Episode 36: Native American Series 3 | Mathematics and the Hoop Dance: Venn Diagrams, Proportion, and more | Terry Goedel

Terry Goedel, World Champion Hoop Dancer and retired Math Educator shares how he sees mathematical patterns in the hoop dance, the importance of this Native tradition to his family, the story he performs with his hoops, and his individual journey to hoop dancing.

Episode Resources

Terry Goedel Video Interview

Native American Curriculum Initiative Website:
www.advancingartsleadership.com/naci

Native American Lesson Plans
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons

Utah Native Nations Fact Sheet: Five Tribes Eight Nations
https://advancingartsleadership.com/blog/utah-native-nations-fact-sheet-five-tribes-eight-nations

Episode Notes
“As a young man, I was trying to find who I was. I was living on the reservation, and I was Native, but I didn’t want to be Native. Everybody identified me and saw me as Native, but I didn’t really want to be that person. It was only when I saw the hoop dance for the first time that something inside of me changed. I found a power, a strength, a light inside that began to burn that nobody contained and controlled but me. As I found the power of that light, it moved me to do things that were greater than things that I would have done had anybody tried to help me get there. As I began searching, I decided that I needed to go and learn the hoop dance.” -Terry Goedel

Heather Francis: Today I’m sharing an excerpt from an interview with a Native artist: we invited Terry Goedel, a Native American hoop dancer, to the studio to do some video and audio recording. We had collaborated with him on lesson plans about the hoop dance, and we wanted to include some demonstrations as part of those resources. We listened to him talk for a little bit about what the hoop dance is, and what it means to him and his family. He showed us his regalia that he wears when he dances the hoop dance. Terry taught us about what the symbols on the regalia mean, and how the regalia is individual and different for every hoop dancer.

Terry is a retired math teacher, so he also demonstrates and shares for us how he sees mathematics in the hoop dance and how he makes connections between mathematical patterns and the performance of the hoop dance. Terry also shares a little bit about his individual journey as an artist, how he came to be a hoop dancer, how it's changed his life and how he has shared it with his family. Make sure to check out the video of Terry Goedel showing his regalia and hoops. Maybe this video is helpful to share in your classroom, maybe it's helpful just for you to understand better about the hoop dance, and maybe you just like listening to the stories of an artist.

Terry Goedel: Hello, my name is Terry Goedel. I'm a Yakima Tulalip Indian originally from Washington State. In 1971, I saw the hoop dance for the very first time as a young man. About a year later, I began hoop dancing. I have been hoop dancing now for 50 years. For me, the hoop is important: the Natives call it the circle of life. It's important because it tells the life cycle of each one of us and the journey that we have, and the journey that we're on. For my family and myself, as we go throughout the country, we share one part of Native American culture called hoop dance.

Watch this video to hear more about Terry’s personal journey with the hoop dance.

How Big Should the Hoops Be?

The hoops are proportional, so it's necessary for the hoops to be a particular size for any individual. If the hoops are too small, then they won't really work too well if we're trying to get our body through the hoop. If they're too small, we can't do that. If they're too big, then they will cross in places. If you can think of a Venn diagram, a Venn diagram almost has a perfect crossing, which is a mathematical term that we use. We find where the center is, when the Venn diagram overlaps too much, then you have a big space in the middle. When the hoops are used, it's almost like having a Venn diagram where you have three even spaces between the hoops. If the hoops are too big, then an individual has them kind of squished together and the center is bigger. If the hoops are too little then the Venn diagram in the middle will be too small. These are reasons why the hoops should be proportional to the individual: the hoops should be as tall as an individual and three hoops stacked on top of one another should equal the height of the individual using the hoops.

What is the Symbolism Behind the Shapes in the Hoop Dance?

As a hoop dancer, we're trying to get people to see the story; for myself and my family, we represent the story of the eagle as the eagle grows and develops. We're trying to reflect that story into the individual to be able to see who they are, within themselves. When we dance, we're telling the story of our life and the journey that we take. The story begins with the first hoop. Natives believe that this is a healing dance. As we take the hoop around our body, as we're twisting it around or through our body, we believe that a healing is happening. As it continues and we pick up the second hoop, we begin to see the small bird as it grows. We shift from one thought to another, we see different formations appearing. When we get to three hoops, we actually see the bird with two wings, like a butterfly. Increasing to four hoops, we see the bird get bigger. Then we see flowers and plants and animals. As it goes to five, we see maybe a crocodile; the idea is to get people to see it from their view, and not from my view, because I see one thing, whereas someone else might see something else. Many years ago, I was teaching some preschoolers and I had my hoops and they were all orange. I gathered my hoops, one of the young kids raised their hand and said, “I really liked your pumpkin.” I thought for a minute. I said, “A pumpkin? I didn't make a pumpkin.” I thought about it, a pumpkin was the perfect thought for them, because they saw all the orange wrapped around and this was a time of year close to Thanksgiving. They saw a pumpkin. That's what they saw. The idea of the hoop dance is not for me to tell people what they see. The idea is for people to see and tell me what they've seen.

