Is there Traditional and Contemporary Straight Dance?

[Historian]

Would you say that there is now a distinct sub-division within the Straight Dance Style?

Traditional Straight Dance?

Contemporary Straight Dance?

[CHEROSAGE]

Hey there Historian:I don't know anything about the Easterns but I do think that the contemporary style is evolved. I think that the Judges selected to judge straight dance contest don't always know about straight dancing and judge on flash as though it was a fancy dance. This has caused this contemporary dance step among non tradish straight dancers. Not too many dance this way during the Inlonshka.

[WhoMe]

Would you say that there is now a distinct sub-division within the Straight Dance Style?

Traditional Straight Dance?

Contemporary Straight Dance?

__

What I have seen at the Man Dances/Helushkas of the Oklahoma Tribes is very dignified. This is what I see as traditional.

At powwows, the "contemporary style" is more prominent: dancing backwards, circling the stick, shaking the shoulders and dancing all hibity-jibity like! (remember the movie Forrest Gump)?



*L

[Fat Albert]

Contemp...

I have seen some contest dancers dance real flashy for contest and then 'clean up' for those ceremony dances. I remember A. Conklin telling a few of us that he liked a dancer that used the shoulders right. I think there is a real difference in the style of dance as well as the clothes. I keep getting told that in Hethuska it is not about beads and feathers and have noticed that in contest, beads and feathers can make a real difference. Time and place these days I guess.

[ANGELO]

pretty much there is gona be contemp in everything u do. as there is tridish. to the old peeps from the 1700's, they would consider what we call tridish as contemp. myself i love to dance contemp and also i love to dance at the ceremonial dances. i wouldnt dance at a ceremony the way i would dance at a contest powwow as for the moves. moves are for the judges and the people who like powwow dancin. if u wanna see real straight dancin then go to grey horse, if you wanna see powwow dancin then go to a powwow. i remember when straight dance was jus danced by the old men and we called it the old man's dance, then a bunch of us young guyz from oklahoma started to dance it and compete with eachother and thats where we got our contemp from. other dancers may have there own stories. but we would come up with new moves and get the old regalia desighns from our grandpas and bring it back. people who didnt know would call us carried away and that our regalia was not rite. yet some poncas and tribes around them would see we were goin old style. its funny cuz we went old to be new. so if u dance contemp then have fun, but if u dance hethuska then dance the way your tribe has taught you. anywayz jus believe in what you do and do it to the best of your abilities.

[WhoMe]

. . . i wouldnt dance at a ceremony the way i would dance at a contest powwow as for the moves. moves are for the judges and the people who like powwow dancin. if u wanna see real straight dancin then go to grey horse, if you wanna see powwow dancin then go to a powwow. . . . so if u dance contemp then have fun, but if u dance hethuska then dance the way your tribe has taught you.

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Angelo,

I was wondering where your travels have taken you! ND huh? Do you straight dance there? Are you still singing?

Anyways,

You have a good explanation of separating straight dance contests from helushka!

[Historian]

Dance Clothes

I think we have established that there are some differences between the "Traditional" dance styles predominantly seen at the formal man dance ceremonies of organizations like the Hethuska, the Inlonshka and the Iruska, and the "Contemporary" dancing styles and movements emerging in the contest Pow-Wows.

However, is there a noticable difference in the dance clothes of someone who dances in a Traditional Straight Dance style and someone who dances in a Contemporary Straight Dance Style. If there are differences, what are they? Could you give some examples?

For my example, I recently saw a Straight Dancer at a Pow-Wow wearing what I considered a "contemporary" component of his dance clothes. In place of the traditional Otter Tail or a traditional set of Hair Plates, the dancer wore a set of round mirrors in graduating sizes (looking similar to Hair Plates), mounted on lime-green wool broadcloth, with bundle of bright orange ribbons at the tip to drag on the ground like the traditional horse hair tip. It definately caught the judge's eye.

[Gledanh Zhinga]

There is a difference between "rockin' along smoothly, kind of "ice skating" like Colonel Moore and Smokey Lookout used to do (remember them?) and scooting/skipping forward RAPIDLY, as in a present-day contest. The latter reminds me of a stock car race on a dirt track, and the fastest guy can win.

[Dwayne Pierce]

Would you say that there is now a distinct sub-division within the Straight Dance Style?

Traditional Straight Dance?

Contemporary Straight Dance?

there is a noticeable difference from the style today and the style I saw in the 70's while at boarding school. I'm not sure which "tradional" style you refer to. There is the Oklahoma style and the Eastern style. Both can be considered tradional I'm told. The new contemporary style is more flashy and the step has changed. I'm leaning more to the OK style myself

[mr_red]

Would you say that there is now a distinct sub-division within the Straight Dance Style?

Traditional Straight Dance?

Contemporary Straight Dance?

These days many straight dancers dance much differently, kicking their legs up, doing back and side steps. Over stocking themselves with too many itmes on their outifit....

[Mato Mahe]

Would you say that there is now a distinct sub-division within the Straight Dance Style?

Traditional Straight Dance?

Contemporary Straight Dance?

Definitely!


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[WhoMe]

Historian,

There are several competition dancers who don't attend their traditional dances or don't have traditional dances to attend.

And...

There are traditional straight dancers who don't attend contemporary contest powwows!