The World Championship Hoop Dance Contest is an annual American Indian and Canadian First Nations hoop dancing competition held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. [1]
During the contest, dancers are scored based on their skills in precision, timing, showmanship, creativeness and speed. [2] Competitors are allowed to use as many hoops as wanted during their dances, some using as few as four to as many as 50 hoops. [3] [4] The competition is divided into five categories, including Tiny Tots (age 5 and below), Youth (6–12), Teen (13–17), Adult (18–39) and Senior (40 and above). The dance is used as a way of self-expression and storytelling, including dancers spinning the hoops or transforming hoops into animal shapes. [5] [6]
The Championship began in 1991, originally created for the New Mexico State Fair by Ralph Zotigh and his son Dennis Zotigh. [7] After the first competition was held, according to Dennis Zotigh, the contest was named the "Tony White Cloud Memorial World Championship Hoop Dance Contest" in honor of White Cloud "for his contributions in founding the modern Hoop Dance." [8] In 1992, the competition was moved to the Heard Museum, where it continues to be held. [7] In 2021, the event was held fully online for the first time in the competition's history. [9]
The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado River Indian Tribes of the Colorado River Indian Reservation at the border of Arizona and California.
Nampeyo was a Hopi-Tewa potter who lived on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona. Her Tewa name was also spelled Num-pa-yu, meaning "snake that does not bite". Her name is also cited as "Nung-beh-yong," Tewa for Sand Snake.
The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitions of traditional and contemporary art by American Indian artists and artists influenced by American Indian art. The Heard Museum collaborates with American Indian artists and tribal communities on providing visitors with a distinctive perspective about the art of Native people, especially those from the Southwest.
Dan Namingha is a Hopi painter and sculptor. He is Dextra Quotskuyva's son, and a great-great-grandson of Nampeyo. He is a member of the Hopi-Tewa member of the Hopi Tribe. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building, a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Federal Building. The museum houses the National Collection of Contemporary Indian Art, with more than 7,000 items.
Michael Kabotie, also known as Lomawywesa was a Hopi silversmith, painter, sculptor, and poet. He is known for his petroglyph and geometric imagery.
Linda Lomahaftewa is a Hopi and Choctaw printmaker, painter, and educator living in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Native American Hoop Dance is one of the individual dances, and it is performed as a show dance in many tribes. It features a solo dancer dancing with a dozen or more hoops and using them to form a variety of both static and dynamic shapes. Most of the hoop dances in tribes across North America belong to modern hoop dance, which was invented in 1930.
Dextra Quotskuyva Nampeyo was a Native American potter and artist. She was in the fifth generation of a distinguished ancestral line of Hopi potters.
Neil Randall David Sr. is an American artist and katsina carver. He learned the basics of carving from his grandfather Victor (Kawayo) Charlie.
Grace Chapella (1874–1980) was a renowned Hopi-Tewa potter from a Tewa village and of the Bear Clan.
Polingaysi Qöyawayma, also known as Elizabeth Q. White, was a Hopi educator, writer, and potter.
Nakotah Lomasohu Raymond LaRance was a Native American hoop dancer and actor. He was a citizen of the Hopi Tribe of Arizona.
Priscilla Namingha Nampeyo was a Hopi-Tewa potter who was known for her traditional pottery. Namingha mined her own clay and created her own pigments for her large pots. Her work is in the collection of several museums and cultural centers.
Daisy Hooee Nampeyo was a Hopi-Tewa potter. She studied at École des Beaux-Arts. Hooee taught pottery making on the Zuni reservation and helped preserve the traditional techniques she learned from her grandmother, Nampeyo.
Paqua Naha, also known as "Frog Woman", was a Hopi-Tewa potter. She worked in the "black-and-red on yellow" style of pottery, which Nampeyo popularized as Sikyátki revival ware. She became well known as a potter by the 1920s and started using a frog hallmark to sign her works. Late in her career, she experimented with white slips and innovated a whiteware technique. Naha was the matriarch of the Naha/Navasie family, and several of her descendants went on to become notable potters in their own right, including Joy Navasie and Helen Naha. Her works are included in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and the Heard Museum.
Tha 'Yoties, occasionally called Ed Kabotie and Tha 'Yoties, are a reggae rock band based in Flagstaff, Arizona.