Star Mason Teaches Jingle Dress Dancing

On Tuesday, July 5, 2016 Star Mason generously gave her time to teach young girls the basics of jingle dress dancing. The jingle dress dance has origins attributed to three different Ojibwa communities: the Mille Lacs, Red Lake Band of Chippewa and the Whitefish Bay Ojibwe. The story tells of a medicine man, Midewinini, who had recurring vivid dreams depicting four women dancing and wearing the dresses. The dream gave Midewinini instructions on how to assemble the dress, the songs that went with the dance and instructions on how the dance was to be performed. Midewinini contacted the four women who had been in his dream and told them what he had experienced. From there he let others know about his dream and the instructions on how the dance was to be performed.

Different versions of the story exist. The Mille Lac's version says that Midewinini experienced the vivid recurring dream because his daughter was ill. The Whitefish Bay version says that the ill girl was his granddaughter. In both versions, the young girl was healed and by the end of the night she joined the four women who were dancing according to Midewinini's dream.

Today, Onkwehonwe women all over Turtle Island have adopted the jingle dress dance in its contemporary style. Originally, the jingle dress dance was used as a form of traditional healing, where people would give dancers tobacco. Although the dance is still performed traditionally the dance has become mainstream. Compared to the traditional jingle dress dancing, the contemporary style uses vibrant colors, different dance steps and a feather fan. Today, it is mostly the contemporary style that is performed at Powwow competitions across Turtle Island.

In Akwesasne, Star Mason practices the contemporary style of dance, although she also considers the dance as a source of traditional medicine. By lending her time to teaching Star hopes to inspire the female youth's interest in jingle dress dancing.

"I hear a lot of the younger generation saying that there is nothing to do, which puts them at risk for turning to drugs and alcohol," said Star.

She hopes dancing will provide young girls with a competitive activity where they can focus their time and energy, motivating the girls to live a healthy, active, drug and alcohol free lifestyle.

"Many of the young boys look up to the Thompson brothers with their lacrosse, I also want to give young women an activity and role model to aspire to," said Star.

Star started dancing at the age of 10. She first participated in fancy and hoop dancing before transitioning to jingle. At 16 years old she had a dream about the jingle dress. She explains that growing up she was exposed to struggles and she felt that the dream was powerful and symbolic, knowing that the dance was used for healing. At that point she shifted her focus to jingle dancing.

The Wednesday evening class was the first time that Star ever taught, although she has competed at local Powwows and has demonstrated the dance multiple times, most recently at the Kanatsiohareke Strawberry Festival in Mohawk Valley. At the start of each session Star demonstrated the dance in full regalia for the students. The girls gathered in a circle and were taught the two jingle dress steps. The straight step was taught first, followed by the side step, which is more difficult. Star instructed the girls to bounce to the beat of the drum as they practiced. As each session came to an end, Star told parents to have their children practice by watching YouTube videos, a method which she used to develop her skills.

There was a great interest shown by young girls and parents in the community of Akwesasne. The first session had a total of 10 girls and the next session grew to 15-20 participants. Star did a great job teaching and all the young girls had fun as they were eager to learn more. Jingle dress dance classes will be held every Tuesday evening at the Grand Mohawk Inn in Raquette.

Nia:wen Star Mason for sharing your talents with the younger generation.