Unique Symbolism Within Individual Regalia

Each Native American hoop dancer has their own kind of regalia clothing, depending on where they come from. I come from the northwest between Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, BC. We use the Northwest style of designs. My uncle was a carver up there, and I've got a nephew who's a carver up there. The designs are created to help an individual see different animals in nature. On my particular regalia I have the orca. The orca is a symbol that we use for the Northwest; in the Tulalips, the orca is a symbol they use for their tribe. On the front, I have the sun and on the back, I have the moon. For me, this is talking about the creation and the plants and animals that we see: the birds, and the plants, and the animals. These symbols represent the lifecycle in its completeness, and everything that we need. Each dancer chooses their colors and their designs. If someone was from the southwest, they could go maybe without sleeves, because it is hot. If you go to the north into Canada, a dancer might use buckskin to help them stay warm, because it's colder up there. Each dancer uses what they need, keeping in mind that it's easier to dance with a little less than it is a little more because the hoops are trying to catch on to the clothing and then you have problems with that. Each dancer designs their own regalia. You either have to make it yourself or you have to get somebody to make it for you.

Who Can Hoop Dance?

For Native Americans, anybody can hoop dance. In 1971, I saw the dance. It was a dying art. I didn't know it was a dying art; it was something I really enjoyed. As my kids grew, I didn't realize that I should have taught them. It wasn't until my oldest daughter turned 18 and she came up to me one day and said, “Dad, can you teach me how to dance?” I thought, “Wow, I should have done this a long time ago.” At one time, women weren't allowed to dance. This was a man’s dance. In today's world, we have women who have particular dances they do and we have men that do particular dances. When my daughter came to me, I thought, “Well, yeah, I guess I can show you.” Today, we have both men and women that hoop dance. I don't know if there was any particular reason why women didn't do this dance. To me personally, I think maybe it was because when they are pregnant, they can't really dance with the hoops. Today, anybody that is Native is allowed to dance. You don't have to get any permission from anybody because it has evolved to be an independent dance. Anyone who is Native is allowed to dance, even people who are not Native. The real difficulty is people that are not Native sometimes have a tendency to tell people that they are Native and that's a little offensive to Natives. I try to teach other Natives the hoop dance from any age. I have 15 grandchildren, and all of them have a set of hoops that I make for them when they're born.

The Hoop Dance as a Healing Experience: “A Power, A Strength, A Light That Began to Burn.”

Right now, I'm writing a book, and I'm close to being finished. In the book, I talk about the change that occurred in me, and it was almost instantaneous. I changed. When I went outside, I was the same person, but I saw myself differently for the first time. I was okay with who I was. I think that's what we're all trying to do. We're trying to find out who we are. For me this dance was healing, because it healed something that I didn't have. I didn't know what I was looking for. The hoop dance helped me find that thing that I was looking for. As we go from day to day, there are things in the world that will heal us and help us. Native Americans use this dance to heal themselves, or to heal others. That first time I saw the dance, three dancers danced in front of me, and they healed me—they began that healing process. The healing happens internally to an individual, but it could happen to me as a dancer, and it could happen to someone else. I know a Navajo gentleman, he's about 80 years old. A long time ago, they made these hoops out of willow. This gentleman carries this tradition forward: he makes hoops out of willow and he goes to heal an individual. After he heals them, he takes these willow hoops and he burns them— he creates a fire. That smoke that takes those prayers up to heaven, to the Great Spirit to heal those individuals. There's a lot of different ways that an individual is healed. For me personally, it was something that happened when I was young, and I was looking. It's that teaching moment that you have that if you take it and it happens, then, you know miracles can happen.

Heather Francis: Wasn’t that a treat? Follow us on social media @everychildeveryart on Instagram or at BYU Arts Partnership on Facebook. Check out the show notes again, we have a link to a video of this episode so you can see Terry talking, demonstrating, and showing his regalia. Remember to check out all our lesson plans. On our website we have dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts, language arts, lesson plans for math, science, English, language arts, social studies, social and emotional well being—we have quite the collection!

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