Native American Hoop Dance

It features a solo dancer dancing with a dozen or more hoops and using them to form a variety of both static and dynamic shapes (poses and moves).

[4] In elaborate sequences of moves, the hoops are made to interlock, and in such a way they can be extended from the body of the dancer to form appendages such as wings and tails.

More popular now are reed and plastic hose hoops decorated with tape and paint, according to the dancer's preference.

According to writer Basil H. Johnston in Anishinaabe culture, a Manitou named Pukawiss, brother of Nanabozho, and born to live amongst the people, created the hoop dance.

His fascination with things drove his father's interest away from him towards his brother Maudjee-kawiss, therefore, leading to everyone calling him Pukawiss: the disowned or unwanted.

Pukawiss taught his village about the animals by spinning like an eagle in flight or hopping through grass like rabbits or bouncing like a baby deer.

The White Mountain Apache is one of the few Native American tribes that was not forced to leave its territory and live on a reservation when faced with the Westward expansion of the US government.

[11] The modern medicine has taken away some of the healing ritual and traditional curing ceremonies, however, dancing still retains its strong spiritual significance.

One boy and one girl stood on the east, south, west and north side of him, holding crosses and hoops.

[15] The hoop dance is part of the pan-Indian movement and as such has evolved over the years by becoming faster and incorporating many influences from outside traditional culture such as the use of moves from hip hop dance as well as the widespread use of industrial piping to construct hoops that were originally made from reeds or willow branches.

Nakota La Rance, already a six-time World Championship winner at 23, performed for the 2010-11 season of Totem by Cirque du Soleil.

In 1994, Jackie Bird (Mandan, Hidatsa and Santee Sioux, from South Dakota) became the first woman to compete in the Hoop Dance World Championships.

[16] For performing at Mount Rushmore,[17] Jasmine Pickner (Lakota) has been featured in the PBS documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea (2009).

In 2000, Lisa Odjig (Odawa and Anishnaabe, from Ontario, Canada) became the first female adult Hoop Dance world champion.

[19] The inventor of modern hoop dance, Tony White Cloud, popularized it to America by performing it in the movie Valley of the Sun in 1942.

His dance awed spectators as it created visual images of the seasons, of the moon and sun, flowers, butterflies and way of life.