Comparing The Jingle Dress Dance And Powwow Dance

Powwows are celebrations that showcase Aboriginal music, dances, dance apparel, food and crafts. Powwow dances are beautiful expressions of indigenous spirituality, history and culture. Two of these dances that are performed both traditionally and competitively at powwows are the Hoop dance and the Jingle Dress dance. These dances have both similarities and differences that I will outline below. Both the Hoop dance and the Jingle Dress dance are performed by the Anishinaabe (Ojibwa origins), the third largest tribe in North America. The Jingle dance is most commonly performed by women where the Hoop dance is most often performed by men. As both dances are becoming more modernized sometimes they can be performed by both men and women. The Hoop dance is a story-telling dance that involves 1-30 hoops. It symbolizes a prayer that the promised renewal of the collective human spirit will accelerate and we will all find our place in one great hoop that is made up of many hoops. It is known as the entertaining dance where the dancer is a counselor and the hoops represent a

It is a healing dance that involves spring-like steps and originally required one foot to remain on the ground at all times representing the dancer being connected to the earth. The Jingle Dress dance like the Hoop dance represents prayer and healing. Unlike the Hoop dance it is not geographically specific and has been adapted by both the northern and southern communities. Women performing the Hoop dance wear basic elements including leggings, moccassins, dress, hair piece and accessories. The women dance to the spirit in the song and dance to the beat with the drums. The dance symbolizes the power of indigenous spirituality and women. An interesting fact about the Jingle Dress dance is that the dancer wears metal cones on their dresses that were originally made by tobacco