OVER THE LOUDSPEAKER, you hear the announcer introduce the next performer seconds before the first drumbeat resonates across the dance circle and into the crowd, which is gathered to watch three-time World Championship Hoop Dance Contest winner Josiah Enriquez, of Pojoaque Pueblo. His feet become one with the drum, as if they are creating the music themselves with every quick step into the earth. His hoops are an extension of his limbs, creating shapes around his body with astonishing ease. The bright colors he wears flash like a suncatcher as he positions the hoops behind himself like wings. Every aspect of the hoop dance, which originated in Taos Pueblo, is intentional, prayerful, and tethered to the ground and sky. Enriquez picked up his first hoop as a little boy, under the tutelage of the late Nakotah LaRance. Today, the 23-year-old is a master instructor for the nonprofit Lightning Boy Foundation, which provides hoop dancing lessons and presents the annual Youth Hoop Dance Championship, in Santa Fe.
To me, hoop dancing is a way of life.
This dance originally was a ceremony. It was a healing dance. They would perform this dance to bring you back to balance spiritually, mentally, or physically.
Movement and dance are probably the best forms of therapy. When I’m having a hard time or a bad day, I pick up my hoops, and I practice and dance.
I started hoop dancing when I was about eight years old, and I haven’t put the hoops down since.
When I saw Nakotah open up into the eagle, I thought, Wow, I really want to do that.
I’ve always done my traditional dances, so it’s something that has always stuck with me.
It was a journey to get to where I’m at now.
When I was younger, they would always tell me, “Dance with your heart. Dance for those who can’t dance anymore—the ones who are sick and the ones who have gone before us. Dance with life. Dance for life.”
I feel like the hoops are their own being. If you don’t give them attention, they get mad at you, so I practice every day.
The World Championship Hoop Dance Contest is like the Super Bowl of hoop dancing.
It’s been an honor to carry the World Championship Hoop Dance title, especially being from New Mexico, where hoop dancing originated.
People see it as a competition, but for me, it’s much more than that. This dance gives a lot of confidence to the youth.
Nakotah passed in 2020. That’s one of the main reasons why I started teaching the younger generation.
Watching my students grow and seeing their confidence grow is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching.
They start believing in themselves.
Learn about the annual Youth Hoop Dance Championship, presented in Santa Fe by the Lightning Boy Foundation and Museum of Indian Arts & Culture. Follow Josiah Enriquez on Instagram (@enriquez.josiah).