Hard work and values garners Odjig first place

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Winning first place in the World Championship Hoop Dance Contest in Phoenix, Arizona is not an easy feat. Just ask 28-year-old Lisa Odjig. But she did it.

She brought a trophy and $2,500 home after the first place win at the 13th annual contest held on Feb.1 and 2 organized by the Heard Museum. Odjig competed against 18 men in the adult category to win the coveted title.

"It was great, there are a lot of friendly people in Phoenix. Since I've competed there I've met a lot of people. I'm so excited taking first place. This is something that is really exciting to me," she said.

Odjig who lived in Calgary for eight years is originally from the Wikwemikong First Nation, Manitoulin Island in northern Ontario. She began dancing the hoop dance 12 years ago. An accidental comment started Odjig's journey.

"My uncle taught me. He offered to teach me and at first I had said yes, but I kind of didn't take him seriously when he'd offered to teach me. Then he showed up at my door, and asked if I was ready? I asked him For what? And he goes, 'I was going to teach you hoop dancing, remember?' So I thought 'What am I doing?' So I grabbed my runners and my work out gear, and I started working out, and that evening he taught me first 12 hoops and ever since that time, I can hoop dance. I love it. It is a part of me. It is a part of my life," she said.

Odjig said that traditionally the hoop dance was done only by men, but within the last 50 years women have been able to dance.

"I'm finding that a lot of women are finally entering hoop dancing styles," she said.

Odjig, who has been competing at the Phoenix competition since 1997, took second place in the first three years she's entered. Then in 2000, she won first place. She was the first female ever to take home the title. A couple of other women entered the competition this year, but did not make the finals.

Odjig said that before entering the competition, she gets herself ready mentally, spiritually, emotionally and physically.

"I have to be balanced. I go by the medicine wheel and I do a lot of working out. I jog, do a lot of sit-ups, light weights and I practice with my moves throughout the year," she said.

Her love for the dance has enabled her to travel as a performer to Paris, France, Holland, Israel, Korea, and throughout the U.S. Odjig, who has a booking agent, is also a part of the American Indian Dance Theatre, a professional Native dance company based in New York City.

"We are supposed to go over-seas to the Persian Gulf, but I don't think that I'm going to go because I don't think that it is a good idea to go. It's been put on hold because of the danger in the area," she said.

"I was a student at Mount Royal College and also at the University of Calgary. I'm now waiting to enter a program at the university in September. Right now I am working and performing.

As a child Odjig liked to dance tap and jazz. And her parents always supported and nurtured her.

"My mom and my dad encouraged me to dance. My family is very excited. They are very happy for me. They all support me 110 per cent," she said.

"I want to say to the kids who want to hoop dance, follow your dreams. Follow your dreams because you do matter. This is your life. It is all within you, and the Creator. You've got to ask for help if you want help. You've got to ask the Creator for it. You've got to pray. If you do not ask, it is harder. It would be hard to do it on your own," she said.

Eventually Odjig wants to follow her dream of entering the field of social work. She wants to work as a child and youth counselor.

"I want to work on the reserve and help our people first. I want to work with the youth more because they need more help. That is where my heart is really at, education-wise. Like, diploma-wise, I can help the youth even more. It is a four-year program at the University of Calgary. I already have university transfer programs from the classes that I've taken. It is probably oing to be even shorter than four-years now, because I took so many courses and a lot of them were university transfer courses. I'm helping out in schools as much as I can, in workshops and all that. I give the youth my perspective when I go to the schools and dance. I try to teach them like a role model and that sort of thing. I also do workshops on how to live a healthy lifestyle.

"I truly believe that having a drug and alcohol free lifestyle is important. I've never drunk or did drugs in my life, so that is what I say to the students, when I talk to them in school and in workshops. I always let them know that I promote a drug and alcohol free life. I also do not smoke. I say to the youth that if your friends ask you to do drugs or drink with them, they are not your real friends because if they were your real friends they won't pressure you into doing anything negative and what you don't want to do."

Odjig said that her inner strength and her mom and dad not drinking have helped her to deal with peer pressure.

More than 8,000 people attended the two-day hoop dance contest, said Wendy Weston, contest co-ordinator.

"The audience arrives early in the morning where they set up their chairs. They sit and watch every dancer all day long. They really study the artform of hoop dancing. They are pretty knowledgeable. They get to be pretty knowledgeable after a few years. They have their favorites. It is good." Weston said.