Yes it has came and for a disclaimer, all categories in powwow are all difficult in there own way when it comes to physical endurance and body movement so this will take a different approach to the topic above. It will dive in the depth of every single category in the powwow world and explain why each and everyone one of them and their fair share of difficulties.

As usual, Powwow there are seven main categories that are usually present in the events and if you’re not aware of them all the powwow categories are known as: Men’s Grass, Women’s Jingle, Men’s Traditional, Women’s Traditional, Men’s Fancy, Women’s Fancy and Men’s Chicken.

All of these categories requires athletic ability and practice to become a very skilled dancer. However, each and every one of them can be considered hard on certain types of things. These things are something that can divided into two things that are called, technique which can relate to your own way of dancing, and the ability and athleticism in order to do it.

for the remainder for this type of project, we will only be going through these two types of depth when explaining the basis of each and every category. And without further ado, lets hop right into this!

1. Women’s Traditional

Athleticism

The slow and resilient movement of these women are crazy and if you ever seen a full regalia of a women’s trad dancer you would understand why this would be so difficult. Weight is the main factor here which makes sense since a lot of the dancers wear a fully beaded cape on their shoulders that is not very light. That doesn’t even the involve the footwork that is down during the long songs that they dance to either.

They are always on the balls of their feet and there heals hardly never touch the ground, the pressure that is put into the calve muscles must be excruciatingly hard. The balance and strength required to dance in one of the most regalia heavy categories required is something people and spectators need to acknowledge.

Although most outfits dont require the beaded cape, other outfits such as buckskin also has its fair share of struggles such as heat. Most powwows in the season are usually held in the summertimes and are out doors. The hide of there regalia’s warms from the sun and makes creates some sort of difficulty to manage your athleticism and the heat.

Technique

As much as the athletic struggles Women’s Traditional has, the technique is much more simpler compared to most other categories in powwow. They consist of mostly two different types of dancer known as stationary dancers and ones that move around the arbour.

Of course there is uniqueness with every dancer, depending how you dance the environment is the main enemy to all dancers. However, most and if not all Women’s Trad dancer’s heals never touch the ground, it might look like they do but in reality they never touch and that what’s makes the Trad category harder.

2. Men’s Traditional

Athleticism

To the male counterpart of dance, they also have similar characteristics and difficulties to the Women’s Traditional. However, the difficult part of dancing Men’s Trad is the never ending workout on the thighs and lower leg muscles. They always usually low to the ground and moving around the arbour, constantly telling a story through dance.

Like Women’s Trad, they also have a fair share of accessories on their regalia which can get easily hot while dancing songs. If you ever seen traditional dancer you can probably see what I’m talking about, the amount of fabrics and beadwork’s down into these outfits are beautiful and can be hard to dance to in the hotter weather.

Technique

Like Most Traditional dancers, the footwork and overall dance is more less the same. Traditional Style is low and imitating the originals warriors that told stories through dance. It is very hard on the legs and the athleticism really speeds up compared to the Women’s Trad.

But like always, each and every dancer is unique so the dancing can be overall different with each and every one of the dancers that dance Men’s Traditional. So the dancing isn’t much different from one another but the dancing can be very exciting and pretty difficult to do.

3. Women’s Jingle

Athleticism

As we move up the line, all these dance categories get somewhat faster in drumbeat and movements. Jingle is a more bouncy dance and requires a more consistent rhythm of dance that carries our through out the the song. This is now one of the category’s that is more focused on the bouncing rhythm that is mixed with the footwork which makes it one of the most fundamental aspects of dancing in powwow.

Jingle is one of the most popular and populated dance categories and the one main difficulty of dancing this category has to be the regulating of speed and dance. This means that since this is a faster dance, it will target more of the achilles muscles than anything else. Jingle also requires a good core since this is one of categories that move faster around the arbour than most categories.

Technique

Categories like Jingle is when the dancing kind of gets a litter more diverse and presents a little more “freedom” when it comes to the style of dance. Dancers in these type of categories have there own variations as well as all categories, so Jingle as you can see is very diverse when it comes to dancers styles and with good eyes you can see it too.

judging on one’s technique, the difficulty can range from the simple to hard very fast, some dancers can have amazing footwork that is very hard to do and others that have strong fundamentals. Both required hard work and skills that require practice, and I can say both can be very difficult to achieve.

