(calm music) - Welcome back to "This is Utah" I'm your host, Liz Adeola and we are here at the Ballet West Academy because in this special episode, we are re-examining the art of dance and its power to move us in incredible ways.

From the intricate footwork, mastered by the young at heart, to the reclaiming of indigenous spaces, through The Power of The Jingle Dress Project, We'll lead you on a one-two step journey back through the best of the best and you've got to stay tuned for this traditional folk dance that's reconnecting young artists with their heritage.

- [Announcer] Support for "This is Utah" comes from the Willard L. Eccles Foundation the Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation the Utah Office of Tourism, the George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation and the Contributing Members of PBS Utah, thank you.

(bright upbeat music) - From celebrating special events to conveying feelings that words simply cannot, dance is a part of the human story.

Ballet Folklorico de Las Americas has taken those stories from Central and South America and shared them with people here in Utah.

(native music) - (speaks in foreign language) is a Cumbia dance from Columbia, and it talks about fisherman going out to sea, to fish for the day.

But when they come back, they see that there are better fish to catch and that's the women.

So that's why they go after the women and they start dancing and flirting with the women.

So after a hard day's work, I don't blame them.

Not at all.

(laughing) (folklore music) I like to move, I like to have my body move, and I can do it through dancing.

Something that I can represent is even more meaningful.

Has more meaning when we're representing something that happens in daily life.

One, two, three, four, with intent, with intent of trying to grab a girl.

I'm going to get you, I'm gonna get you.

And move, two.

Ballet Folklorico de Las Americas started in 1979, ever since 1983, I've been with the group.

I started as a dancer, and after that as an instructor, and after that, I ended up being the artistic director of the group.

Three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

To teach the dancing is the best way to share and help others learn through dancing the history of the people.

(instrumental music) I've been dancing myself since I was a little girl, since I was in kindergarten.

This one is my cousin and I in kindergarten dancing our (speaks in foreign language) .

That was so cute.

My mom made this one.

She made this one too.

This one is from Sinaloa, Mexico.

This is my second grade doing a Sinaloa dance.

And this is the whole class doing the Sinaloa dance.

This is from (speaks in foreign language) This is so much fun because he has a mariachi and music.

And I grew up with mariachi music because my dad played the violin in a mariachi band.

So it was so much fun.

I had my dad here in my heart all the time because he taught us a lot of about the music.

In fifth grade, I danced these dances from Russia and I loved it because I saw for the first time, Cossack dancing with cabrioles and coffee grinders and the size and all over sudden I was having so much fun doing those because we had a great teacher.

And through that, I go, "I need to know more about the Russians."

I wanted to learn dances from other countries, and that's the time when, my eyes started opening to the world.

I go, "Wow, it's gonna take me a lot of years to learn all those things.

Am I gonna live long enough to learn everything that I would like to learn?"

And well so far so good, still not enough time anyway.

- [Liz] Irma pushed forward towards her dream of learning about the world.

She attended Brigham Young University and traveled the globe, performing cultural folk dances.

Then Irma brought the steps she learned back to Utah sharing the traditional dance moves with Ballet Folklorico de Las Americas.

(folklore music) - I like this state because anything that comes to the state, people wanna know.

People wanna know, they want to join it.

They want to know more about it.

They ask questions.

It's really fun to talk about that, as I see, this is what we're all about.

Human beings going on about their daily lives and portraying all of those things through dance.

I'm really passionate about it because it talks about us.

What are we gonna leave?

Memories, right?

Feelings?

They won't be leaving with us.

Those things will be prevalent in us.

(audience cheering and clapping) If you want to find out about a civilization or culture or find out about a history of something that you're not familiar with or you're related.

You should go and learn about it because it might be your ancestors.

It might be your history.

And if it's not your histories, human history, which is important.

Through dance you can talk about religion, through dance you can talk about a community event.

You can talk about work, relationships, human relationships.

Those are so much fun.

Of course love moves the world around, right?

The best thing, I think that we can leave is heart in everything that we do.

(audience cheering and clapping) (calm piano music) - A trip down memory lane with Jean Woodruff includes colorful costume changes, big band music and gatherings with her friends.

At 93 years-young, she shares with us her secret to staying in step with the changing times.

(calm music) - My name is Ebra Jean Woodruff, Molly and I had known each other for years, through nursing and raising our children.

