American Indian Activities

One of the several American Indian Activities that takes place at NOAC are the Dance and Singing competitions. These competitions give Arrowmen from all over the country a chance to compete and be evaluated by a panel of judges.  Events include individual dance competition, team dance and team singing.

The real purpose of the competitions is not to be the best team at the conference, but rather to take the judges’ evaluations into consideration and become the best dancers or singers possible. This is a competition of self rather than a competition against others.

An Arrowman Dancing.
A happy Arrowman in his dance regelia. There are  five categories of individual dance competition: Fancy-Dance (one class), Grass, Straight Dance, Old Style, and Traditional (contemporary traditional). This year there were 109 Traditional and 92 Old Style dancers. Awards were given to the top finishing dancers according to the judges' discretion.

Back of a DancerThe dancers were great fun to watch - the dances are complex and some are very energetic.  The regalia can take a great many hours to research and construct, but the results are incredible. All dancers are encouraged to participate in the judging of American Indian clothing. This judging was held immediately before or after the dance competition. Feedback and ribbons were given out by a panel of selected judges.

The winning dancers and singers are encouraged to perform at the evening show on Tuesday evening at NOAC.  Many of the dancers also had the opportunity to dance in the show’s opening dance with the Chief of the Lenni Lenape.  The performances were great and all of the participants in the dance and singing competitions should be proud of their efforts.

Dancers at AIA

Revised 7/31/00.