Dance Calling
EARLIER THIS MONTH (Oct. 6), The Millicent Rogers Museum presented Millicent Unplugged: Taos Pueblo: International Ambassadors of Dance & Drum via ZOOM. The informal conversation featured Taos Pueblo Dancers Kathleen Michaels, Benito Concha and Sonny Spruce sharing their international travel experiences. Through the years, the trio has taken the beauty and spirit of drum and dance abroad. From Italy to Japan and all points between, their displays of courage and skill created deep friendships along the way.
Sonny was the first to speak, recalling a trip to Germany. “It’s Deutschland, it’s called Deutschland,” said Sonny. “When we got there, we learned that the Deutschland people accepted us very well.” The troupe made its way around Germany performing for auditoriums and schools and even a German television show. At the end of their shows, the dance troupe would invite audience members to join them in a Round Dance. Sonny’s face lit up as he regaled ZOOMies with this story:
“I remember at one time, we were dancing and we invited everyone to dance with us at the end. And this guy motions to me to take his little boy out to dance with me. So I went over there with my face all painted. I looked kind of wild. I stuck my hand out to the boy and boy did he start crying. He just screamed. So I told the guy I couldn’t do it because the boy was too scared.”
Millicent Unplugged host, Sara Frances, was able to draw the connection between Native America and Germany. According to Frances, the fascination with all things Native American began for Germany in the 1800s with Native American Mystery and Adventure novels being published there. Perhaps the young boy in Sonny’s story hadn’t read any of these.
Next up was Benito Concha, who elaborated on the troupe’s time in Berlin. This particular visit was before the collapse of the Berlin Wall and was also Benito’s first time outside North America. True to his roots, Benito did not travel such great distances without carrying with him a little traditional medicine.
One night before leaving Berlin, he and dance troupe singer/drummer Richard Archuleta made their way over to the Berlin Wall, to give a little thanks and say a few words of prayer. They found a stretch of wall next to a river and decided it the best place to lay their blessings. “The next morning we got a report that there was a brother and sister who escaped from the East to the West using scuba diving gear,” said Benito.
Later that morning, the dance troupe found themselves at Parliament, which was in the same area Benito and Archuleta were the night before, “we looked closer at the place we had been earlier and noticed it had been taped off and the police were there,” said Benito. Sometime shortly after the Taos Pueblo dancers left the area, the scuba diving sibling escapees landed in the exact same spot Benito and Archuleta had left their blessings.
“It was pretty profound for me in my very first experience on another continent to see something like that happen,” said Benito.
Building on Benito’s story, host Frances directed her next question to Kathleen Michaels. “You talked about how dance and participation is a sacred experience and yet it is possible, in the social aspect, to take elements and convey them as part of heritage to others, can you speak to those differences,” asked Frances.
When it comes to sharing their culture, Taos Pueblo is one of the most, if not the most, conservative Native American tribe in the United States. “It’s true we are very conscientious from our own community with what we can and cannot share. So the social dances that we’ve taken abroad are some dances that came to us from other tribes as well, thus they become shareable dances,” said Kathleen.
In the Native American dance world, it is of the utmost importance that credit be given where it is due. The Taos Pueblo dancers who were part of this panel acknowledge where their dances come from and especially where the songs those dances are performed to come from. “We would never use songs that belong to a family unless we had permission to share those,” said Kathleen.
Secrecy often leads to further questioning, and through their travels, the dancers encountered almost every question in the book. Questions like, “Why that feather,” and “why that color drumstick,” all valid questions but quite unnecessary, as Kathleen puts it, “For instance, when we went to Japan and got to see the Kubiki Theatre, you know you take it all in for what it is. You don’t ask why is that going there, or, why is it all men here,” said Kathleen.
Through their travels, these Taos Pueblo dancers have been afforded a perspective not many Americans get to see. But in the end the dance is the dance and it is a calling from higher power — the drum. “There’s something about that drum,” said Sonny, “people hear it and it calls to them. We start dancing in these plaza areas and before you know there’s a hundred, two hundred people watching.”