This past Tuesday two of Clan Loebel’s superstars, Laraugh and Katie, participated in a presentation on Native American dance and culture at Orchard Elementary in Orem, Utah. Our third superstar, Ze Mandy, was MIA at a school field trip at the time, so we had to make do without her.

The performers included a live drum group (Buffalo Nation), four hoop dancers from the Alpine School District’s Title VII program (which Katie was representing), and Laraugh doing a fancy shawl dance. Laraugh also had the honor of introducing all of the dancers and speaking about the meaning of the Native American dances that were going to be performed. The MC was the district’s Title VII coordinator. The event also included the performers leading a round dance with all of the elementary school kids and their teachers.

In my opinion, this was a big improvement over the other performances that my girls have done at some of the local schools. At the past “multicultural” events and school assemblies that the girls have danced at those events were just that - dance performances. There wasn’t an opportunity provided for them to talk about what the meaning was with what they were doing. Without being able to share what the dances mean all they amount to is passive entertainment. That isn’t really sharing your culture. That’s being a glorified circus bear - perform on demand, people clap, and no real learning takes place.

To invite engagement from people you have to teach them the meaning of what you are doing. You both then share in an experience, and real learning happens.

Being able to organize an event like this that includes components of speaking about the meaning of what you’re sharing, sharing it, and then doing something that invites participation from everyone is the way to go. Those are also the types of events that we look for as a family to participate in as the learners.

The pictures below show some of the highlights. Click on them to see the full size versions.

Laraugh talks about some of the meaning of the Native American hoop and fancy shawl dances. She talked about the dances as being a way of expressing spiritual beliefs and what some of those beliefs are. Her statement of the day was: “The clothing that we wear when we dance is called ‘regalia,’ NOT costumes. The word ‘regalia’ is another way of saying ‘holy clothing.’ Please do NOT call them costumes.” I got a chuckle out of her publicly addressing her pet peeve.

After the hoop and shawl dances the performers went out into the audience, got everyone on their feet, and invited them to share in a round dance.