I’ll never understand the folks who get tired of birthdays. A birthday gives you one extra reminder of how you have conquered the odds for one more year! That’s one more year of sights and smells and memories delivered express right to you! Even though I can’t believe it’s already been a year since my party on Mulholland Drive, a birthday is a perfect excuse to step outside the box and into the circle. That’s why I decided to spend the day dancing at the Celebration of All Life and Creation Powwow in West Hollywood!
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“Powwow” can mean a number of different things. The word comes from the Algonquian word “pawe·wa,” which refers to someone who draws power from dreams! Nowadays, a powwow refers to a Native American social gathering, ceremony, or dance competition, often accompanied by drums and painstakingly intricate outfits, which can blur the lines between dream and reality for sure! Powwows can involve a few dozen folks or hundreds of different tribes, like the one in Albuquerque!
California has about 51 tribes, but the event also drew members of the Ponca and Blackfoot tribes from the Midwest and Canada! I can’t claim to be a tribal member (they’re very strict about these things), but I couldn’t turn down an invitation to celebrate all life and creation on my birthday! Of course, I’d never attended a tribal dance before, and I had no idea whether they would even permit a William TravelingBeaver into their midst. In times like these, it is good to remember that every dance must start with a single bold step!
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I arrived at the arena in historic Plummer Park just as the master of ceremonies announced the Round Dance! At first, I couldn’t help but feel intimidated by the regalia, especially the huge, feather bustles! However, the MC made clear that the Round Dance invited everyone, no matter their attire, to join, and suddenly, I felt propelled into the circle by the energy of the drums, performed by the group from American Indian Changing Spirits! It took me a few minutes to catch on to the steps, but once I did, time itself fell away, and I was no longer just circling the arena but the whole world with all these new faces!
I stayed for five whole hours! Some of the later dances invited all tribes, while others were specifically northern or southern styles. One fellow offered $150 in prize money for a couple’s dance called the Rabbit Dance, which looked like a lot of fun and made me wonder how a Beaver Dance would look. One of the neatest dances, though, was the Honor Dance, which took recent graduates and event organizers around the arena, so everyone could shake their hands and give them money. I think that’s a wonderful community ritual!
I came to this powwow to dance and wound up learning a whole lot more than I expected. I learned how tribal identity differs from global oneness and, at the same time, that many powwow songs do not have lyrics so they can appeal to dancers from many different tribes and languages. I also learned some useful arena etiquette, such as not to cross it after the powwow has begun and not to call dancer regalia a “costume,” because the outfit is much more than just something to wear! I’d originally intended to add an extra trip to round off the day, but after attending the powwow, I realized I didn’t need to go anywhere else to find history, beauty, and wonder on my birthday. It was all here in the dance!
(Okay, here goes nothing…) Kitaakitomattsino!
P.S. I did have some cake later that night at a mutual birthday party in Sherman Oaks. I not only learned how to play Celebrity but also who the heck Lemmy Kilmister is! A birthday victory!