4. Men’s Grass

Athleticism

A category like Jingle where both categories work around the same speed tempo in some ways. However, the style of grass is way different from the rest, the dance that is very difficult if we look on what it represents. The dance is hard because of the amount of flexibility and smooth movements that need to be executed in order to make the moves that they do look good.

If you go watch a grass dance, the first half of song mostly consists of the smooth rendition of dance and presents the flexibility that these dancers have. Also that isn’t just it, there is also the aggressiveness of the athletic ability during some song were the speed of these dancers are tested.

Grass has its slow and fast songs where the smooth ability mixes with the fast movements which in reality, it is very difficult to do without consciously thinking about it.

Technique

Like I said with other categories, diversity is what set dancers apart from another. Style is also part of powwow and that’s why techniques are so important. It doesn’t matter who is more athletic than each other if one technique looks better than another. Some Grass Dancers are old style and really smooth as for some that are contemporary and fast.

This is what makes grass unique and also share a tempo with Men’s chicken as well, the smooth and Fast moment is by far one of the most satisfying things to perfect and a dancer that has done that is something people look out for.

5. Women’s Fancy

Athleticism

Women’s Fancy is one of the most athletic categories ever in the powwow industry. This require a full body athletic ability as the arm movement of the cape is just as important as the footwork. This rendition of dance is very fast tempo and involves a very fast movement of feet and lots of spinning.

They also have powerful moves that make them standout such as kicks and jumps which and then basic in the fast tempo until the song is over. It is absolutely hard if you think of it in a athletics perspective, the sheer amount of effort and athleticism that need to be put into in order to be properly prepared for dancing like this is almost breathtaking.

This is by far one of the most difficult dance categories to perform in and dance to. It takes a lot to dance Women’s fancy and dancers that do dance this category train off season to keep there skill sharp until powwow is up again.

Technique

There are two type of Fancy dancer which are the old style and contemporary which you can find the distinct differences right away, but the tempo remains the same. Which is way the diversity and technique of dancing is vital. Since the dancing is getting faster, we get more freedom to add our own moves that define us and our own styles.

6. Men’s Fancy

Athleticism

Men’s fancy also is one of the most athletic dances out there, and is also one of the most popular dances to watch and spectate to the the fun athletic moves that they do. This dance is very competitive and once of the only powwow dances that do cartwheels and splits and hops.

Like Women’s Fancy, this requires a lot of athletic ability but that’s not what makes this category difficult. As far as endurance goes, it’s also the weight and balance that you need to worry about since the fancy bustles and regalia extends and requires a balanced body.

Maintaining this as well as a fast tempo for dancing makes the dance extremely difficult for new dancers, however for every category of dance, this becomes a second instinct for most. If you were to watch fancy dancing, you can tell the difference of speed compared to other categories.

Technique

As much as diversity goes, this is wear thresholds are important. Fancy can be extend from different cultures of dance such ass hip hop and others that require fast and light feet. If you were to view fancy dancer from the arbour you’ll start to see wear styles are different from each dancer.

This is easier to see in this category since it has the most freedom and doesn’t t really have an original type of dance. Everyone is unique in this category and highly recommend that you witness this category live at least one time.

7. Men’s Chicken

Men’s chicken is quite similar to grass when it comes to certain types of songs, both kind of work at the same tempo and are often more alike than you think. Chicken consist of a smooth and showy humour of dance that works the same way as the Grass dancers. Smooth and Fast, but you see this more often in the Chicken category than another one.

What makes this a difficult dance the fast and constancy movement of the feet and the sometime low and high posture that they have to keep durning dancing. Like Men’s Trad it also very hard on the thighs and require a good balance of legs and core effort to dance chicken.

Technique

Chicken is mostly a stationary dance until the the second half of the song, however in this category techniques can range from smooth dancer to the fast woodwork and powerful movement dancers. Viewing chicken you can see the little difference and more likely, the representation of the prairie chicken.

To restate, the categories have there own styles of dance and that’s why technique holds a big part in this, for Chicken there is always unique counterparts to dancers and that’s what makes them special especially for when competition comes around

Conclusion

Now that you have an idea, you can’t probably watch powwow from an athletic perspective. You can now see how much work and dedication that these dancers put into in order to become consistent on what they do best. I do highly recommend to take up the offer to go to a powwow and learn the more ceremonial part of powwow and also take in knowledge from that as well.

Dashayne Morin
Dashayne Morin