Contemp. Womans Trad dancers....

[~*Oji_Flava*~]

Every year the powwow world is getting more and more contemporary.....

I thought I would start a thread regarding contemporary Womans traditional dancers.

What are your views...
Is it possible to be contemp, while still looking graceful?
Should this style of dance be done contemporary? Or even be classified as a 'possibility' of becoming more and more contemp?
Not the appearance of someone's outfit/beadwork....but by the style of dance.

Any other views?

[MayChe]

what exactly are you seeing that looks contemporary?

[Kakeeya]

I see the Women that dance stationary and sway their fringe as contemporary more so than the old style of bouncing and snapping their fringes. Most of the swayers look graceful until the drum gets faster then some of the women's fringes start going all over the place. Also the Northern women that walk/dance, some of them can let their fringes get pretty wild. It is good to see more control of the fringes and the better dancers know how to do that, which is beautiful. Not really sure about other kinds of Women's traditional contemporary though!! :)

[LumbeeTurtle]

traditional vs. contemporary
these two words are used in a sentence to describe two juxtaposed subjects, and not a mixture. using them together is more of an oxymoron. how you can have contemporary traditional or traditional contemporary dancing is perplexing to me. you either have one or the other. a combination of both just results in a completely new dance style.

[~*Oji_Flava*~]

The reason I asked the question was...
At this one powwow, during the 2nd song - which happened to be a rounddance - I noticed this one girl really really bouncing. Not only was her fringe a swaying, her beaded top was bouncing along with all her accesories. Whether or not she was doing her rounddance on her toes and boucing pretty wild she did great at the powwow. Beautiful beadwork too :Thumbs

Times do change...from when a sidestep was flat footed and a very traditional dance as well...and now old-style and contemporary are rightfully 2 different catergories.

Is doing a round dance on your toes considered contemp? Or is there some nations out there present their style of round dance songs on their toes?

It depends on who is judging and what they look for.

Any other thoughts?

[_RoBbY_]

My views:

Well, I'm a male dancer.... I dance the Northern Traditional style with a delux bustle.

-- I've seen only women who do not know how to dance hop around like you discribed.... But, seeing that you saw a woman in buckskin regalia doing the side-step to a round dance song I wouldn't expect much difference. Things are going to pop when you doing any style of round dance. My bustle jumps, and my breastplate does too.... All of the traditional girls' fringe is popping as well as their breastplate and/or beaded top yoke.

-- As to "contemporary" traditional dancing....

My friend Enya who is Kiowa, and Simenole-Negro is a traditional buckskin dancer. She dances a Northern plains style, closer to her Kiowa roots (although she does have a southern traditional cloth dress that she dances in when she's at a primarily southern-dancer powwow. ) She has this Black soul about her.... She sings soul, gospel, and R&B music, she loves going out to clubs and shaking what her "mama gave her." During a powwow, she requested that the MC allow the drum that was guest, which had a Red-Black sitting with them, to have a birthday song. She requested a really cool song, that is a "contemporary" birthday song.... At first it starts of slow, as she enters the arena, makes her round, and then it gets a very distinct, fast, and hip-hopish sound to it... She breaks up her dancing technique and throws in some of that "club" rythum. By that time anyone who knows traditional dancing, and how tough it can be is on their feet in an aplaud for how she kept the origional beat and swaying fringe and added a more complex step.

-- What do I think about adding your own "style" in with your already existing dance style - I don't care until you start making a mockery out of the powwow arena itself, or the style. Traditional dancers dancing a fancy style.... Jingle dancers dancing traditional style.... Northern traditional girls dancing southern style, letting their fringe drag the ground as they try to go "as low as they can go" like most southern traditional cloth dancers try... Disrespecting anything sacred to the Indian people is uncalled for.

Our culture is forever changing, we can never forget that... And traditional wouldn't the the traditional we have today, that many traditionals are "fighting" to safe, if we didn't have change is culture, style, and fashion.

Just my two cents -

_RoBbY_