Day 10 - Oct. 10, Rapid City, SD
Oh, the regalia!
“Regalia” is the proper term for the extraordinarily elaborate apparel that hundreds of dancers performed in. Each unique assemblage of colorful fabrics, fringe, beads, ribbons, bands, feathers, jingles, shawls, bustles, crowns, leggings, moccasins and other accoutrements displayed exceptional attention to design details, expertise in durable, dance-proof construction, and enormous pride in tradition.
The Black Hills Wacipi was held in the Rapid City, SD, arena called The Monument, which is capable of holding an audience of 14,000. By the time I left after 10 hours on Saturday, October 10th, it was filled to capacity and was being live-streamed in dozens of countries around the world.
There were at least a dozen different drum circles representing tribes from across the US and Canada. With one drum circle per dance, each circle having it’s own microphone to capture the intense, spirited pounding and full-throated singing, it was hard not to move to the beats.
There were dancers of every age from 2 to 82, but most of the groups were of designated age ranges. The daytime groups were dedicated to the children, the youngest in the morning and teens in the afternoon, all dancing their own variations of traditional and contemporary techniques. These were all judged, the winners were to be announced the following day.
The evening dancing was by the adults performing together in choreographed presentations, either all women or all men. The women did a jingle dance (365 jingles on each dress in various patterns), or shawl dances with the long fringe swaying and swirling. One of their dances used a scarf of printed fabric that they twirled and waved and at the end revealed the plea to find their missing indigenous children. Thousands of indigenous girls and boys have vanished.
The men’s regalia was much more elaborate with bustles of feather rings, or spiky-fur (quills?) headdresses and lots of other detailed beadwork, fringe, panels, batons, rings and other complicated additions which probably have special connotations unknown to me. Their dances were much more dramatic as well, fiery and spirited.
It’s good to see their culture alive and thriving.
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