And I said, "Molly, would you be interested in taking ballroom dancing?"

And she said, "Oh, I always wanted to do that."

So how was your day been?

- [Molly] Busy, how about you?

- [Jean] That was the start and we've been here ever since.

Molly's 83, now and I'm 93.

- [Molly] You realize you went through a red light?

- [Jean] No I didn't know I did.

- [Molly] Yeah, you did.

- Molly and I have talked how therapeutic it is to come here.

And on Friday nights is when Martin has his social and everyone just seems so glad to see you, you're glad to see them.

No one seems to mind or worry how old we are.

And frankly, we don't feel that old.

I don't know how old you're supposed to feel.

- It isn't just dance, it's that's social contact, it just as a healthy, healthy state I think to stay in contact with people of all ages.

- The age in dancing doesn't matter, I think we created this friendship between Jean and I, because I don't treat her like she's 93 and she doesn't treat me like I'm 50.

- And I danced with Martin, I am getting older and I wear high heels, everyone mentions my high heels like I shouldn't be in them, but I always know regardless of how I feel that I have his protection.

So I'm not fearful at all that I'm gonna fall.

I promote dancing everywhere I go, because I have seen what it does for people's confidence.

It helped me as a country girl, went to the city and had big ideas.

My girlfriend and I went to Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Salt Lake and signed up for a course.

And along the way, Bill was one of my teachers.

He had come from Columbus, Ohio, and was finishing at the university.

And I just got out of nurse's training.

We did get married in August of 48.

And immediately after that, we both had our professions, but we did have a dance studio in Bountiful.

We taught in the youth program probably for 25, 30 years for our church.

We've danced everywhere in Salt Lake, Hotel Utah, Hotel Newhouse, all the country clubs, and Lagoon and Saltair, it was all open.

And the breeze would blow through and they always had the big name bands there.

And you just felt good.

- They want you to put this on?

- No.

- Martin said he wants- - I can't put that.

- Yes you can.

- I like to try it.

- Do you want this one?

- Let's do it Martin's waiting, we can't wait all day.

(slow music) We want Martin to be strict with us.

We are interested in the professional ballroom dancing.

- Well, it's hard to stand still when you hear that, that beat and the movement and all, it makes you feel beautiful.

- People that have never seen the dancing they do, it is tremendous.

I mean the skills and the flexibility, professional dance, it takes a lot of energy.

I think that's another part of dancing.

You just can't stress enough.

And in my nursing career, I went to many seminars, and it's move it or you lose it.

- I know that's why she's healthy physically and mentally, it's her dance.

And it hasn't come easy, she worked very, very hard for that.

- Molly and I are very hard workers, and sometimes we think, maybe we could stay home, but we want to support the studio and you come here and everyone hugs you, everyone needs touch.

I can't tell you how many hands I've held in my life with my nursing career and people need that intimacy.

- What Jean used to do at Saltair, we now do at The Gallivan Center downtown, it's ballroom dancing.

(trumpet music) I think Ballroom Utah, became such a unique place because of the people in the community.

And we became very good friends very quickly, and because like Jean and Molly already were friends and they just draw other people to be around them.

So it's always about the people.

- It's interesting, what music can do for you, it can just transport you from, I don't have time to be depressed or lonely.

I miss my husband and the life that we had, but there's something about foxtrot, I guess that reminds me of the many dances we've done.

But you feel like you're floating.

It's very euphoric, you're just taken away on a trip.

(ballroom music) (bright upbeat music) - It is said that sometimes dreams are wiser than waking, for photographer, Eugene Tapahe.

It was a dream that inspired him to create, Art Heals, The Jingle Dress Project.

An artistic journey that spanned thousands of miles showcasing how art, landscape, and healing are all intertwined.

- When we're at our lowest part in our lives, we get the most inspired, but we have to listen.

2020, this gonna be our year, we're going to do really well.

And then two weeks later, Utah is in quarantine.

And one by one, my art show started canceling.

And then I had my aunt who passed away from COVID, I felt like I was broken.

I felt like there was nothing gonna, nothing good is going to happen.

I had a dream, I was sitting in Yellowstone, in a grass field and on the horizon, there's a herd of bison and they were just grazing.

And I was just sitting in the tall grass and it was so tranquil and I didn't wanna leave.

All of a sudden in my dream, I heard jingles.

