TORONTO—Twelve-year-old Emilee Ann Pitawanakwat continues to make waves in the world of hoop dancing.
“Emily Ann is currently training for the World Hoop Dance Championship being held in Phoenix, Arizona from February 15-16,” proud mother Sara Pitawanakwat (Beaudry) told The Expositor. The world championships are open to all Indigenous Hoop Dancers in North America. Emilee Ann will be competing in the 6-12 age category.
“Emilee Ann is training out of a dance studio in the downtown core of Toronto for one-and-a-half to two-hour sessions. Leading up to the worlds, she is in the studio three times a week,” said Sara. She noted “Emilee Ann has received a lot of support from the community, and community members as far as Akwesasne and to British Columbia. She has multiple veteran hoop dancers that are supporting her, from three-time World Hoop Dancer Dallas Archand, Feryn King and Makhena Rankin-Guerin.”
The Pitawanakwats are originally from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory. The senior Ms. Pitawanakwat was born in Little Current and raised in Wiikwemkoong. Emilee Ann was born in Toronto but knows the community of Wiikwemkoong very well.
Sarah noted previously that Emilee Ann was 15 months old when she danced her first powwow, the New Year’s powwow in Wiky. “I knew I had a dancer on my hands. Her coming out ceremony happened at age 3.”
Emilee Ann was in a music video that she helped to direct three years ago that was nominated for, and reached the finals of a competition, helping to direct a music video. The video Freedom was nominated for a Canadian Independent Music Video Award in the folk category, co-directed by Andrea Ramolo. The video for Ms. Ramolo’s song ‘Freedom’ was on her album ‘Quarantine Dream,’ released in 2021. ‘Quarantine Dream’ is all about Ms. Ramolo’s pandemic experience, with songs ranging from upbeat and happy to sombre. It was Ms. Ramolo’s seventh album.
Emilee Ann and her mother met Ms. Ramolo by chance when they attended a July 1, 2021 Every Child Matters walk in downtown Toronto. Emilee Ann was in her ribbon skirt for the event and Emilee Ann, a fancy shawl dancer and hoop dancer, wore her hoop dancing regalia and brought her hoops and hand drum to the event as well.
When the crowd gathered at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square after the march, Emilee Ann, the sole hoop dancer at the event, was invited into the centre of the circle to dance. Ms. Ramolo had joined the march to bask in the spirit of solidarity. While she was walking, she explained she came upon two ladies and a young girl in dancing regalia. “I was alone but felt such a community spirit. Emilee Ann noticed and struck up a conversation. It was a conversation on a level that was like we had known each other all our lives,” Ms. Ramolo explained.
Emilee Ann worked with Ms. Ramolo on expressing her thought on the word ‘freedom,’ through words, arts and crafts. The video was shot only 18 days after the initial chance meeting. In the video, Emilee Ann leads Ms. Ramolo through a forest. It ended with her hoop dancing, ‘the most healing of the dances.’
“I have to say that I am in awe of Emilee Ann as she juggles schoolwork and her preparation for the World Hoop Dance competition,” said Sara. “She handles it in perfect balance. As a former middle and distance runner, I am able to help train her with her warm-ups and cool-downs, as well as with visualization and grounding before a dance presentation. This has proven to be an important part of her training and performances.”
Sara noted, “Another important part of her training (in studio) is having fun. So, if it means putting on Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’ or ‘Chicago’ and having a fun dance improv to the music in between her doing her executing her hoop dance routine, which is five minutes long, then that is what we do. Laughter is important. At times, we invited her best friend, Nathalie or her Auntie Karen to come to the studio with us so they can dance with her but also to cheer her on.”
“I also take cues from her, if she is not up to dancing as long as we have the studio time: I cut it short as I never want to push to the point of her not loving what she does,” said Sara.
In September, Emilee Ann was in Hilo Hawaii for a week as she had been invited to hoop dance at a powwow held there. She also went into the school there to do a cultural sharing where Emilee Ann shared her love of hoop dancing and fancy shawl dancing.
On February 12, Emilee Ann will be making a 45-minute presentation on her journey into hoop dancing, at the sixth annual Ontario Native Women’s Association “She Is Wise” conference in Niagara Falls. And on March 7 she has been invited as a special guest at Our Music Festival at Great Hall in Toronto.
