How Native Hoop Dancers Blend Heritage and Hip Hop | If Cities Could Dance

#hoopdance #nativeamericanheritagemonth

Native American hoop dancers Micco and Samsoche Sampson, who perform as The Sampson Brothers, are well known on powwow grounds and beyond for their impressive synchronized hoop dance routines, which are often performed to the beat of Native hip hop.

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📖​ Chapters:
00:00 Meet The Sampson Brothers
00:27 Indigenous Representation
00:50 The Origins of Hoop Dance
02:22 The American Indian Movement
03:58 Teaching Hoop Dance

More about this episode:

It takes years of practice to master Native hoop dance, and the intricate footwork and high-level coordination necessary to manipulate sometimes as many as 42 hoops at a time. Hoop dancers interlock the rings to mimic majestic animals, small insects or celestial orbs. The Sampson Brothers add another layer of difficulty to the traditional movements—they dance in synchronization, often to the beat of Native hip-hop, bridging the past and future in their coordinated steps. Their mother, an acclaimed fancy shawl dancer, had them taking dance lessons from an early age. They spent their childhoods in Los Angeles, where their late father, Will Sampson, was establishing himself as a Native American actor in mainstream cinema (he played Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). Today, after years spent living and dancing all over the country, the brothers are based in Minneapolis, the starting ground for the American Indian Movement, which empowered urban indigenous people to reclaim their culture and indentity.

Watch the Sampson Brothers perform traditional hoop dance formations and reenact an Iroquois creation story in front of Minneapolis’ American Indian Center, on the Mississippi’s Stone Arch Bridge and underneath the Hennepin Avenue overpass, and learn more about the story behind hoop dance.

Our history. Our culture. Our moves.
KQED Arts’ award-winning video series #IfCitiesCouldDance​ features dancers from across the country representing their city’s signature moves.
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🖼️ Featured Muralists: Gregg Deal, Votan Henriquez

🎤 Featured Musicians: Frank Waln, Thomas X, Mic Jordan
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