Modern hoop dancers attract crowd for world championship

Walt Porter

Sixty-five contestants from around the United States and Canada laced their moccasins to entertain the estimated crowd of 10,000 with hoops at the 20th Annual Heard Museum World Championship in Phoenix on Feb. 13-14.
This competition was not a traditional hoop dancing competition, as most would think.
“It’s a modern take on hoop-dancing,” said Debra Kroll, the Marketing Communications Manager for the Heard Museum.
Traditional hoop dances are sacred practices, this event was created for spectators to enjoy the modernized use of the hoops with day-to-day objects.
“We Indians, we’re really strong on family,” Kroll said.
Many of the participants have learned the tricks of the trade from family or other hoop dancers, and continue to think of new ways to add personality to their dance.
The hoops created butterflies, hummingbirds, flowers, cacti, ladders, globes and anything that can be seen in everyday life. These are examples of what the audience could see created by dancers.
Dancers are judged on precision, timing, rhythm, showmanship, creativity and speed. There were different divisions of dancers all with different styles.
The five divisions are adult, senior, teen, youth and “tiny tots.”
“Usually, at powwows I ‘fancy-dance,’ so I usually dance more wildly,” said Talon Duncan, San Carlos Apache, of Mesa. “I have been in fancy dancing. I use eight, maybe 15 hoops. It’s kind of hard (so) hopefully I get better at this.”
He learned from his older brothers, who were taught by his father. All seven of his brothers are hoop dancers.
The top prize of $2,500 for the adult division was awarded to Derrick Suwaima of the Hopi and Choctaw tribes.

  • Mesa Legend Staff

    These are archived stories from Mesa Legend editions before Fall 2018. See article for corresponding author.

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