Hoop Dance Origins
The Origin of Hoop Dance is Indigenous. Regarded as a sacred dancing tradition, hoop dance has been used for storytelling, rituals, and celebrating seasonal occasions like harvest. Just as each native tribe or group is a little bit different, so too are the techniques and purposes of hoop dance.
​
A Story With No Words
Imagine experiencing a story that requires senses other than listening or reading words, to understand.
​
Native American Hoop Dancing is one of these forms of storytelling. An Indigenous Hoop Dancer uses hoops to create shapes as they move to music. The shapes represent the infinite nature of our solar system, animals, plants, symbols, or designs. Through these hoop formations a story with no words is shared.
The Anishinaabe, who are located in the area surrounding the Great Lakes, tell one of many legends of the creation of Hoop Dance. Their legend describes a boy who didn’t like to do the things other boys his age liked to do, such as hunting and fishing, but instead spent hours watching animals in the wild. As he watched, the boy began copying their movements. He added hoops to express animal movements and eventually created a dance that was shared with other tribes.