building a Lodge dance team

[kahits]

Having been asked to meet with the new lodge chief about the possibility of helping the lodge to build a dance team, I thought I would ask here. My son already dances in the chapter, but he is alone in that regard, for obvious reasons, he has been dancing since his naming ceremony, just before he joined Tiger cubs. From what I have heard from scouters who were active in youth OA, the OA dance teams have come and gone, but in this part of the country, there are very few youth who aspire to dance, beyond wearing their ceremonial regalia and shaking a leg at conclave. Has anyone recently started an effort to build a dance team and how did they go about doing it. We have quite a few advisers that dance in the lodge, but very few youth who truly want to learn traditional regalia and dance styles, or so it would seem to me.

[John-in-KC]

PM me with full name and contact info. Our current Lodge chief is a young man I've known half a dozen years. He's been big into both C and Dance teams. If he doesn't have resources, someone will.

 

It's too bad we're not having NOAC this year. This is a darn fine question to bounce around the cracker barrel there!

[Tokala]

I've been involved in various stages of forming/maintaining the dance/sing team in my local lodge. Being in Florida, plains culture isn't accessible to Scouts without attending pow wows or adults with a lot of knowledge and willingness to coach and work with the youth. We have gone without a dance team for about 10 years and the sing team keeps trying to get something started. IMHO taking the interested youths to pow wows works the best. Currently, we only have 2-3 youth interested and we drag the drum put and let members hear in order to try and get them interested. I am not currently the sing/dance team advisor, so I tread lightly and try to assist the current situation.

[kahits]

Thanks, Tokala... I guess that is more what I was looking for in posting the question. Obviously, this is a fair challenge for most lodges, if they don't already have a vibrant group of dancers and drummers. John n KC got me a contact for a lodge officer who was willing to talk with the youth in our lodge that is leaving for college, but wanted to orchestrate a gathering of advisers and the new LC, as a means of transitioning out of the position, and hopefully getting some movement on this challenge. Our 9 chapters in the lodge are the complete range of tribal cultures (Sioux, Cheyenne, Comanche, Cherokee, Ute, Mescalero, Zuni, Crow, etc.) so the cultural empahasis or a dance team could be just about anything. I guess the traditional powwow styles would be the pallet and of course drumming is wide open. As you suggest, it really comes down to finding boys who are interested in doing one or both and going from there. Currently we have mostly adults doing dancing, other then ceremony team members wearing their regalia with no idea how to dance, and the only drum is all adults. I would like to try and change some of that and get the youth to step up, but I know that is easy for me to say. Perhaps, out of this, we can hold a workshop at Fall Conclave and see who is interested. My son dances Northern Traditional, which is an old, and sacred, traditional style, and I would like to think there may be a few youth arrowmen who might be willing to try. I wonder sometimes if any of this is easier if there were a few more native arrowmen, active in the lodge.

[John-in-KC]

Kahits,

 

JMO... any C-Team dancing in the ceremony should be that of the Lenni Lenape. They are the nation around which the ceremonies are built.

[kahits]

Interesting, JnKC,

Since that is a rather extinct East cost culture, I don't see much mentioned in the current OA handbook, other then very general regalia references. Is that the same for dance team competitions? The ceremony team dancing I was referring to was the grand entry or parade of the grand chiefs (as this lodge refers to it) that occurs after the Saturday night feast at Conclave. Anyone in regalia lines up and dances in with the flag, for about 3 songs (the flag is placed after the first song, and that is it. It's kind of an anomaly, because none of the other lodges in the section do that, or do much in terms of dancing, from what I was told. How have you seen lodge dance teams used at lodge events? I would like to see more round dancing to get new ordeal members and the other arrowmen, who are not in regalia, up and dancing to the drum, but we need a drum team of youth to start with. I see mostly adults doing too much of this.

[BrotherhoodWWW]

Not to hijack this topic but I must disagree with John-in-KC. In the guide to inductions it states that ceremony teams should if at all possible use regalia as would be worn by local peoples. I conclude by this that if any dancing also occurs then it should also be of a local type.

