What age were you?

[Okwataga]

What age were you when you started dancing?

I was actually 20, never been to a pow wow before in my life.
went to my first one in Tate , GA. meet some really nice people and been dancing ever since.

Unlike most on here, grew up in the city, didn't grow up on the rez, now i live here and my children are growing up on the rez

[FancyStar]

I went to my first pow-wow as a baby. It was actually a benefit pow-wow in MO for Leornard Peltier. I started dancing when I was 10. I started as fancy shawl and 15 years and 2 kids later I am still doing fancy shawl!

[Tsiniti]

Until 9 yrs ago, I was under the impression that if you weren't invited to a Pow Wow you weren't allowed to go, so I was invited, and kind of laughed at for that idea, but if that is what you were told all growing up, it's what you believe!

Then after going to several Pow Wows, some of the Elders started asking me when I was going to dance, but I told them the same thing, and thought you needed to be invited into the ring, so one Elder man flat out told me Consider myself invited, and if I don't get in that ring on my own, he would personally see to it, I was "walked" out there the next time he saw me!

So the very next Pow Wow (the following year) I danced for the first time! That was last year! But I don't, and won't compete.

[pawnee_babe_original]

I took my first steps in the arena... Grew up in the city, and we went to powwows All the time! :) It was really cool, so nearly All Of My Best Friends Are Peeps I Grew Up With On The "Powwow Circuit" :)

So I started out as a southern cloth dancer, and when I was about 6 or 7 years old, I switched to fancy shawl. After that, when I turned 15 I went back to southern cloth and been dancing that way ever since!....

[STATE]

I was brought into the arena at home when I was 3. I danced cloth but really liked Fancy Shawl. I was Jr. Miss Sac&Fox when I was 9. After that I danced fancy until I got too chubby. LOL I was Sac&Fox princess at 16. Did not dance for awhile after that (I had severe burnout after the princess route). I got married, then danced Buckskin for a couple of years and then finally found my niche with Southern Cloth again. I used to feel funny dancing cloth up north in the late 70's and early 80's because there was no southern up there waaaay back then. Now it is the norm just about everywhere. When I was a little girl, my grandma Mabel made all of my outfits. I had ribbonwork skirts that I really took for granted. I thought everybody's grandma was like mine. Now I look at those skirts and shirts and realize how much hard work and expertise it took to make those little designs so intricate for a little girl. My girls have them now. I truly appreciate the hard work and dedication my grandparents and parents had to dress me in my traditional clothes. I guess some things you don't appreciate until it is almost too late. Life's lessons.....

[Ayita16]

I went to my first powwow when I was 4. And I started dancing southern cloth when I was 5 till I was about 13. Stopped dancing for a year and a half. Than started doing Fancy Shawl which lasted for about 10 months. Than I started doing Traditional again this past december. And as Pawnee Babe says all my best friends (mostly) are all on the powwow circuit.

[Ceapha_0919]

The day after I was born, my parents took me to a powwow. My daddy used to carry me around the circle all the time. After I learned to walk, I started fancy shawl. When I was around 10-11... I started jingle but stuck with fancy. Been doin fancy for 15 years now :)

[eagle_plume999]

i started dancin when i was two...ma whole fam dances so they brought me to powwows and they say i stared at the dancers cuz they were so flashy.lol..so they made me an outfit and i loved it ever since!:)

[nimkiikwe_49]

I started dancing at the tenderage of 5, well that's when I had an offical outfit... and pictures... I do believe that my parents brought me to pow wow's before that... I started out as Tradish..and then went to fancy...back to tradish...

[ogapahndn]

I've attended powwows and danced all my life. I've danced every style there is, but currently do mostly fancy shawl.

[ONETA]

I started dancing last year at the young age of 30, but I have gone to pow wows for a few years just to watch and went in for intertribals in regular clothes. Then two years ago my friend Mary, White Buffalo Woman, asked me to try dancing the following year and I did. I've been dancing ever since. :D :bouncy:

[RainyDaze49]

Hmmmmm......

I was 18 when I first danced......enit???

No no no, i think I was like 8 years old or around there...... Yeah but I wasnt serious about it.....So yeah 18

[homalosa]

the ripe old age of 26

[fncyshwldncr4life]

I was shaking my stuff (lol) by the time i was 9, Officially at 13 was when my way was paid in and i started dancing in regalia. Now I cant stand goin to a pow-wow and not dancing in regalia.. I need new duds so I didnt dress as much as usual.. man it drove me nuts..im not a spectator, more like participant. Just doesnt feel right..:(

[CHEROSAGE]

Our children were dancing while in our arms. they were not able to dance on their own.
I was about 10 yrs old when I was able to dance by myself. My wife on the other hand was not raised to Powwow. She will dance now.