Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Grassy Dancer

In my last post I mentioned I had been at the mall to see a movie. It so happens that the mall was also having special artisans and guests as part of the Christmas program. Every weekend there will be a different theme and different artisans.  It seems to be a great idea as I had never seen the mall so busy in all my years of going to it

Even Santa made an appearance.

I loved looking at all the brightly lit Christmas trees from my vantage point on the 2nd floor. Unfortunately my cell phone camera doesn't do justice to the sight.

I promised in my last post to share a short video of a young boy I saw giving a dance performance in the mall. As I watched him I was very impressed and felt proud of him as  he danced in the tradition of the Plains Indians.

I was too far away to get a good shot but this will give you an idea of the regalia of the young boy who is wearing white and turquoise.  You can see it much better in the video below.  The female dancers are wearing jingle dresses. I didn't get a chance to watch them dance as I had an appointment to get make.


I'm not fully sure but I'm fairly sure *wink, that the young boy is dressed as a Grass Dancer and he is dancing in the spirit of the Grass Dance. I am not an expert on the dances so I've taken this short description from a website.

The Grass Dance style is a very old dance rich in history that has become very popular. In the old days, it was the job of the grass dancers to flatten the grass in the arena before a pow wow. The name "grass" does not come from the stomping of grass, but it comes from the old habit of tying braids of sweet grass to the dancer's belts, producing a swaying effect. Today, Grass Dancers resemble a multicolored swaying mass of yarn or fringe on the dance floor. The Grass Dance is a very fluid and bendable style, with the dancers trying to move their fringe in as many places as possible at once. The Grass Dance style was born in the North, but its popularity has spread South, and now this beautiful style is available for everyone (Source: http://www.thinkquest.org/pls/html/think.library)

 For information about the Grass Dancing regalia please click here.

I have embedded a short video of the young boy dancing.  It will give you a better idea of the regalia he is wearing and his footwork.  Pardon the shakiness right at the beginning of the video.  It gets better as it goes on.  I thought I had a second video to upload.  Somehow I seem to have lost it. If you find any problems with this video, please let me know. I may have to upload it again.


This is my submission to Our World Tuesday today.


I hope you enjoyed this short introduction to the Grass Dance and the young boy's performance as much as I did.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful dance!

Vores have said...

Hello Joyful
Glorious dance - wish you a great Wednesday :) Hugs Hanne Bente

Zenserly said...

the boy is such a graceful dancer! I do not think I can ever do that in this lifetime...:)

NatureFootstep said...

thanks for sharing this dance with us. It was very interesting to see. His costume seemed to be very heavy. :)

Rosemary said...

Thank you for capturing this moment for us to see.

Pride In Photos Beauty said...

The costume seemed very detailed!! I can't image who could make such a thing. Thanks for sharing.
Laurie

Diane said...

The costume is beautiful, and the little I managed to see of the dance with our very slow connection it looks so different to what I am used to with African dancers. We are off to Casablanca over Christmas, one part of Africa that I have yet to see. keep well Diane

Sabine Gimm said...

ool, this video. A beautiful traditional dance.
Many greetings Sabine

stardust said...

Thank you for sharing the traditional grass dancing and dancers clad in beautiful costumes. The link was very helpful.

Yoko

Anonymous said...

Penny,
The clothing is always so colorful. Love to look at them. Thank you for sharing.
Pat

Denise said...

Awesome dance.

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

always good to keep tradition

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