Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
The World Championship Hoop Dance Contest returns to the Heard Museum in February 2022.
Save the date for Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 12-13, 2022, when the top American Indian and Canadian First Nations hoop dancers will compete at the Heard Museum for the prestigious World Champion title and cash prizes. The Heard Museum, founded in 1929, is located at 2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix.
The art of hoop dance honors cultural traditions shared by multiple Indigenous communities. With roots in healing ceremonies, traditions and practices, today hoop dance is shared as an artistic expression to celebrate and honor Indigenous traditions throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Over the years, as the hoop dance community has grown, dancers have incorporated new and creative designs and intricate footwork while still respecting the fundamentals of the form. Each dancer presents his or her own choreography, weaving in aspects of tradition and culture. Men and women compete on an equal field, and individual routines may feature as few as four to as many as 50 hoops, which are manipulated to create a variety of designs such as animals, insects and globes.
Dancers are judged on a slate of five skills: precision, timing/rhythm, showmanship, creativity and speed. Contestants compete in one of five divisions: Tiny Tots (age 5 and younger), Youth (6-12), Teen (13-17), Adult (18-39) and Senior (40 and older). Cash prizes totaling $25,000 are awarded to winners in each division, and victors in each division can claim the honor of being the World Champion.
