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PO Box NN
413 Paseo del Pueblo Norte
Taos, New Mexico 87571
Tel: 505.758.2275 Fax: 505.758.9207
Reservations: 1.800.522.4462
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Best Western Kachina Lodge - Taos Pueblo Indian Hoop Dance
July 2002
Best Western Kachina Lodge proudly presents our Indian dancers
from the Taos Pueblo: Francesco Velarde -9, Adam Lujan -9, Branson
Velarde -15, Chenoa Velarde -10, Julia Okanee-6, Lydia Lujan -10,
Drummer Mike Concha - Grandfather, Drummer Nicholas Concha -16,
and Vanessa Concha -14.
If you are interested in learning the values of Native American
Tradition and share the heritage through singing, dancing, and
artistic ability, now is the time to own a new read along book
with a cassette tape or CD that was conceived and written by Grandfather
Mike Concha. Producer and 2002 Grammy Nominee for Best Native
American singer, Donna Concha, is currently seeking a publisher
for "The Legend of Fire" project. If you can help, please contact
Mike or Sally Concha, PO Box 563 El Prado, New Mexico 87529.
To view the video, please click below the picture choosing your
connection speed and enjoy the interview about Indian Dance while
you're waiting for the video clip to load.
Interview with Benito Concha, a Hoop Dancer from the Taos Pueblo
Taos is known as a place of the Red Willow people, the Taos Pueblo. This is where the original Hoop dance comes from and the Taos Pueblo people took this social dance to other nations in Indian country.
The Hoop Dance is a dance of agility and stamina. I dance with eight hoops. Each hoop represents a direction, north, east, south, or west. This dance has different formations that show the cycles of life, the flying beasts, the ones that walk the earth, and the ones that run on the earth. The grandfathers came up with this hoop dance so people can see and feel the cycles of life and show that we have to bring the sacred hoop of life to our bodies and dance with it, but not break it, or manipulate it to fit our own needs. The hoop is a never-ending lifecycle and also represents the sacredness of all living things. That's what it's about.
Here are some other questions we asked. Click on question to take you there.
I read an article about a hoop dancer that said when the dancer passes through the hoops, that you gain a year of life. Is this true?
Who taught you the Hoop Dance?
Does your routine change or evolve?
What can you tell us about Indian dancing?
The words that are sung, what do they mean?
What can you tell us about the drum?
If someone wanted to learn the Hoop Dance, where would they go to learn the dance?
I read an article about a hoop dancer that said when the dancer passes through the hoops, that you gain a year of life. Is this true?
 I don't believe things that are written in books. (laughs) I guess to each individual outside of Taos Pueblo, people can experience the hoop dance and write about it, but it's really just a dance of agility. If you dance the Hoop Dance every day of your life, I'm sure the longevity of your life will be greater. All I know about passing through the hoop is that my body is able to bend and conform to the hoop. It's just an exercise dance. There's a lot of spirituality behind each individual that dances and that gets applied to the dance itself, so to each his own. But the original Taos Pueblo Hoop dance is danced with red willow hoops and when these hoops are dried in a circle, they become very fragile so if you dance through it and it breaks, then you break the hoop of life. This means that your human self was not able to conform to the circle of life.
There are other hoop dancers in the world in Indian country that dance with plastic hoops and when they do that, there's no sense of the fragility in the sacred hoop of life. These dancers, they twist it, they bend it and they never break, but with our hoops if you twist it or bend it or shape it to fit your own needs as a human, it'll break. So that's the idea behind it. I know dancers that dance with ten, thirty, fifty, sixty hoops. They make all these beautiful arrangements but that's all circus work. It's basically supposed to be a minimum of one hoop and the maximum of eight because the more hoops you use, the more complicated you make your life. Less is more, as the saying goes. (laughs). Plus if you have ten to thirty hoops, you can't tell which ones are breaking. I've challenged other hoop dancers to use thirty red willow hoops and they can't even dance with one.
Who taught you the Hoop Dance?
I was taught by my Uncle and the Hoop Dance I learned in one night. All the movements and I've been dancing it ever since.
