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Posts Tagged ‘Pueblo’

Indigenous Hoop Dancing

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on May 12, 2026| 3 Comments »

Photo Gabriela Campos/The New Mexican.
Josiah Enriquez, three-time world champion hoop dancer, dances during one of his weekly practice sessions in Pojoaque.

I heard of hoop dancing in the past but didn’t know much about it. Today’s article helps fill that gap for me. At least I now know hoop dancing is nothing like the hula hoop craze. It’s more about healing.

Cormac Dodd writes at the New Mexican, “Josiah Enriquez’s moccasins etched rapid, intricate patterns in the sand as he danced at the end of a dirt road, a portable speaker offering up powwow songs amid the juniper.

“Although he stirs crowds around the U.S. with peerless performances of contemporary hoop dancing, this rural arena has long been the spot where Enriquez, 23, toils and trains with a devotion not unlike that of a professional athlete. He is seen now as the nation’s foremost hoop dancer.

“His face revealed utter absorption on a recent day as he controlled a red hoop rapidly circling his arm.

“ ‘It’s a beautiful dance,’ he said, almost breathless after a long dance. ‘I don’t know where I would be without it.’

“Enriquez (Pojoaque and Isleta pueblos, Navajo Nation) has been distinguishing himself on what is widely considered to be the most prominent stage in competitive hoop dancing — the Heard Museum’s annual World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Phoenix — winning his third consecutive world title in February. This marked a major career moment.

“Hoop dances have long been part of traditional Indigenous healing ceremonies, featuring quick, complex footwork as the dancer forms various shapes, many mimicking the movements of animals, using hoops. Tony White Cloud of Jemez Pueblo is credited with starting modern hoop dancing in the 1930s.

“Enriquez is the lead instructor at the local Lightning Boy Foundation in Pojoaque, a community organization that stages the Youth Hoop Dance Championship in Santa Fe and instructs about 75 students, according to its website. …

“Already considering next year’s World Championship Hoop Dance Contest, Enriquez knows he would be the first dancer to win four world championships in a row in the competition’s 36 years if he triumphs again.

“At this year’s event, he told the story of the Chicken Dance — mimicking a hunter stalking his prey as he capered in front of a crowd.

” ‘Growing up, I’ve always had the rhythm, the love for the dance,’ he said.

“ ‘In the last three years, there’s no question: He’s the best dancer,’ said George Rivera, a decorated Northern New Mexico artist, president of the Lightning Boy Foundation and former governor of Pojoaque Pueblo. ‘We’re just so proud of what he does. He’s such a good role model and he gives back to everyone.’ …

“Born and raised in Pojoaque Pueblo and a graduate of Pojoaque Valley High School, Enriquez began competing in hoop dancing events about a decade ago. It took him years, he said, to mature.

“He now speaks with a maturity beyond his years, noting he views hoop dancing as medicine for the people. He has moved people to tears. He has been told he is ‘good medicine.’ …

“A spiritual leader at the pueblo, he is also proud of the work he does as an instructor with the Lighting Boy Foundation, finding fulfillment in teaching and mentoring the next generation of dancers — aware of the positive role hoop dancing, and the dedication it requires, can play in a young person’s life. …

“Enriquez is not the only dancer associated with the organization that found success at the Heard Museum’s competition in February: Mateo Ulibarrí (Pojoaque and Santa Clara pueblos) finished first in the teen division for the fourth consecutive time, and JaiPo Harvier (Pojoaque, Santa Clara and Taos pueblos, Tohono O’odham Nation) finished second.

“Enriquez sweated through a set Thursday afternoon in the throes of a full-body dance, ending with one hand gripping a large sphere, representing Earth, shaped from the hoops. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains towered in the distance.

“He said growing up in Pojoaque Pueblo and participating in traditional dances shaped his outlook on dance, recalling how he was always told soreness after a dance means you have taken away the audience’s pain. Enriquez thinks about this in his approach to contemporary hoop dance, too.

“ ‘When you’re dancing, you pray for the people because it’s important that they feel it and it’s important that they get the life that you’re giving from your dance,’ he said.

“ ‘When you’re dancing for our feast days,’ Enriquez added, ‘they tell us if you’re sore the next day, it’s because you’re taking all the soreness from the people that can’t dance or people that are sick, you take it and you fill it. It’s a sacrifice that our people make for the better of our village.’ ”

More at the Santa Fe New Mexican, here.

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Dizzying Heights for Murals

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on November 7, 2020| 11 Comments »

Last month, I pondered the challenges presented over time by public art in the form of statues of historical figures. In the past, art that could last through the ages — Michelangelo’s “David,” for example, and the stone lions on the Greek island of Delos — was highly valued. Even painted frescoes were made to last, with pigments worked into plaster.

Nowadays, murals on buildings are proliferating, and I’m thinking that transitory art like that is a good idea. It’s OK for them to be painted over, worn out, or recreated with a new vision.

Today’s story is about a group of artists in Colorado doing just that.

Shanna Lewis reports for KRCC, “Bright colors have blossomed once again on the concrete face of Pueblo’s Arkansas River levee. Paintings are going up in an effort to reclaim a lost public art space and the title of the world’s largest outdoor mural.

“Muralist Valrie Eisemann of LaVeta is among the first of four artists to work on the new levee wall. Using paint donated by a local recycling company, as well as some that she bought herself, she’s creating a colorful mandala. …

“Muralists have to rope up for safety to work on the steeply sloped concrete. But that isn’t slowing any of them down.

“Each artist will bring their own unique vision and ideas to the project. Celeste Velazquez of Pueblo said her imagery is of a native woman that references the Azteca community, as well as Toltec and Olmec cultures.

“ ‘She’s going to have like four arms, almost like a shaman and there’s going to be the spirit Quetzalcoatl in the back of her in her native tent,’ Velazquez said.

“Puebloan Thomas Garbiso’s piece is a mountain view along I-70. … Aurora artist Kalyn Connolly’s design is of a deer with Colorado flora and fauna on its antlers, including columbines, crows and white butterflies.

“All the artists are excited to be among the first brush paint on the levee since construction to repair it started six years ago. … According to [artist and levee mural coordinator Cynthia Ramu], since the 1970s, hundreds of people helped create the murals that once lined the levee.

“ ‘Eventually, it became like a storybook for a lot of people,’ Ramu said. … Some of [the story] is literally underfoot because the concrete with the old murals was torn off during the repair project and then ground up and used to create a walking trail for the top of the levee. …

“She said, ‘I feel so excited at the possibility. It’s kind of like moving forward. It’s just endless possibility.’

“Pueblo Arts Alliance director Karen Fogelsong agreed. … ‘One of my favorite things is to see beautiful art go on yucky cement,’ Fogelsong said. ‘So let’s put beauty on top of it. On viaducts on levees, on the sides of buildings, wherever we can make it beautiful.’

“Fogelsong thinks if Pueblo can regain the world record, it’ll draw tourists to the area to see it. The current record is held by a mural in South Korea that’s more than 254,000 square feet — so a lot of art is needed again to beat that.

“It could happen though. More applications for new murals are rolling in and creative energy is flowing along this part of the Arkansas River.”

More here.

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