Deidre Skylar And The Sun Dance

The Sun Dance is a very well known ceremony that was practiced by the Native American tribes. The Sun Dance is a “great religious drama in which individuals pledge vows to the Great Spirit in return for his help” (Dolittle, 118), and contains self sacrificing arrangements between the people that represent the ignorance that need to be let go of. It takes at least a year for this dance to be organized, well thought and planned for. Using Deidre Skylar’s article “Five Premises for a Culturally Sensitive Approach to Dance” helps us understand and take a greater look into the Sun Dance. Three of her five premises that will be used to express the culture significance of the Sun Dance are “one has to look beyond movement to get at its meaning, movement

The men that were dancing were letting others physically hurt them. One of the things that were done to them was that the men were pierced with a length of bone on each side of their chest. The premise that would express this would be “one has to look beyond movement to get at it’s meaning”. If people were to watch this and have no clue what this dance is about they would not understand the meaning behind all of it. These men were pledging vows to the Great Spirit in return for his help, after suffering a whole lot and in the end being freed from the bonds of flesh. In order to understand what is going on, one would have to let go of the knowledge they have about the pain being endured and understand that these men were looking for spiritual power or insight. They believed that in conclusion once they are freed, their tribe would be looked after and taken care of and that their prayers would all finally be

These men all had a reason for the suffering they went through. Just like Skylar went on to say about the way people move or do things, there is always more to it. “The way people move is more than biology, more than art, and more than entertainment. All movement must be considered as an embodiment of cultural knowledge” (Skylar, 30) The dancers are sacrificing themselves for their people in order to receive power in exchange. Sacrificing allows the dancers to give a part of themselves for their people to feel some sort of strength. The circle they created was a symbol like storytelling to show the traditions from generations that were being passed down from each other. The Sun Dance seems to be serving the tribe and the earth. There were many rituals that came from the sun dance, there was the ritual of the sacred pipe, the purification ceremony, monthly prayer ceremonies, and a yearly ritual. The Native American tribes were very strong minded and believed that getting things and giving things in return was very important between their culture. During the sun dance the dancers believed that the buffaloes were giving themselves to them for food, so in return they would offer a piece of them for some type of