Virtual Hoop Dancing with Kyla Thompson

 

Front: Kyla Thompson teaching a hoop dance class at the Anowarakowa Arena. Back: (L to R) Lyric Thompson, Lenni Terrance and Iohahes Mitchell.

By: Jaclyn Hall

As an apprentice studying to be a midwife with the Onkwehonwe Midwives Collective, Kyla Thompson was tasked with an assignment to reach out to the community and promote cultural teachings in Akwesasne. Prior to the pandemic, Thompson had originally planned to teach hoop dancing in person, but circumstances have changed and so have hoop dance lessons as we know it. Thompson got creative when government mandated isolation became our reality, she turned to virtual reality to get her assignment accomplished.

Having taught hoop dancing to the youth Akwesasne, and being a veteran hoop dancer herself, it was almost a given that Thompson would offer free hoop dance lessons to the youth as her cultural teachings.

Thompson said, "I learned how to hoop dance in 2009. A group from Ottawa, called Aboriginal Experiences, had come to teach a bunch of us in a summer program at the Native North American Travelling College how to hoop dance, as well as some plays and songs. I started teaching in 2012 and I have been teaching since."


Thompson began her cultural teaching with a video posted on April 2nd with detailed instructions on how to create your own personal hoops; Thompson personally fundraised to be able to provide supplies, free of charge, to aspiring hoop dancers in Akwesasne. Every week since then Thompson has posted a new video with hoop dance instructions. This week will be the last week in a four-week series of hoop dance lessons by Kyla Thompson. Luckily for us, the lessons were documented and are available free of charge on YouTube.

So far, Thompson has given away approximately 20 kits, to aspiring hoop dancers saying,

"I still have some more materials, as well. I would like to continue it, but hopefully it won't continue too long and we're able to get back together and practice. It was a good amount of people I had participate in this virtual class, it was more than I had show up at my normal classes. So, it reached more people than one of my normal classes would have. I think I would be cool to do a performance somewhere with everybody, when people can meet up again."

Thanks to Thompson, there is now a 4-part hoop dance series available to anyone who has access to the internet and a set of hoops. Keep an eye out in the future, if Thompson ever decides to host another free hoop dance class, there will most likely be a fundraiser to provide the hoops free of charge to the next generation of aspiring hoop dancers.

 

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