The American Indian Activities Committee, offered many events during the week.
Among these events were the song and dance competitions. These competitions gave Arrowmen
from around the country an opportunity to compete in song and dance and to be evaluated by
a panel of judges.
While the top performers are rewarded, the competition is meant to be a competition of self rather than against the group. The judges inform each dancer of their strengths and weaknesses so they can become the best dancers possible.
There are seven different competitions. There is a group singing competition, a
group dancing competition, and five different categories of individual dancing. The five
categories are Fancy Dance, Grass Dance, Straight Dance, Old-Style Dance and Contemporary
Traditional Dance.
Dancers are judged not only on their style and grace when dancing, but also on the regalia
they wear. The regalia can take many hours to research and construct. It is a painstaking
effort to make good regalia that will hold up during dance. One requirement of the competitions
is that no part of the regalia come loose or fall off while dancing. These costumes are always
very precise and very precise.
The dance and song competitions were great fun to watch. The dancers worked very hard and their effort was very much appreciated.
See the American Indian Competition Results ( 9 Kb PDF file )
The online version of the Individual Dance Competition Results are in "Portable Document Format" (PDF).
Get Information about this format and how to read it.
Revised 7/31/02.