This Week’s Theme: Hoops
Two time World Champion Native American Hoop Dancer Moontee Sinquah in action. Spectacular! I count at least 30 hoops. The Hoop Dance is a centuries old story telling dance and awesome to watch as the dancers transform themselves into different characters and animals throughout the dance.
About Native American Hoop Dancing from TraditionalNativeHealing.com:
The hoop dance is done with as many hoops as 40 and is performed by a single dancer. Yes you read that right. 40 hoops!! Used by one person! The hoops are used dynamically and in a static manner (like the picture above in which you can see spheres created by the dancer). The dance typically begins with one hoop though. If you think of a hoop, well it is a circle and we now know that the circle is a very significant shape within the native culture. It represents the sacred cycle of life, the never ending cycle. The Medicine wheel, the four stages of life. As well as the interconnectedness of us all, the fact that we all are related, part of a circle. The hoops represent all the elements that come together, the elements being connected. Slowly, hoops are added representing different elements, including animals, other humans or the life elements such as water or air or even life events such as marriage. The hoops and movements of the dancer are evocative of animals movements. Indeed, the formations made with hoops can represent wings or a tail for example.
Watch Moontee and his sons in action:
And here is World Champion Hoop Dancer Lisa Odjig.
Inspiration for Today
“And I say the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father.” ~ Black Elk
Happy Coloring!
joyfully, Maureen
www.TheMandalaLady.com
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