Native American dancers entertain and educate

By TOM LAVENTURE

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Ironwood - A warm, sunny evening and the promise of an entertaining and educational experience drew a few hundred people to the Ironwood Downtown City Square for First Friday.

The roar of applause showed the crowd was indeed pleased with the dance and story presentation of Woodland Sky Native American Dance Company. 

Heather Nyman, of Bessemer, said she enjoyed watching the event with her children, Bryce and Keira Martin. 

"The dress was pretty amazing to see and I liked hearing the stories," she said.

Bryce Martin, 14, said the show was interesting.

"I learned a lot of new things about Indian culture," he said.

Keira, 8, said this was the first time she was able to see Native American dance in person. 

"It was really interesting to see and fun to see them dancing all around," she said.

The company provided a scaled down portion of their show but the performers included the company's two co-founders, Shane Mitchell and Michelle Reed of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Ojibwe, and storyteller Ronnie Preston of the San Carlos Apache tribe in Arizona who now lives in Milwaukee.

The group performed several dances from the well known hoop dance to the healing dance, the shield dance, the women's fancy shawl dance, and the duck and dive dance. Each dance included a narrative to explain not only the movement but the symbolism of the dress and the origin story.

"Ronnie is a storyteller and that is what he does," Reed said. "He's an educator."

The company tells stories through dance as a way of attracting more people to events that also serve to educate about Native American culture and people, said Reed, who is from Crystal Falls. The goal is for people to learn something about the connection of traditional dance with the past, but also to see Native American culture as a living culture.

The stories and dances are a heritage that is combined with a contemporary expression that is the evolution of culture - not of replicating something from the past, she said. One example is the clothing she designs with more contemporary fabric and items, she said.

The clothing is unique to that person and is not a "costume" as it's often called, Reed said. 

The performances for schools and larger events include elders and children to represent all age groups of Ojibwe, Menominee, Potawatomi, Lakota and Apache dancers. The larger performances add more choreography for more dancers. 

Preston told the story of the eagle feather as a way of understanding the cycle of life. The fluffy barbs at the base of the feather are thick, ruffled and appear full of life as are young people. The remaining barbs are uniform and smooth but thin until coming to an end as are adult lives with responsibilities to family and community.

The feather also has imperfections that represent the unexplained or unexpected things that happen in every life. In his life this meant being raised in an abusive household, becoming an educator to teach youth about their culture, the drum and their language; and then as a counselor to work against the tide of substance abuse, domestic violence and racism and the racism of judging people because of skin, language or the braided hair. 

"This is my eagle feather. This is my story," Preston said. 

The hoop dance included the medicine wheel that is divided into four sacred colors of red, black, yellow and white. Stories say it represents north, east, south and west, while other stories say it represents the four races of people upon Mother Earth.

The creator provided three rules, he said. "Be kind to one another, respect one another, and to love one another."

"We're equal," Preston said. "No matter what, we all breathe the same air. We drink the same water."

Honoring the three rules does not cost anything, he said. Neglecting the three rules will cost a lot to get them back, he said.

"I'm just a guy with some face paint on telling stories, but I can promise you (that in honoring the three rules) good things will come to our Earth," Preston said

Arlene Schneller of Downtown Art Place set up a community art project on the theme of feathers to complement the event. Youth and adults could draw or stencil feathers onto a canvas and then paint them with acrylic paints and other decorative items.

It is one of six community art pieces this year.

"Last year we did the peace one and now we're doing this feather one," Schneller said. "Next month at First Friday we're going to do a patriotic one with the red, white and blue, and then we're going to do a rainbow one for the Rainbow Picnic."

There will also be a glow in the dark painting table set up for outdoor movie nights that are planned at the city square this summer, she said.

Amy Ackley Anderson was the DAP featured artist for First Friday. She brought her original landscape, technical and impressionist paintings along with Edward Sheriff Curtis copper plate etching photos of Native Americans in the early 20th century. 

"These are very rare," Ackley said. "The plates that made them were broken so it can't be reproduced."

The July 2 First Friday will feature Myron Elkins and the Dying Breed out of Kalamazoo.