Isaiah project

Joy Prior
Rel A 304 #3
Professor Ludlow
Project: Dance
My audience was those in attendance at the Cultural of Honor. I learned how to bear my testimony of Isaiah 60 through Native American Hoop dancing.
If you have ever listened to Pow Wow music you can imagine the pounding of the drums filling your whole soul to the point that your heart thunders a steady 1-2-1-2-1-2 with the rhythm. From there you add the way your toes feel like butterfly wings as they tap the earth beneath you and the surge of pleasure that drips like sugar through your eardrums and into your pounding heart when you hear the snap of your hoops when you complete a formation. That is what it feels like to hoop dance. I chose this for my Isaiah project because I feel like it describes Isaiah 60. This chapter is about the gathering of Israel. In the dance I performed for the Culture of honor I created formations that I found in these versus to represent both my part in the gathering of Israel, the glory of God’s kingdom, and my sacrifices.
I have honey blond hair, turquoise eyes, strawberry cream skin, and I love to Native American Hoop dance. After finding a white copy paper flyer about Native American Dancing I went to a the club practice, and expected to try a piece of free fry bread and receive a forgetful message about enjoying people’s heritage. Instead I went to the club meeting and made my first set of Native American Hoops. I felt like I was Neil Armstrong returning to earth after visiting the moon when I walked home after that first night, simply because the music, the steps, and the rhythm of the dance felt so foreign to my body. Of course I was at the club dance practice the next week, and the next. Now I cannot even imagine my life without Native American Hoop dancing; I live with the friends I found in that class; I am planning to do my internship on the Navajo Reservation; and I still dance Native American Hoop. Everything that I have learned about Native American Hoop dance has come from my friends and our own experimentation with formations and designs.
I am Irish, English, Dutch, and Swedish. There is not a drop of Native American blood in me. I love my ancestors and my heritage, and I do not want to mock their sacrifices by saying that I wish I had a different heritage! That being said, there are a very limited number of times that I can perform Native American Hoop dancing. In order to perform in a tribal Pow Wow you have to have proof of Native American blood, and I do not. Fortunately, this year I was asked to perform in first annual Culture of Honor at Brigham Young University on November 10th in the Wilkinson Student Ballroom. I decided to use this opportunity to perform for my Isaiah project.
I practice cultural dance every Tuesday and Thursday from seven until eleven with a nonprofit organization. There are about forty members in the group of all diverse backgrounds and heritages. Our purpose is to spread the gospel while we perform in firesides and productions throughout the school year. More meticulous details about the group can be found at www.roctheplanet.org. On Sunday we practice our fireside songs from eight to ten, and on Friday we teach dance at the Provo Middle School. Without including extra practices or fundraisers I am at practice a minimum of ten hours a week. Not all of the time is spent on Hoop dancing. It was natural timing to practice and cerograph the solo I performed during these practices. I was able to learn more formations, better understand the rhythm, and become familiar with the mood of the dance while I practiced cultural dance for the past few months.
To remind ourselves why we are there every practice we recite Joseph Smith’s The Standard of Truth which is, “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” We also recite First Nephi 6:4 which reads, “For the fullness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.” After wards we have a brief devotional though, two people bear their testimonies, and we close with a prayer. The entire group is about testifying and becoming an example. While I danced it was impossible not to think of the words of Isaiah: missionaries, gathering Israel, or glorifying God and consequently I began to choreograph a hoop dance about one of my favorite sections in Isaiah.
The actual dance that I preformed was centered on Isaiah 60. The night of the performance I had my mother video tap the dance… but she forgot to turn on the video recorder. I apologize, but I was really unable to include the performance because it was never recorded. Instead I have explained why I chose the formations and patterns that I did in the dance and their application to Isaiah 60 and I attached drawn pictures of the formations that I used to depict the verses.

The research that I have done for this project I feel is a little informal, because most of it is based on suppressions and traditions. I learned to Hoop dance from my friends and they learned to dance from their friends. No one is even sure if Hoop dancing is from the Navajo tribe or the Hopi tribes. The lessons that I have learned from hoop have been given to me orally. I tell you all of this because I am not quite sure how to cite or credit my research, but I feel that in order for you to understand why I chose to choreograph my dance in the way that I did I need to share what information I know about hoop dancing with you.
The Hoops themselves symbolize eternity, and healing. Some dancers prefer to have all of their hoops white to represent purity, and others decorate their hoops in patterns and colors that signify their ancestors and heritage. Whichever pattern a dancer chooses to decorate their hoops in is highly symbolic. In honor of my Irish heritage I taped my hoops in four-leaf-clover pattern. Supposable St. Patrick used the three-leaf-clover to represent how God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost could be like the individual leaves on a three-leaf-clover and yet one in purpose. The four-leaf-clover was considered lucky because the fourth leaf was supposed to represent the person who found the clover, and it showed that they were one in purpose with God, Jesus, and The Holy Ghost. I like my hoops in this pattern because it reminds me that I should give all of my heart, might, and mind to God. Although the only formations that I can make with my hoops are momentary designs my pattern reminds me that what I make in this life should glorify the God Head.
After you have danced for a while you can recognize how different your hoops are. Simply the way you taped or bent each hoop they begin to form them into distinct and individual hoops. There are some hoops that I like to use for back supporters, and others that I think are better at flipping. Most all of my hoops are cluttered with gold and white tape strips but one, and for some reason it feels magically universal and can fit in all of my formations. This hoop is plan black with only the four-leaf-clover patter, but the pattern is why I feel endured to this hoop. I call it the “me” hoop. There is so much that I need to learn that I often feel empty, just as my “me" hoop looks blank. The beautiful lesson is that just as I know were each of my hoops needs to be positioned in a pattern God knows were to position me in his patterns. Despite my ignorance He can use me in his divine creations. I will forever feel endured to this simple hoop that taught me how precious and significant I can become in God’s hands.
In this dance I began and ended using my “me” hoop. When I started I began with just my “me” hoop, but in my final formation I ended with my “me” hoop and another hoop interlaced to represent the sealing power as the triumph of creation.
My favorite things about hoop dancing is the freedom it a lots the dancer. One of those freedoms includes were to lay down your hoops. For this piece I laid my hoops in a complete scattered mess. There were hoops on the right side of the stage, and others on the left. I wanted my hoops disorganized because I wanted to depict scattered Israel, and as I moved throughout the number I wanted to express the literal gathering of Israel.
Hoop is a dance about the power of creation, and not simply expression. When you first start dancing you only have one hoop, because in life you need to learn how to juggle one thing before you can add more things to your life. As your talent improves you being to add more hoops to your patterns and conversely the same can be said about life. You can progressively add more to your life once you are able to control one aspect of your well. I typically dance with eight to ten hoops, but my favorite formations are with only five hoops.
Each formation is a representation of nature: animals, places, and plants. The dancer tries to mimic the animal in their movements. For example one of my favorite formations is the butterfly, and as a dancers moves into the butterfly they keep very fluid movements, with a high arched back, and keep high on their toes just as if they were a butterfly. Compare that to the alligator which is very heavy and low movements. Unlike ballet or ballroom dance there are no standard names for the movements or formations. The exact same formation could be called the eagle by one dancer and the dove by another. It is the dancer’s responsibility to create the animal through their movements.
The formations that I used throughout the number will now be drawn next to the verses that inspired their movements and formations.