How to Dance Powwow

hello my name is Deanna peel and today I will be showing you how to do a basic power dance so first of all we're gonna go through I'm intertribal just a straight song with the straight beat and I'll be showing you how to move your feet so first of all I would like everyone to clap their hands like this and now we're gonna go down to the ground one two so now we're gonna do the same thing that we did with our hands but with our feet so we're gonna go one two one two one two one two so notice here that one is a tap and two is all your body weight one is a tap two is all your body weight so that is your basic straight song step I was taught to call it a front step so you could take that and you can walk with it so you can go buddy weight body weight body weight let's just say you want to dance to an intertribal we're just gonna do the basic one two one two step and we're just going to casually walk around and we can talk with the person next to us [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] notice every time that you hear a drumbeat your feet are touching the ground with the same one-two one-two step so to make this step a little bit more difficult we're gonna bounce doing it we're gonna I'm gonna show you how I dance is a fancy shawl dancer so I dance on the balls of my feet to do just that step for one whole song is very hard it's very hard on your cuff muscles so just ease into it and just practice practice practice do what you can in each time so typically women our dance steps are very high up kind of like ballerinas and very bouncy like a jingle just dance or a fancy shawl dancer on the men's dances they're more flat-footed and their their postures down to the ground kind of like sitting on a chair so you'll see the men they'll dance like go do one two and the women will be like so how I was taught to come up with dance choreography was that the Thunderbird house twelve years ago they taught me there to put us to paint the box around your feet and you would sable the box with numbers so like the back would be four three two and one and the same numbers on the other side so four three two one and you can number off your combinations like right now I'm gonna do 4 3 1 so 4 3 1 4 3 1 and to keep your body balanced I was taught whatever you do on one side you do on the other side step sides one of my all-time favorites is criss cross so it's pretty easy everyone usually can do it Chris Chris you can do small kicks kick small kit let's do our own choreography so we're gonna start off we're gonna do four counts of a criss cross four followed by four small cakes one two three four followed by four side taps so two on my right and two on my left one two so now let's put it all together criss-cross two three four small kick first small kick step so that's just one basic way to come up with choreography for an intertribal dance at a powwow most dancers freestyle but this is just like a good routine to get your body used to moving that way [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] but most people learn by just years and years of practice and freestyling becoming a power dancer is a journey and you need to learn from your community members your elders I'm Anna Schnabel I spent many years learning about the seven grandfather teachings and medicine wheel it was taught to me that when I put on my regalia I am a role model so I have to act respectfully and set examples and teach other people who want to learn when I'm wearing my regalia it's about balance and keeping your whole life in balance the next step if you are watching this to become a power dancer my advice would be to learn the songs and practice practice practice because your body needs to get you need to train your body to know these down steps

Channel: John Hupfield

Views: 603,952

Rating: 4.9251723 out of 5

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Id: TMfORbFjJ6Q

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 24 2014