Dance Expo Held for Winter Middle and High School Students

By Joe Morey

News Editor

A dance expo was held at the Winter School for high school and middle school students on Wednesday, January 10th, with Dylan Jennings from Bad River as the MC and several LCO dancers performing.

Dylan taught the students about some of the cultural aspects of singing and dancing, such as what wearing regalia means to Native people.

“What we wear is not a costume,” Dylan said. “Costumes are for clowns. What we wear is regalia and it means a lot to us. It takes a very long time to make our regalia and we take really good care of it.”

Dylan taught about the different types of regalia as each of the three dancers came out wearing theirs. Bird Benton wore his and danced as a chicken dancer, which according to Dylan, is an award-winning dancer. Mike Demain performed in his battle armor regalia as a member of the warrior society and a traditional dancer. Aries Benton wore her jingle dress.

Dylan told the students just how much work goes into each of their regalia as he pointed out Aries wore a bag that was made entirely of beadwork.

As part of the expo, the group called down male students to perform the fish dance with DeMain leading the students, and then the female students performed the swan dance with Aries leading.

Dylan taught the students that each song they perform also means something and is not just them singing it out, but that there is ebb and flow and that these songs have been passed down from many generations.

“The singers learn the songs from a very young age and they spend many years practicing,” Dylan said.