Does your routine change or evolve?
It's the same exact movements. It's not up to me to change it. It's been created that way so I respect the way the dance was shown to me. The song that goes with the hoop dance is a very fast and high-energy song. It's got a fast drumbeat and most dancers will dance with a slow drumbeat because their not used to dancing such complicated moves with the fast beat. But the original Taos Pueblo Hoop Dance is danced with a very fast drumbeat and fast footwork and you're not really supposed to see the movements happening because you're using your body as the wind, to move these hoops around. Basically, you're making the universe happen around you. Think about certain chemical formations, it's like that with the hoops. When the hoops are connected together, it's like cells. You get one cell, pick up another, got two, and then you build on it. Eight cells is a perfect number for the creation of things.
What can you tell us about Indian dancing?
Every drumbeat is a life because it's like a heartbeat, and then another, another, and another. Each dance step is a prayer touching the Mother Earth, in harmony with the singer, the drum, and the dancer, and it all becomes one unit. So from the beginning of the song to the end, it's basically a statement from the people involved. That's why when we dance here or anywhere in the world, we're dancing on Mother Earth, letting it know that humans are still here and we're being as gentle as possible.
The words that are sung, what do they mean?
 The words are just vocables. They're tonations in the throat and they aren't really words. They're feelings and tones put together with the drumbeats. The tone and the vibration of the drum make it become a higher thing. Every song is different and you can tell it's different and that makes your body move and respond a certain way. There are other songs with words in them that are probably from that Indian nation but most of the songs here from our Pueblo don't have our Pueblo words in them. Most of the dances that we dance are from other nations that roamed the plains, the Kota, the Cheyenne, the Arapahos. They all used to come here to dance and we adopted a lot of these dances and have kept their sacred dances at the Pueblo, like an archive. So whenever we go out and do those dances, we acknowledge where the dance comes from. Taos Pueblo has kept the songs, dances, and ceremonies from other nations and other places. When other Indian nations come that don't know that these things used to exist for them hundreds of years ago, we usually show them the way, or the song, and they take them back to their people. Maybe it was time to let it rest, but now it's rebirthing itself… and now has become the time to remember again.
What can you tell us about the drum?
There are so many things that people don't know about Native nations. The drum is the heartbeat and from the drum comes the dances, and from the dances comes celebration, and from celebration comes happiness… and joy… and that's why they drum at a high vibration, there's life in drums. They bring life and they bring celebration; same with the songs.
If someone wanted to learn the Hoop Dance, where would they go to learn the dance?
I've never taught anybody. And I don't think I would teach anybody. It's like our language. It came on the wind and when nobody speaks it anymore, it will go with the wind. You have other nations and everybody is indigenous to one part of the world or another. When those people that came from their land forgot their ceremonies, and original languages and original songs, that all went back to the earth. Their ancestors didn't preserve their traditions and their cultures for them, so it's time to start their new traditions and cultures. Everybody has to start they're own new thing.
In respect to the Earth and the fragility of where we stand, since they've forgotten about their culture, they are creating things that are harming the earth. The power in each human being is the creativity we have to make life easier and better, but we have to make life easier and better for the earth too, so we can live with it.
Now we can't breathe the air, certain waters we can't drink, there's certain places we can't go. All this pollution that's so diverse, and it's coming from the culture and traditions that we are building.
So for me to go and teach somebody the hoop dance, I'd first want them to know that this is a Taos Pueblo dance and it has to be danced the first and only way, with red willow hoops. I know that there are hobbyist groups, Boy Scout troops, and people who partake in Native American dancing as a passion, and I invite them if they really want to learn about the Hoop Dance. But they must understand the fragility of life and the sacred hoop of life. Then come and approach the hoops. The hoops will show them the significance of why they want to do this dance. When I was first being taught how to do this dance, I was told to respect the dance, never be lazy to do it, and have 100 percent focus when you do it. Don't just do it for the fun of it, because it has a meaning and whether or not we know the true or deeper meaning of it, somehow, every time you do it, you bring life to the area …because it's a powerful dance.
Contact us at sales@kachinalodge.com or 800.522.4462
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