The Story

Danielle Lee began hooping in 2004, when a friend shared a hoop with her at a party in college. She has been enraptured with hoops and hoop dance ever since.

Right away, Danielle knew that her goal was to spread hooping to as many people as possible. In 2006, she started her first hooping company, Hula Hoopla, to sell her custom handmade hoops online. The idea was to provide the "thing" that helped people to hoop. It became so popular that she was hardly able keep up with her engineering classwork, and even sold one that made its way to Gwyneth Paltrow's hips.

Next, Danielle thought long and hard about how to most effectively share her passion for finding happiness in hoops. The answer, of course, was to teach hoop dance, and to build hoop community in Madison. Instead of only giving people "the thing," Danielle began giving people "the tools": the confidence and the resources to discover the joy of hoop dance for themselves. Hoop Elation was born!

Danielle went to Santa Barbara in 2008 to become a Licensed Level 1 HoopGirl Workout Teacher and immediately began teaching in Madison, and hosting regular hoop jams. She became a Hoop Love Coach in 2022. She has also completed the Little Circles Toolbox teacher training and became a Mad About Hoops certified teacher in 2023 to share hoop dance with kids. Her charisma and positivity help to not only bring out the hoop dancer in each and every person, but have been the keystone for today's thriving Madison hooping community, which was voted Community of the Year in by Hooping.org in 2014.

Danielle is also a founding member and current executive board member of the Madison Circus Space, where she serves as treasurer and flow arts representative.

In 2013, a group of Madison circus enthusiasts came together to rent a warehouse and form the Madison Circus Space, a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit. However, when that warehouse was slated for redevelopment five years later, the Madison Circus Space community performed their best feat yet and raised one million dollars to purchase a parcel of land and construct a brand new, state of the art building specifically designed for circus, which opened its doors in October 2019.

The Madison Circus Space is the home for Danielle’s personal practice and classes, the center for hoop events in Madison, and also supports the Hoop/Flow Jam to provide free access to practice space for the wider community.

When not hooping, Danielle enjoys the great outdoors, eating good food, her wonderful partner, her dog Sam, and travel.

About Hoop Elation

Hoop Elation, LLC is owned and operated by Danielle Lee. All web site design and photos are property of Danielle Lee except where otherwise noted and are protected by a Creative Commons License. Hoop Elation is a Wisconsin Registered Trademark.