Rachel Jade, originally from Porthcawl, South Wales, began dancing aged 2½ at her local dance school, where she studied Ballet, Tap and Jazz until turning 18.
 

Aged 20, Rachel chose to study the full-time Preliminary Dance Course back at Rubicon Dance – a 2-year course that would prepare her to achieve her life-long dream of becoming a professional dancer.

Unfortunately, only 1-year into the course Rachel suffered an injury to her foot. Due to an incorrect diagnosis she continued to train and dance on the foot. Months later came the devastating news that she had a condition known as avascular necrosis – whereby training and dancing a piece of fragmented

bone in the ball of her foot resulted in a loss of blood supply to the region of bone.

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Rachel’s dance training came to a cruel and abrupt end, her dreams were shattered, and her lifetime of training seemed wasted. This was devastating, dance was Rachel’s life, it was how she expressed herself, it was who she was – and it had been taken away. Following this were 2 incredibly challenging years for Rachel, a never ending cycle of prosthetic and orthopaedic treatments culminating some 2-years later in surgery to bring to an end the agonising pain she suffered with her foot and heel. Subsequently she was supported by a talented physiotherapist, who slowly helped Rachel rebuild her strength and confidence.
 

Then, in early 2018, Rachel spotted a Weighted Hula Hoop and thought it would be a fun exercise to do from home before or after work. Rachel took to Hula Hooping naturally and soon developed a passion for the Hula Hoop, this exercise made her laugh and smile and allowed her to let go - just in the same way she did when dancing. The inner dancer couldn’t be held at bay and she was soon incorporating elements of her recovery physiotherapy and dancing into the Hula Hoop exercises.

Quietly, Rachel continued dancing in the Hula Hoop a few times a week, however, didn’t realise exactly what she had created for herself until COVID-19. In March 2020, Rachel’s best friend and housemate, Terese, was forced into isolation. Confined to her room, Terese was watching Rachel dance with the Hula Hoop and was blown away with what she saw, Terese commented that she had never seen anything like it and encouraged Rachel to post it to show people. On her first day out of isolation Terese and fellow housemate Luigi recorded Rachel, they made their first post and shared with everyone Rachel's passion and talent.

At the suggestion of friends to post Hula Hoop tutorials, Hula Dancercise™ was born. Hula – in reference to the Hula Hoop and Dancercise – in reference to her passion for dancing and combined exercise.

On 1st June 2020, Rachel shared her very first tutorial and had created her social media channels.
 

Since then, Rachel has amassed over 1M followers via social media (as of 2020).

From this point onwards Rachel has continued to share her creativity and enthusiasm with a view to inspiring others to pick up the Hula Hoop and to keep active during lockdowns. It didn’t take long for this to get spotted, with weighted Hula Hoops trending on TikTok and Rachel’s videos going viral – receiving millions of views on TikTok and Instagram.
 

Hula Dancercise has completely changed Rachel’s life. Something born out of injury and disappointment has grown to become a hugely positive, uplifting and inspiring influence in her life.