An encore of our dance workshop from last week! And our first to include fancy shawl and hoop dancing.
With Elder Danka Brewer unexpectedly ill, we kicked off this week’s dance workshop with special guest Akina Ohlman. She had everyone moving as she shared the basic steps of shawl and hoop dancing. During the latter half of the workshop, participants reviewed jigging steps with The Lyons Sisters from the previous week and learned a few more fancy steps.
Just in time for the jigging, Elder Norma Cook joined us again to talk about the history of Metis Jigging. The fur traders introduced fiddle music to northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan communities by travel along the rivers. She shared fiddle music from some famous fiddlers (her relatives!) Esau Sinclair and Mathew Contois. She spoke of the importance of Metis Jigging at family gatherings as a way of having fun while bringing everyone together.
Elder Norma also shared a story of a 96 year old relative who fondly recalled jigging at community competitions and explained how judging was based on speed, complexity of steps, and endurance (i.e. could you dance to the entire Red River Jig?). She ended the session by sharing a video of her great-granddaughter and her engaging in “Jigamaroo”, a Metis family tradition where an adult is paired with a child and where the adult sings a jigging tune to get the child to dance!
A great time was had by all, and we hope you’ll join us for future events this year! Thanks to the Odawa Native Friendship Centre for inviting us to host these opening sessions using their facilities.
For information on up and coming programs, or to register for advertised workshops, write to us at hello at y4y.ca!
For more pictures and updates, you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook. Please Like and Subscribe on our YouTube channel!
