HoopDazzle owner and Northwest Hoop Gathering organizer Mollie Hogan, 38, of Bend, twirls her hoop during a workshop Saturday. “It’s contagious,” Hogan said of hooping. “It makes you feel good.” She said she hopes to make the gathering, featuring workshops taught by some of the top instructors in the world, an annual event.

As Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” echoed through the Summit High School gymnasium Saturday afternoon, dozens of people danced to their own beats, whirling and twirling hula hoops around their hips, arms and legs.

Around the gym, people grabbed one or two of the hundreds of multicolored hoops propped against the walls and joined in, some showing friends a few tricks or techniques. Others stood around the edges of the gym, swaying to the music and taking in the scene of hoops spinning everywhere they looked.

It was the second day of Central Oregon’s first-ever major hooping event, the Evolution of Flow Northwest Hoop Gathering. Organizer Mollie Hogan, 38, a hooping instructor and owner of HoopDazzle in Bend, said about 100 hoopers from as far away as the United Kingdom were in town for the three-day gathering.

Over the weekend, Hogan said participants will have a chance to attend workshops taught by some of the hooping world’s most respected instructors, and meet up with new and old friends who share a love of an activity that’s gaining popularity among people who hoop for dancing and fitness, rather than just childhood fun.

“It’s contagious,” Hogan said. “It makes you feel good.”

Hooping first became popular in the U.S. in the 1950s, with sales of the Wham-O company’s Hula Hoop hitting 25 million in one four-month period alone.

Hogan, who describes the activity as a blend of athleticism, dance and performance art, said she started hooping about four years ago. Back then, there wasn’t much of a hooping community in Bend or elsewhere in Central Oregon, but these days, she said, more people are taking classes and hooping on their own or with friends as a way to exercise and unwind.

Hogan said about 40 of the participants in the weekend gathering are from Central Oregon. Several of the local hoopers at the event, including Gina Blanchette, 39, of Redmond, said they are fairly new to the activity.

Blanchette said she started taking classes from Hogan in January and quickly became hooked.

“For me, it’s just something to take my mind off of reality — it’s definitely kind of an escape,” she said.

Ellie Musgrove, 54, of Bend, said she remembers playing with a hula hoop as a girl, but didn’t pick up a hoop again until early 2008. Musgrove, who underwent a mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer, started hooping as a way to recover from the pain of surgery and chemotherapy. Now, she takes classes and hoops on a regular basis.

Hogan teaches classes called “Hope to Heal” for breast cancer survivors.

Musgrove said she was excited to attend the weekend sessions and learn from hoopers she’s come to respect and admire.

“I feel like I’m a teenager, meeting some of my idols,” she said.

Kathleen Phillips, 35, of Bend, said she’s been hooping off and on for about a year. As the mother of two young children, Phillips said she sometimes doesn’t have time to practice hooping as much as she’d like, but loves the challenge of participating in an activity unlike anything else she’s ever done.

“I think it’s really important to do something that really challenges you,” she said.

Though most of the hoopers warming up for a workshop Saturday afternoon were women, a handful of men were also spinning hoops.

Kent Bye, 32, of Portland, said he picked up a hoop for the first time about eight months ago and has been working on his hooping skills with the help of instructional videos posted on the Internet. Hooping, he said, is an exciting activity because there’s still room to be a pioneer.

“I like to see what people are doing with the hoop — there are a lot of new things happening,” he said.

Hogan said she hopes to make the Northwest Hoop Gathering an annual event in Bend and wants to see the activity continue to grow in popularity.

“I want people to feel like anywhere they go and see someone hooping, they can feel a sense of openness, and that they can jump in and play,” she said.