 

More on point I was involved in a dance team as a youth. I was a member of a Lodge centered around a city of 200,000, Spokane, Wa, and we had about 8 active members on the team. We had monthly meetings. At each meeting we not only practiced and learned dances but had a regalia workshop. While I was DT Cheif we took first at Section W-C-3 Conclave. I think the secret of our success was a really good advisor with a passion for dancing. It also helped that several of the members were also popular members of our Council's summer camp staff.

[John-in-KC]

I will spin a thread off on this later.

[Tokala]

"Since that is a rather extinct East cost culture, I don't see much mentioned in the current OA handbook, other then very general regalia references."

 

The Delaware, Lenni Lenape, still exist. They currently reside in Oklahoma and still hold dances. I was associated with their elected chief, Curtis Zunigha, during the '96 & '98 NOACs. I'm sure that there are still sources for their traditional clothing, although they too use the more common pow wow dance styles.

 

"In the guide to inductions it states that ceremony teams should if at all possible use regalia as would be worn by local peoples. I conclude by this that if any dancing also occurs then it should also be of a local type. "

 

That would cause serious problems in the Tampa Bay area. The local culture was Timucua or Weeden Island culture. These people heavily tattooed themselves and wore clothing made from Spanish moss. That's why we've been using Seminole clothing.

 

The best way to get youth interested is to take them to pow wows, even if it's just for a day. They'll get a good idea of everything that happens, from the drum, songs, dance styles, etc. That's what really worked for the team my lodge had 10 years ago.

 

P.S. I heard rumors at the AC5 event at Washington-Jefferson of the good possibility of another Indian Summer event within the next 3 years.

(This message has been edited by Tokala)

[John-in-KC]

There is now a thread on balancing history, tribal respect, and the ceremony in the Safeguarded Discussions.

 

ICS.

[Eagle92]

I sent you a PM, but anyone interested can send me a PM as well. I've restarted dance teams and am in the process of getting my current lodge's up and running. I have some resources available and advice if needed.

[Eagle92]

Ok now that I am away form work and had a chance to read fully everything, here's my $.02 worth.

 

1) While the OA is a youth run organization and you will need a highly motivated youth to be in charge, you also will need a highly motivated adult to be adviser.

 

2) You will need to promote, promote, and promote AIA at all lodge functions.

 

3) Take all comers, youth and adult.

 

4) Have the youth decide if they want to focus on team dancing, or the individual powwow styles: Chicken, Fancy Feather, Grass, Northern traditional, and Straight.

 

4A) If team dancing must do research on the dance, regalia worn, history etc. This can be a challenge

because a lot of dances have their origins in religion and/or societies. Thus we cannot use them.

 

4B)If you decide on the individual powwow styles, go to powwows, talk to dancers, visit

www.Powwows.com/gathering.

 

5) Keep promoting AIA.

 

6) If possible go to a NOAC, conclave, Indian Summer, Indian Seminar, or even another lodge's AIA training if invited. I know Tiak Lodge in MS and the Carolina Indian Seminar are two excellent seminars I've been to.

 

Some of the things we've been doing with my current lodge include the following.

 

1) Have our drum sing when while the candidates are coming into the ceremony ring and as they leave.

2) Having sessions at fellowship with outside experts.

3) Putting on an abbreviated powwow Saturday after the ceremonies.

4) Created a yahoo group for communictaion

5) Took the information I've been collection in two binders, scanned it, and added the information from a

Occoneechee Lodge AIA CD-ROM I got to create a lodge AIA info disk. And this disk covers Ceremonies,

Singing, Dancing, and extras fo Indian Lore MB.

6) Gotten dancers to OA nites at summercamp. I got to hand it to the dancers as they did that on their own.

 

Finally when the council asked the lodge to do the arena show at camporee, I jumped at it. Talk about getting a boost in interest.

 

One final note, if you are going to get a dance team going, please do it right. Do the research, go to powwows, talk to people, take your time making regalia, etc. There are a number of Native Americans who do not like the OA because some of our Brothers have been disrespectful, not done their homework in regards to regalia and the dance styles, or just think they can go crazy in the arbor. While I have never seen anyone asked to leave, it's a sad site to see a young Arroman, you can tell by the sash, dancing in inappropriate regalia and being ostracized. And my old lodge did disband the team after complaints by the local nation and the team refusing to change anything.