Photo Courtesy of Artist
Hopi hoop dance
Phoenix, Arizona
The story of how the Sinquah family became hoop dancing legends contains a unique twist: the father learned the dance from his sons. Moontee Sinquah, now a world champion hoop dancer at the Senior level, did not pick up the hoops until he was 40, inspired by his then-teenage sons, Sampson and Scott Sixkiller Sinquah, who learned from an early age. Now these three extraordinary dancers perform together, hoping to ignite that same passion for their tradition in a new generation.
Among the native nations of the Southwest, it is said that hoop dance began as a healing ceremony performed by a young boy with a single hoop. While his grandfather sang, the boy would dance, adding a day to a sick person’s life with each pass of his body through the willow circle. Inspired by this boy’s example, the other children of the community made their own hoops and arranged them in dynamic shapes representing elements from their everyday life and their cosmology. Each hoop dancer expresses their vision and skills through the choreography they build around these beautiful set forms, such as the eagle, the world, and the ladder of life.
Moontee Sinquah, who is of Hopi, Tewa, and Choctaw heritage, grew up in Shugopavi, on the Hopi Reservation in northern Arizona. Participating in the Water Clan ceremonies of his maternal line inspired him to make music his life path. He later became a gifted powwow singer through the tutelage of elders like the famous Porcupine Singers from South Dakota. He is also a skilled drum maker, flute player, and a champion grass dancer. Moontee’s friend, the champion hoop dancer Quentin Pipestem of the Tsuut’ina Nation of Alberta, Canada, would visit each year when he came to compete in Arizona. When Moontee’s sons, Sampson and Scott, were just four and two, Quentin cut one of his signature red hoops down to child size for each boy, and on each subsequent yearly visit, he would give them another hoop and teach them another dance pattern. A decade later, their father began to learn the hoops as well.
The Sinquah sons follow in the footsteps of both their parents—their mother, Sue Sixkiller, of the Gila River People, is also a dedicated dancer—using their talents to, as Scott says, “carry on our ancestors in a good way” through their artistry. Sampson Sixkiller Sinquah won the title of world champion hoop dancer in 2022 and is also a champion Prairie Chicken dancer. In 2022, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns commissioned Sampson to build the large powwow drum they use at home games to honor the 22 native nations of Arizona. Younger brother Scott Sixkiller Sinquah is a two-time Hoop Dance world champion (2020 and 2023), a drum maker and teacher, and a specialist in Fancy Dance.
Individually and together, Moontee, Sampson, and Scott have performed around the world at powwows, festivals, and even the Olympics. Now the tradition extends to a third generation as Scott’s four-year-old Sonny, follows his relatives’ footsteps. As Sampson Sinquah says, “The hoop is a representation of the cycle of life ... there is no beginning and no ending, always ongoing.”