Looking for ideas

[tamarinne]

So the prop designer and I have come to an agreement about the dragon - she'll build the head, I'll cover the head and body with fabric and make it look appropriately dragony.  This way, we both win - I don't have to be sitting on the bathroom floor at 1 AM having a meltdown because Dragon Head Mark 4 has just imploded (c.f. Jabberwocky) and she doesn't have to touch a sewing machine.  Yay!

Here's the thing, though - ideally, what we'd like to do is make the body out of 3 arches connected by fabric, so that the three actors who will be operating the dragon will be able to manipulate the body in some semblance of a snakey fashion.  Brilliant idea #1 was to get two hula hoops and chop them in half to make the arches.  Sadly, it doesn't seem to be hula hoop season, and we have not been able to find any hula hoops in the stores.    Does anyone out there have an idea for a good (and hopefully CHEAP) material that could be used to form the arches?  It should be strong enough to hold up the weight of fabric and still hold an arch shape that has terminal points about shoulder-width apart.