As music played in the background, hoop dancer Kevin Locke formed intricate shapes and patterns with the hoops around his body while he danced. He added more hoops as the song continued, until he was dancing with 28 interlocked hoops surrounding him.
Eventually, he manipulated the hoops to represent the wings and tail of an eagle, which he said symbolizes unity.
The dance is a choreographed prayer, Locke said.
“It’s a prayer for the community,” he said. “It’s a prayer for all people.”
Locke, a cultural ambassador from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, combined musical performance, storytelling, traditional Lakota hoop dancing and discussion of North American Indian heritage Monday at the Monroe County Public Library.
In addition to being a hoop dancer, Locke is an educator, storyteller and player of the indigenous Northern Plains flute.
Locke addressed the issue of the Dakota Access Pipeline at the event. Wearing a shirt that said “water is life” in the Lakota language, he discussed the danger it presented to Native American heritage, such as the possible destruction of sacred sites.
“What happens is we become complacent,” he said. “We become unaware of many things. Our consciousness becomes limited.”
Throughout the event, Locke also discussed the importance of preserving Native American languages. He serves on the board of directors for the Language Conservatory in Bloomington, where he is committed to revitalizing the Lakota language, he said.
“We’re living in a real crucial time to preserve this native language,” he said.
Locke played several songs on the Indigenous Northern Plains flute, pausing to sing in various Native American languages.
He expressed concern about Native American languages dying out. For example, he talked about the Mandan language, whose last fluent speaker died in 2016.
The death of a language is like a library being destroyed, he said.
Locke taught the audience various words in different Native American languages at the event, including the words and sign language of a song in the Lakota language.
He also spoke about the current political climate and the need for mobilization to overcome obstacles like racism and hatred.
At the end of the event, he invited members of the audience to come on stage and learn to dance with hoops. After a short tutorial, a group, consisting mostly of children danced, watched Locke’s movements as they spun and connected their hoops.
Dorothea Hoffmann, 34, said she enjoyed the combination of dancing and storytelling.
“He has a great personality and knows how to work with the crowd,” she said.
She said she liked how he explained the various symbols represented in the songs and dances and the way he connected them to current events.
Candace Corson, 66, came from Indianapolis to attend the event with her granddaughter. It was beautiful on intellectual, artistic and spiritual levels, she said.
“He shared the oneness of all living things so beautifully,” Corson said.
