Hello my name is Lee! I'm new to this whole blogger thing, so this is all crazy to me!! This blog is for Eastern University's World Dance class, in which I will be researching information on the Seneca Indian way of cultural dance. I am of native heritage to the Seneca tribe, so this topic suits me well and I'm very excited to see what I can learn about native dance, and my own overlooked culture as well.
So far I have found two websites - one giving background cultural information:
https://sni.org/culture/
and the other really emphasizing the types of dances there are, explanations as to how to do them, the instruments included, who the specific dances are meant for etc. This website gives great information in which I have chosen to look further into what is called the "Smoke Dance," because it is a traditional solo dance. Many native dances include many members of the tribe, therefore it would be incomplete if I attempted to do it alone. My plan is to find examples as to how to specifically do the smoke dance on YouTube.
http://drumhop.com/music.php?page=189
Here is a blurb about it so far:
Another recent revival, the Smoke Dance has been performed at Allegany since about 1970 as a solo competition dance. According to Avery and Fidelia Jimerson, it evolved from the dancing of young boys around a smoky fire. Today the dancer's movements and gestures retain their association with the fire as they twirl (imitating rising smoke), jump (hopping over the fire), and wave their hands (fanning the smoke away). The music for this dance is lively and energetic and is accompanied by water drum and cowhorn rattle. Since it exhibits many of the typically Seneca features discussed under "Music: General Characteristics", a transcription is given here to allow for closer study.
