Hoop dancer wows crowd

    Former World Champion Hoop Dancer Eddie Swimmer stepped in front of over 100 students on the stage of Russell Auditorium dressed in traditional American Indian garb. He began to explain the reason he travels around the country making appearances at schools, festivals and churches.
    “I want to tear down stereotypes and share my culture,” Swimmer said to the crowd.
    He went on to talk about the traditional hoop dance he would perform and the history of his people – the Cherokee Indians.
    The Hoop Dance uses between 36 and 42 hoops, and different arrangements of the hoops make different symbols including the eagle, turtle and butterfly. Traditional music accompanied the dance making the feeling in the room one of empowerment and importance.
    Audience members were in awe of Swimmer’s performance. He taught volunteers from the audience a few steps to the dance and let others play instruments.
    He ended the performance with a circle dance where all the onlookers participated. Swimmer challenged them with homework which involved learning their heritage and to being proud of it. Sophomore creative writing major Erin Williams took the challenge to heart.
    “It wasn’t what I was expecting but in a good way. It was really inspirational and interesting,” Williams said. “It made me want to learn more about my heritage.”
    Swimmer’s heritage is the motivation behind all of his performances. He grew up on a reservation in North Carolina where he still lives today. He took the heritage and traditions he was taught by his family and turned it into a performance he now uses to educate people about American Indian culture.
    “Just seeing kids – well, mostly grownups – talking after a show joking about all the old stereotypes, made me decide to let people know what we really do, and how we actually live,” Swimmer said.
    Swimmer has performed in New York City in the 1993 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and at the World Cup in 1994 in Dallas, Texas. He also performed at the Centennial Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta. He is also featured a on a U.S. postage stamp doing the hoop dance as part of the “Native American Dance Series.”
    Swimmer’s experience in show business is extensive. He choreographed the hoop dance in the Broadway musical hit “Annie Get Your Gun.” He founded the dance group Native Movements. He is currently the assistant director of the outdoor drama “Unto These Hills.” He has also worked with actors like Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Goldie Hawn.
    While he was at GCSU, Swimmer worked with the cast of “Coyote Pointe,” the upcoming spring play. He talked the cast about what being an American Indian means. He told stories and gave some history to help the actors give depth to their American Indian characters.
    Warren Downs is a cast member of “Coyote Pointe.”
    “I think having Eddie Swimmer here will give this play a level of authenticity we cannot achieve by ourselves,” Downs said.
    Swimmer is a man of the modern world. He strives, though, to bring American Indian heritage into the new millennium so it always survives.
    “Past generations felt it was necessary to drop the culture and heritage in order to move forward and make a living,” Swimmer said. “Now, generations want it all back. We are proud and want to bring the tradition back. Teaching people outside the culture is one way I can do that.”
    To learn more about Swimmer, American Indian culture or hoop dancing, visit his website at http://eddieswimmer.lori-h.com.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 8 2008. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry