Description

Navajo dancers and performers wearing traditional clothing performing for tourists at the Grand Canyon, Arizona near Hopi House.

Within the Native American Community, the Navajo Dance is one such example of something truly unique and irreplaceable. Five things that the Navajo dance stands for are described below:

1. In Honoring Oneself

The Navajo Dance serves a number of purposes, not excluding the honoring of oneself while doing the dance. As life makes perfectly clear and psychology continues to remind us, having an innate and respectable relationship with oneself is the best way to be authentic, alive, and in the moment. The Navajo Dance serves to create this sense within the individual, bringing them to a more powerful and meaningful experience centered around the moment.

2. A Connection To One’s Surroundings

Along with focusing one’s attention inward, the dance is a reflection of those exterior elements that play into everyday life for the Navajo people. A celebration and a confirmation of these events, the Navajo Dance works to bring everyone to a greater understanding of the role the surroundings play.

3. A Traditional Tool For Teaching

The Navajo Dance is full of important messages, lessons, and instructions for all parts of the Navajo community. As a result, the dance works to teach and reinforce important lessons regarding being a Navajo.

4. A Means To Continue a Community and Sense of Culture

Performed for longer then can be remembered, the Navajo Dance is a shining example of a cultural pride and activity that refuses to die.

5. No Separation of Belief and Living

Within the Navajo community, there is no separation between religion and life. Every day is spent living a life where all the elements of the divine and unknown play out. The Navajo Dance is a way to communicate and celebrate this aspect of life, brining the mind of both the dancer and those watching towards a greater understanding of not only themselves, but the greater world around them.