Buffalo Dance

Buffalo dance

The Buffalo Dance, or Bison Dance, is an annual dance festival of many North American Plains Natives, including the Mandan, Sioux, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Omaha, among others. The festival traditionally coincided with the return of the buffalo herds, and included a feast and a dance with a number of men wearing buffalo and other animal skins.

Buffalo Dance (film)

Buffalo Dance is an 1894 American black-and-white silent film from Edison Studios, produced by William K. L. Dickson with William Heise as cinematographer. Filmed on a single reel, using standard 35 mm gauge, it has a 16-second runtime. The film, with English intertitles, was shot in Edison's Black Maria studio at the same time as Sioux Ghost Dance. These are two of the earliest films made which feature Native Americans. According to the Edison catalog, the performers in both films were Sioux people wearing traditional costumes and war paint. All were veterans of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. Buffalo Dance has three dancers and two drummers. Hair Coat, Last Horse and Parts His Hair dance in a circle while drummers Pine and Strong Talker provide their rhythm.

Dance

Dance is an art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements or by its historical period or place of origin. Dance is typically performed with musical accompaniment, and sometimes with the dancer simultaneously using a musical instrument themselves.

buffalo

Noun

1. An animal from the subtribe Bubalina, also known as true buffalos, such as the Cape buffalo, Syncerus caffer, or the water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis.
2. A related North American animal, the American bison, Bison bison.

Verb

1. To hunt buffalo.
2. To outwit, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.

dance

Noun

1. A sequence of rhythmic steps or movements usually performed to music, for pleasure or as a form of social interaction.
2. A social gathering where dancing is the main activity.

Verb

1. To move with rhythmic steps or movements, especially in time to music.
2. To leap or move lightly and rapidly.