They started coming and all of a sudden I looked up and I saw all these beautiful jingle dress dancers.

And they just started dancing with the bison, and I could feel my heart healing, I could feel hope.

And when I woke up, I shared my dream with my wife and my daughters.

And I told, I said, "I think this is what we need to do."

I said, "I think this dream is telling me that we need to take the jingle dress to the land, to heal the land and if we heal the land, we're gonna heal the people."

At the beginning, we just had Erin and Dion, my two daughters and I said, "If we could get two more jingle dress dancers, then we would have four.

And a four would represent the four worlds in our culture as a Dine Navajo."

And so that's when, when Sunni and JoAnni Begay, they both came into the picture.

I really thought about why and where I was gonna go with the girls to dance and to shoot photos.

And I really thought this would be a great opportunity to go to these parks and to make a reclamation of these native lands.

Because a lot of times people don't realize is that these native lands and the national parks, they were prime spots for native people to live.

- America has such different landscapes.

Natives have been everywhere and natives are still everywhere.

So for me, it's been amazing to see that there's different resources in all of these different places.

And I feel like for me, being an environmental science major, I've been able to learn a lot more about like my personal connection with the land.

- Actually going in, looking, trying to find the history of these locations and finding out the history and the ancestors and the tribes who were there.

Because when you're taking the photo shoot, it's more than just standing in front of the camera, where we're feeling the spirits of these ancestors.

We're actually embodying the spirit of these people.

(eerie music) - Art comes from down deep inside us in our hearts and who we are personally.

And it's the same thing with how we incorporated what we're done.

I mean, we don't have just photograph art, but we have the art of dance.

We have the art of music.

We have the art of nature.

We always think art, oh, art is a watercolor, or oil painting when really art is all around us.

And when they all come together for a spiritual reason it heals.

There's no way you can be quiet in a jingle dress, it just calls for attention and everywhere we went, that's what it did.

We have four girls in jingle dresses, and there's no way those four girls could just walk quietly.

This kind of pose right in the middle... And we wanted it to be a statement in the sense of we're still here.

Three, two, one.

You would be amazed how many people nowadays don't think Native Americans are still here.

- I heard so many comments of like, "Oh, do you live in a teepee?"

"Oh, I didn't know you still exist, I only read you in history books."

- We wanna be treated as human, We want to be treated as equals, we wanna be treated as we should be, with respect and dignity and we're not.

Three, two, one.

We weren't quiet in what we're doing, we tried really hard to make a statement and wherever we went...

There we go, that's good.

Okay, let's try it with eyes open now.

Okay, all right, here we go.

- I feel like it was just an experience that I've had to have, like this point in my life right now.

And I've learned a lot from it.

I felt more empowered, I felt more connected to the community.

I feel more confident in sharing my, the things that I'm passionate about, like native rights and representation.

- I could see how much confidence they gained, how much empowerment they had, how much more respect they have for their culture and their traditions and for who they are.

I told my girls, and I said, from the moment you took your first breath into this world, you already had two strikes against you.

One you're a female, two, you have brown skin.

And you haven't even done anything in this world, but you already were looked at differently.

- With this project, I have been able to definitely notice a shift.

Before I wasn't really educated on native issues, my people's issues.

I didn't learn about generational trauma until my freshman year in college.

And I didn't realize how important this is to my identity and who I am as an indigenous woman.

- Okay we're good.

To see them now and to see how much courage they have, and the desire they have to be able to further their education and to help change, not just the world, but to themselves, and to help people around them.

And I think that's the biggest thing about this whole project was, is that they learned to be of service.

I realized as I was picking up one of the dresses and I put my hand on one of the jingles and I shook it, that one jingle didn't make any sound and it really hit my heart and my mind in the sense that was huge metaphor.

One jingle doesn't make a sound, but together they have the power to heal.

(calm music) As human beings if we're able to unite and make a beautiful sound and our prayers unite as the jingle dress does, how powerful we could be and how much more we could learn from one another, if we could just listen to each other.

- What an incredible group of artists, and you can share some of their positivity too.

Just head to "This as Utah's" social media pages, watch the stories there, then like, comment, and share.

Until next time I'm Liz Adeola, and "This is Utah".

- [Announcer] Support for "This is Utah" comes from the Willard L. Eccles Foundation, the Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation, the Utah Office of Tourism, the George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation and the contributing members of PBS Utah.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)