The Native American hoop dance represents the individual’s journey through the circle of life.

It doesn’t matter who or what you are; we are all created equal within the sacredness of creation. Within each of us this intricately woven reality is the sacred circle of self which contains everything that we are—our dreams, our hopes, our experiences, our individual essential essence.

That circle intertwines with those of others—our families, our communities, the life forces of our environment and even that of Mother Earth and the cosmos which encircles and nourishes her.

In this video, world champion Brian Hammill, a Ho-chunk Warrior and US Army veteran from Benton, Wisconsin, elaborates on the sacred significance of the hoop dance and the various configurations of the hoops, what they mean, the story it tells.

Watching it, I found myself mesmerized…transported through time and space to an entirely new awareness of myself as a small but integral part of the vast wonder of creation…a thread which, if pulled, is connected to a billion other threads.

I will never experience the hoop dance in quite the same way in the future.

It will no longer be just another folk dance by a fading culture.

After watching it I wondered, “Why haven’t more people seen this video?”

Would it make a difference if they did?

 

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Apprentice Editor: Kim Haas / Editor: Travis May

Photo: Kris Krüg via Flickr