Infinite Wisdom of the Hoop Dance

The hoop dance represents everything in life, and the hoops themselves represent the challenges in our life, thus the dance can be used as lesson as well for any situation in life. As a hoop dancer the lessons of the dance are always unfolding in my life in different ways, often this depends on why and where I am performing, who I am teaching, etc. This is one of the reasons I began this blog in the first place. My hoop dance teacher shared that the shapes a dancer makes are manifested to the audience in ways they need to see them, so each time you watch the hoop dance a new understanding may emerge. After a school performance a teacher asked if her students could say what shapes they saw, and if I could tell them whether they were right or wrong. I shared that it is up to the spectator to decide what they saw, it is the 'manitous' (spiritual beings) who present themselves to people in certain ways. This is a reflection of the limited ways society sometimes views the world around us - such as being black and white, right or wrong, and good or bad. The hoops on the other hand represent continuity- constant movement and constant change. ​Because the hoop dance creates different understandings the more it is performed and viewed, it becomes a symbol of infinite wisdom, and this is evident in the shape of the hoop itself, a shape with no beginning and no end...

​Photo Credit: Kyle Fowler Photography