In the pacific northwest there is a practice of standing for a verse during dance contests. This is usually in the traditional categories.
Now my thoughts on this practice:
I believe that this practice had it's beginning in the not so distant past when the style of drumming changed, from having a single central big drum, to having many drum groups. I can recall there was a big drum used during what was then locally called "war dances" (in the 1960's).
The practice then was that a Head singer would pass out the drum sticks to a known singer for a set of songs, similar to what the stick man's duty is at Round dances.
Singers would then join him at the drum.
while the singer would choose his song, the other drummers would follow along tapping softly on the drum, until they all "caught the song". When the lead singer was confident that every one had it, he would stike the drum hard and start the lead. At this time the whipman motioned to the dancers to start dancing.
Now today this is used as a part of a "traditional" protocal.
As an emcee, i try to have dancers start from the beginning of a song in order to make the judging fair to all dancers. Had the Drumming still been done as it was in the past, i would not have a qualm with this "observance". However the drum groups have thier songs all ready. There is no need to get everyone on the same page.
just food for thought any other views?
Now my thoughts on this practice:
I believe that this practice had it's beginning in the not so distant past when the style of drumming changed, from having a single central big drum, to having many drum groups. I can recall there was a big drum used during what was then locally called "war dances" (in the 1960's).
The practice then was that a Head singer would pass out the drum sticks to a known singer for a set of songs, similar to what the stick man's duty is at Round dances.
Singers would then join him at the drum.
while the singer would choose his song, the other drummers would follow along tapping softly on the drum, until they all "caught the song". When the lead singer was confident that every one had it, he would stike the drum hard and start the lead. At this time the whipman motioned to the dancers to start dancing.
Now today this is used as a part of a "traditional" protocal.
As an emcee, i try to have dancers start from the beginning of a song in order to make the judging fair to all dancers. Had the Drumming still been done as it was in the past, i would not have a qualm with this "observance". However the drum groups have thier songs all ready. There is no need to get everyone on the same page.
just food for thought any other views?
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