatherings that included hoopers from all the various classes. Its a great opportunity for everyone to socialize with Hoopers they already know, plus meet others from a different classes and make new friends. We all share the Love of the Hoop and what it brings to our lives. Some of the Hoooers come to serveral classes a week and others less frequently. The group has extened to include husbands, boyfriends & family members who often participate in the various Hoop Events.
I also started a Facebook group called the KC Hoop Girls. We now have almost 750 members. Coming to classes is not required to be a member of the group but everyone is always invited to come to any class or any free event.
Hooping has been an unforseen blessing in my life. I ofter wonder why it was bestowed on me. I’ve come to believe that its simply a gift.
Or possibly, the Hoop has been bestowed on me to be used to unite & bring people together in a society that sometimes feels fragmented. The Hoop is all inclusive. Regardless of age, gender, socio-economic backgroud, race or religion, the Hoop welcomes everyone inside its circle. Whenever a Hoop shows up on the scene, big smiles happen, people drop their guards and open up to one another. Laughing unites people & no one can resist having Fun whether their hooping or watching others hoop. I like to say that ” The Hoop is a Big Circle and everyone is welcome to come inside and find the Joy I found”. It’s a joy that is as great for me today as it was eight years ago when I first picked one up.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The biggest struggle was Covid. All of my locations closed and most all my events got cancelled. I was depressed & devastated. But I decided that I would find a way to continue my mission to share my love of the Hoop.
I started hosting outdoor classes at Loose Park, Kansas City as well as in the backyard of my home. The size of the classes exploded. People felt safe being in an outdoor environment. They could social distance to their hearts desire. Plus, everything was shut down & there wasn’t any where else for people to go to get a workout done. Parents lacked options for activities to keep their kids busy. Thats also when the mother & daughter hooper teams started growing. So Covid resulted in expanding the size of my classes. A year or so later, I could tell that the fear of covid was behind us when I started getting request again to perform for events.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I frequently get comments from others saying they “love my energy”. I always tell them it’s my love for Hooping & music that drives my energy. Having the priviladge of Performing Hoop Dancing and receiving all the accolades that result from it further feeds that energy. And hosting Hula Hoop parties, instructing classes and workshops is all very fulfilling. I’ ve always been a hard worker and an entrepreneur so I love the challenge of building a business. And I know each time I sell a Hoop that I maybe changing someones life and significantly inpacting another in a postivie way which makes me immensely proud. Over all, the positive responses have been greatly rewarding & continue to drive me to continue on my path to put Hula Hooping on the map in Kansas City.

What does success mean to you?
For me it’s the combination of feeling finacially secure, healthy, happy, achieving my goals and and being a contributing & loving member to my family friends and community.

Pricing:

• Hoop Dancing performances range from $160-$260 per hour
• Most Classes are $10 includes the Hoop, props & Fun!
• Hoop Parties range from $25/person or can be a flat fee for larger parties.
• Team Building Workshops range from $25/person or can be a flat fee for larger parties.
• All About Hula Hooping Presentations are $250

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hulahoopingkansascity.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kchoopgirl/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KCHOOPGIRL/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirenna-beyer-a92635199/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kchoopgirl