“Phoenix Dancers” Art

One of the things I find enjoyment in is watching indigenous dancers perform. It's a calming experience where I can just observe, listen to the drums, and feel the space fill with a sense of community. Seeing a crowd of people just sitting next to each other like we're all at a large dinner table, laughing, talking, eating… It's a good feeling. Plus, if I'm watching dancers performing, my parents are likely next to me, watching too, so it feels nice knowing that my family is enjoying something with me. Like a small family moment.

But in general, it's nice to watch dancers perform. Whether they be Bird Dancers, Fancy Shawl Dancers, Basket Dancers, or Social Dancers, you can tell that they all work hard to carry traditions and teachings down, and it's a heartwarming thing to see them share their light-hearted spirit shared with us. You can feel the healing they give, and you can feel the connection they remind everyone, attending an event, that we have. Dancing is a very human instinct that has been with us for a long time, and it's something I hope continues to last within our indigenous communities for years to come.

Indigenous dancing was something, or is something, I still have very limited knowledge of. At most, I was familiar with just Basket Dancing and Social Dances, as they were the forms I had been exposed to the most since Middle School. As I've gotten older and been able to attend more events as an arts and crafts vendor, I've gotten a chance to see Fancy Shawl Dancers, Jiggle Dancers, and Bird Dancers (and many others) more, but I realized recently that I didn't know much about them, even though I wanted to.

I don't know anyone close to me who does dancing, so I couldn't exactly ask what the dances were. So, I had to do some research myself because I found myself wanting to draw some dancers in this artwork, "Phoenix Dancers". It was a bit hard, not gonna lie, because all I found were videos of just dancers performing, not so much explaining, which I didn't mind watching. As I mentioned, I love watching our dancers perform, but I also wanted to understand what the four dances I represented in my artwork meant.

The Basket Dancer and Social Dancer were something I already understood, at least on a basic level, because those were two things I used to do when I was younger. It was the Bird Dancing and Fancy Shawl I had wanted to understand, and the two dances that I spent a few hours researching as best as I could.

Overall, it felt nice researching for this artwork because I learned a little more about dancers than I thought before, especially since it's something that has been getting my interest more lately, and this artwork was to reflect my growing interest in indigenous dancers in general.