The beating of the drum rushed through the crowd as they listened to powerful singers.
In the center of a ring, one dancer used hoops to create the shapes of eagles and baskets.
The crowd was mesmerized and full of energy.
This was the scene on March 26 and 27 at the Heard Museum, where roughly 100 dancers competed in the 32nd annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest.
“It is the largest hoop dancing event in the country,” said Samantha Toledo, assistant manager of community engagement at the Heard Museum. About 85 tribes were represented at the event, according to Toledo.
The event was back in person after being online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the competition required dancers to send in videos to be judged, according to Toledo. The last time dancers were able to gather in person for the championship was in February 2020.
The event, which has been hosted at the Heard Museum for 31 years, is a judged competition for the hoop dancers. The competitors were grouped into five categories, including tiny tot, youth, teen, adult and seniors. The dancers ranged from young children just learning how to dance to older dancers who have danced for years and are leaders in their community.
“They are judged in five elements, those five are precision, timing and rhythm, showmanship, creativity, and originality and speed,” Toledo said.
“I’m looking for how well they stay in time with the drum, how well they can express the song, how well they can make it come alive,” said Eddie Swimmer, a judge for the event. Swimmer, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, was also the winner of the first World Championship Hoop Dance in 1991 and danced along with Tony White Cloud.
Tony White Cloud, who was from the Jemez Pueblo in New Mexico, is “known as the father of modern hoop dance,” according to the Arizona Museum of Natural History.
White Cloud standardized the usage of five hoops and made appearances in many movies throughout the 1940s and 50s, according to Indian Country Today. He created the formations from the five hoops based on traditional patterns from his Pueblo upbringing, according to Indian Country Today.
Given this long-standing tradition in many Indigenous cultures, judges like Swimmer were looking for skill and poise.
The judges look for things that range from large to small, with judges looking at things like the hoops “plastics can pretty much make anything. Wooden ones are fragile,” Swimmer explained.
Hoop dancing is a form of Native American dance where a dancer dances to a drum and singers or single singer using a number of hoops. It stretches beyond just a dance used for competition.
“It is a way of life … The circle is very important to the Native American people,” Swimmer said.
The dancers prepare for the weeks leading up to the event. For some, it is a family affair.
“Myself and my children dance all year round,” Tony Duncan, one of the dancers and a member of San Carlos Apache, MHA Nations, Plains Cree, and Taino tribe, said. Practicing all throughout the year. Specifically about two weeks before I make new hoops, make sure the outfits are nice.”
Their outfits were intricately decorated and packed with detail.
“Everything is done by hand,” Duncan explained. These outfits are assembled with the help of many “friends and family come to help,” said Naiche Duncan, a dancer at the event and son of Tony Duncan.
Hoop dancing is an intensive art that requires “staying in shape,” according to Tony Duncan.
The physical intensity is felt by many dancers, including Swimmer. “It hurts, you’re dancing for 7 minutes,” Swimmer said.
The intensity is what draws in some, Mitchell Shonkwaiataroroks Gray, who is Mohawk, first got into hoop dancing because of his mother. “I was like a potato on a couch and my mother wanted me to be active,” Gray said. “So, she took me to hoop dancing classes with Nakotah LaRance.”
Nakotah LaRance, who was a Tewa, Hopi, Navajo and Assiniboine hoop dancer, died in July 2020 at 30 years old, according to Indian Country Today. LaRance was a well-known face at the Heard Museum’s annual championship in addition to being a hoop dance teacher and Cirque du Soleil dancer.
“Hoop dance is originally a medicine dance, for healing,” LaRance, the three-time World Champion, told the Arizona Daily Star in 2016.
Others also consider hoop dancing a healing experience.
Gray explained that there is a more spiritual way he thinks when he prepares and when he dances. “When I’m dancing I think of something called the ‘Ohenten Kariwatekwen,’ which is Mohawk for ‘words before all else.’ You just give thanks for everything. Dancing is a healing ceremony. So, when I’m dancing I’m trying to heal.”
“Hoop dancing started off as a way of healing. To me, today it still carries the same energy of healing and bringing us together,” Tony Duncan said.
The meaning of hoop dancing also is felt by each of the dancers, with how they feel when dancing. “Everyone is looking at you thinking he is special and he can do anything” stated Naiche Duncan, a member of the San Carlos Apache, MHA Nations, Plains Cree, and Taino tribe. “It gives me a form of happiness,” he continued.
“I started dancing pretty young,” explained Manaya Duncan, a member of the San Carlos Apache, MHA Nations, Plains Cree, and Taino tribes, a dancer at the event and the daughter of Tony Duncan. “Through the years it started as something fun and challenging. Now as I get older I like to make people happy and spread knowledge. It still is fun though.” she continued.
“Watching all my children dance is a really good feeling,” Tony Duncan said. He taught all of his children to dance, and was taught to dance by his father, Ken Duncan Sr.
After two days of competition, Sampson Sixkiller Sinquah, a member of Gila River Pima, Hopi-Tewa and Cherokee Nation, was declared the new World Champion.
While the competition ended, the dancers carry on dancing whether it be back home or at different pow wows. “I think hoop dancing is gonna stay with me my whole life,” Gray said. “I don’t think it’ll ever leave me.”
Contact the reporter at psmithga@asu.edu.
