00:06The Hooper Market is one of ten tiny shops in Gillette Square in East London.
00:11East London is my favourite place in the world and it has a little bit of everything.
00:17And the Hooper Market is my idea of heaven, a whole shop dedicated to hoops and all things hoop related.
00:27Hooping culture is getting bigger every year and I get emails from people looking for very specific items.
00:33It's amazing to see how far hooping has come and I hate online shopping.
00:36So even though it doesn't exactly make great business sense, I love having a shop that people can come to
00:41and try out different hoops.
00:45The shop is really tiny but we managed to fit around 500 hoops in there.
00:50Workshop hoops, show hoops and the hoops that we sell.
00:53Kids love the shop as we have copies of the Guinness Book of World Records and we also have high
00:58heeled roller skates and loads of stickers.
01:01You can tell if the shop is open when our cactus is out the front.
01:04We hang hoops on the cactus so people can have a go or do some training, kids come and play
01:08and then they always put them back which is great.
01:11It's really important to me that anyone can have a go at it.
01:13It makes me so happy when kids come through the square and they see the hoop cactus and their eyes
01:17light up and they run straight to it.
01:23So Mara, when did you actually move to the square?
01:27Has it been two years?
01:28I think it's two years now.
01:30It feels like you've been here forever.
01:31I know.
01:33I love going to Ridley Road Market to pick up fabric and accessories for costumes.
01:37I spend most of the year overseas touring the shows but the Hooper Market is my home and I always
01:43come back to it.
01:44I think the Hulu Hoops and the Mariowa, the combination of the way she engages with the people and talk
01:52to the people and the energy she brings in the square is amazing.
01:56Really amazing.
01:57And thank you Mariowa.
01:59Yeah.
02:04The Hooper Market is also home to the majorettes, the best hoop troop ever.
02:09All the costumes and hoops are stored there and in summer it's great because we can train outside and we
02:13have the whole square to ourselves.
02:15We can hoop and skate and train in the square.
02:17It is the best.
02:21Obie is my chief majorette.
02:22She works full time at the Hooper Market and keeps it all together.
02:26People always ask if we're sisters and she always goes, no, no, no, no, no.
02:29But I always say, yeah, of course we are.
02:31The majorettes make me so happy.
02:33I love seeing how much the girls have grown as performers.
02:35They get better and better.
02:36And in the last four years they've come so far as a team.
02:42It makes me really proud to know that being part of the team has pushed them to improve not only
02:46their skills,
02:47but it's also boosted their confidence.
02:49It's a really supportive group and I feel really lucky to work with them.
02:53During the summer we use LED hoops and skate and kind of have like our own disco in the middle
02:57of the square.
02:58Everybody loves the LED hoops.
03:00The Hooper Market is my proudest achievement and I hope that we can keep doing it forever.
03:06What's your favourite, what's your favourite shop in the square?
03:09My shop.
03:09No, okay, seconds.
03:15Hooper Market.
03:15That's right.
03:17Yes.
03:17Hooper Market.com.
03:18Dot com dot UK.
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