Hoop dancer recreates legends while performing

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Quentin Pipestem has truly outdone himself. Well, at lest he's outdone his opposition. In just four years of competition, the Calgary resident, originally from the Tsuu Tina First Nation on the outskirts of that city, has won the Fifth Annual World Hoop Dance Championship for the third time. A mere three-point spread (242-239) he managed to best his nearest competitor, Derrick R. Davis, a Hopi-Choctaw from Phoenix who also happened to be last year's champion. On the heels was third-place Terry Godel (Yakima from California) with 238, and fourth-place Vincent Davis, Hopi/Navajo/Choctaw, with 237 points.

Pipestem, by his own admission, happened upon hoop dancing quite by accident. He began dancing close to seven years ago, at age 16. But it was not until he joined the Red Thunder Native Dance Theatre about six years ago that he developed a true interest.

"I wasn't really into dancing at that time," confesses Pipestem. But, once introduced to the hoops, there was no turning back. He first learned from Bruce Mistaken Chief, who taught him the basics using just five hoops. Now, he's up to 32.

To mature and improve his skills, Pipestem observed other dancers. And he practised. He also refuses to copy others. Basically, "my whole routine is mine," he claims.

Certainly his practise paid off, and rather quickly. Within three years of learning and mastering the hoops, he entered the world championship - and he won.

"That was actually something I didn't expect at all because that was my very first competition. I never thought of myself as a world champion," he admits.

What was particularly surprising to the then 19-year-old was the fact that he had to overcome a seventh place finish on the first of his three go-rounds, sixth on the second, and then place and the world title on his third and final round, which all contestants begin at zero points.

So, just how did this seemingly mediocre contestant overcome his rather dismal first two go-rounds?

"You have to be concentrated...focused. It's a mental thing." If you aren't, he adds, your mind wanders and you get out of sync, and when spinning around, you'll get dizzy, lose your balance, and start going all over the place.

However, it's not all a matter of concentration. One has to work on style as well. Creativity is important and one must choreograph an exciting, interesting and skilled performance just like a figure skater, a dancer, or actor. And there's the practise.

Whenever competitions roll around, that's when Pipestem finds himself doing his main practising. He drilled and rehearsed for "a good solid month," he says, for this year's contest. In doing so, he found himself tripping over to the Calgary Native Friendship Centre whose facilities were at his disposal. There, he'd practise - daily, faithfully, putting in eight hour days. His routine not only involves dancing skills, but also physical and mental preparation.

The friendship centre and the Micah Gallery in Calgary were his major corporate sponsors for his trip to Phoenix, although he credits the Tsuu Tina Nation for its past moral and financial support.

This year's contest was a challenge because of the disastrous previous year, when he didn't even place after having held the title for two consecutive years.

In his own words, "you do a five-minute speech (about the hoop dance), then a 15-minute dance, and I went over (time) on both of them.

He and the runner-up, Davis, were tied on the final round, and Pipestem was wondering what he had to do to win. Then, says agent Rhoda Taylor, "He changed his routine, sang to himself mentally, and had this great rush."

It did the trick and won him the title back. This time, he danced for himself.

Hoop dance means different things to different people. For Pipestem, it means "a lot....it's been a major part of my life...changed me around in a lot of good ways. I got to travel, to see a lot of things that I would not have."

As for the dance itself, he explains t like this: "the hoop that I dance with represents the circle of life...how everyone goes through these circles. We always encounter hardships in our lives, and it's by using the circle that we overcome these hardships...move in to the next circle."

Pipestem went on, using the traditional warrior at his example: "In his travels, he encounters many things in nature - like plants, animals, birds, different symbols and designs...I portray when I dance." These he acts out as he dances, until he arrives at the story's end.

"When the warrior finishes, he turns into an eagle (as demonstrated when the dancer spreads out a row of hoops along each of his outstretched arms). that warrior's journey doesn't end because even the life of a man is considered a circle - it merely starts all over - sort of a rebirth. So, I finish similar to how I start - with that one hoop, and finish with that one hoop."

Over the past two years, Pipestem's left Red Thunder to strike out on his own, and took on a couple of management people - Taylor and Peter Demiko.

And, he's really been getting around. The highly sought-after champ has performed at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria and the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards in Ottawa, the Milk International Children's Festival in Toronto,

Dreamspeakers Festival and Dreamcatchers Youth Conference in Edmonton, the Queen Charlotte Islands, P.E.I., California, New York, North Carolina and many other states. He's even been overseas to Japan and New Zealand.