The Native American hoop dance is a significant dance to the
Native American culture. The hoop dance was traditionally
performed for healing ceremonies throughout tribal communities. The details are very limited when researching
what specific healing was done during this dance because these ceremonies were looked at as
extremely sacred events. The most
popular thought is that the healing ceremony was to bring balance and harmony
back to the world. Since becoming a popular
dance that can be regularly seen at powwows and competitions throughout the
United States, the purpose has significantly changed. The hoop dance has now become a storytelling
dance which incorporates one to fifty hoops that create different shapes. The single dancer starts with one hoop and
gradually adds in more and more hoops.
The hoops transform into different shapes including a globe, butterfly,
eagle, snake and many more. The
creativity of the dance is only limited by the dancer.[1]
The draw to this particular dance is the visual
images created by the hoops, the lively regalia, and the physical toll on the
dancer’s body. The hoop dance is usually
seen with only one dancer performing at a time.
To start, the dancer must pick up the first hoop with their feet before
touching it with their hands. As the
dance builds, it is the dancer who determines how the dance will continue
because the routines are ever-changing and unique to the individual dancer.
Regional
styles of all dances, including the jingle dress and grass dance, also
influence the hoop dancer’s personal style and movement. In the southwest, the dancers use fewer
hoops, but dance faster and use more intricate footwork. In the north, the dancers in those
communities use many hoops and tend to dance slower than the southwest
dancer. It is also customary to ask
permission to use signature dance moves created by another dancer before adding
them to your own dance. This gesture
shows a sign of respect towards the other tribal communities and the
dancers.
Many
of the hoop dances end in the same way, which is by bringing all of the hoops
together, whether four or fifty, to symbolize the world being unified as one. Being a hoop dancer requires precision,
agility, rhythm, and creativity to be able to dance this exciting dance. The body moves in and out of the hoops while
the feet stay with the beating drum.
Being a hoop dancer takes hours of dedicated practice and training.[2] Vanessa Brown, a Navajo/Sioux dancer
expresses her feelings when dancing the hoop dance: “When we dance, we
experience the rhythms of nature, like our heartbeats, like seasons, like
gestation periods.”[3]
For these dancers, it is more than just the dance itself. It is the thing that connects them to their
people, their ancestral roots, and the earth around them.
[1]
Native
Pride Arts. “Native Pride Dancers: Dancing through Life.” Native Pride Arts. Last
modified May 29, 2010. Accessed November 2, 2015. http://www.nativepridearts.org/nativepridedancers.html.
[3]
Axtmann,
Ann. Indians and Wannabes : Native American powwow dancing in the northeast
and beyond. Gainesville, FL: University Press
of Florida, 2013.
