A Small Bit of Barrow Dances into Juneau

Lis, Greg and Leif pulled me out of the house last Saturday night, March 19th.  I could have continued weaving on my robe, finish my homework due on Sunday, prepare for my business trip this week, or gone to the movies with my mother and brother; even though I love the dances of the Far North people, I was reluctant to go to the performance because of my stack of responsibilities.   Of course, I was glad to have gone.  The way of “Eskimo” dance is very different than any other kind of dance I have seen or have done; a happiness is reflected in the dances and songs of these people.  The first time I had seen Eskimo dancing was about 25 years ago when the King Island Dancers performed at the ANB Hall here in Juneau.  I was pleasantly surprised at how my spirit was uplifted by this kind of dance and song.  I hadn’t heard anything like it.  There is a quality that is highly spiritual – those are the only words I can find to describe the experience, a happy, spiritual experience.  Watching the Barrow Dancers was as equally another spiritual experience.

The Barrow Eskimo Dancers are all Inupiaq Eskimo.  They are the oldest dance group in Barrow, Alaska and love to pass down their traditional motion dances that tell stores of life long ago and modern times.  They are an all-ages group with over 60 members varying in age from two years old to almost 100!  Some begin training while still toddlers and others join when they are in their 60’s.

The locally-derived songs of the Barrow Dancers were composed largely by original dance group members the late Walter Akpik, Sr. and Warren Matumeak  and their forebears, and have their roots in the north central North Slope of Alaska.  Other, more recently composed songs and motions were composed by some of the other dance performers.  May of the recently-composed songs are performed with a smile (one dance, for example, mimics the pre-flight briefing of airline stewardesses).  Some songs have been borrowed and exchanged with groups from as far away as Savoonga and Chukotka in the Bering Sea and Arctic Canada.

“Even though most of our elders have passed on, what they taught us still lives on in many of the dances we do.  Especially during practices when we are learning new dances or bringing  back old dances.  Teaching the young ones the songs and dances makes me feel like we are passing down our culture and the knowledge so that it lives on when we are gone.”  Fred Elavgak.

Barrow is the northernmost city in the United States being 320 miles above the Arctic Circle.  It is a desert averaging less than 5 inches of rain a year, a land of harsh extremes with extended darkness, strong winds, dense cloud cover and unforgiving temperatures.  Archaeological sites in the area indicate the Inupiat lived around Barrow as far back as 500 A.D.  Some remains of 16 dwelling mounds from the Birmirk culture of about 800 A.D. are still in evidence today on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.

The Barrow Dancers participated in the inaugural parade for President-Elect Obama on January 20, 2009 in Washington, D.C.  They have performed as a group as far away as China and are very excited for their first performance in Juneau.

The Barrow Dancers performance in Juneau was sponsored by Alaska Airlines and co-sponsored by the Driftwood Lodge.