The heartbeat of Dance

I think that we have established that I love to dance.  All different types of dance makes my feet want to move.  I think that my love for dancing comes from the basic drum beat that mimics the beating of a heart.  This rhythm is what our traditional First Nation drumming is based on. It's that base line beat that drives the song and gives dancers a beat to choreograph to.  This video is from a family reunion we had this past summer.  We have many talented members from master chef to nurses, tradesmen and students completing their masters in a variety of Aboriginal studies.  I feel so fortunate to come from such a line of inspirational people.  The focus for our family reunion was cultural education. You will see in this video, the singers giving our younger generations a cultural education.  

Moments like this is where it is clear to me how our traditional teachers would have taught. the learning was continuous. This is why elders were/are so valued, because they were to the ones to enrich the young ones.  Elders did not always mean someone of retirement age.  To me it means someone with wisdom to share and aid in person growth.  I wanted to share this video because watching these children dancing and hearing our language being sung encourages me that there is hope, and it lies within what we pass on to our future generations.  Here, I can see that we have modelled a passion to move when there is a beating drum or to join in when a song is being sung.  These children will start out dancing and the singing will come the more they hear the song.  

Ndï hinic ’ey ’indzin lhyenis nts’ën’a dinï hënlï’ wighewh ’indzin.

This language is our culture.  

Taken from the First Voices http://www.firstvoices.com/en/Wetsuweten/welcome