Original, Native hoopdance is like storytelling. Dancers create shapes with the hoops - animals, different nature elements, flowers, eagles - and move from one formation to another. I saw Native hoopdance once in upstate New York and it's really captivating to witness. Here's Tony Duncan's winning performance from last February:
There's a definitive spiritual aspect to Native hoopdance as the hoop represents connectedness and the circle of life. Black Elk (1863-1950), a Sioux holy man, said:
"You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. The Sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves."