ATHABASCA — Dallas Arcand doesn’t look at his schedule too far in advance.
The world champion hoop dancer is so busy now that restrictions have lifted, he’s constantly on the move performing at different venues in both Canada and the United States and will be in Athabasca July 2 for the Magnificent River Rats Festival.
“I just take it one project at a time, it's (manager) Eddie (Birkett) that knows all that,” Arcand said in a June 20 interview while waiting at the Edmonton International Airport before he flew to Ottawa for a week-long Indigenous celebration.
“If I did, I'd probably go crazy if I knew how much was coming up.”
It was when he was attending Ben Calf Robe St. Clare school in Edmonton he was introduced to hoop dancing by a friend.
“Eventually he lived with me and so I had more access to the practice hoops,” said Arcand. “Then he showed me a couple moves and I just kind of went off on my own after that.”
And after 30 years, he is considered a master hoop dancer.
“Most hoop dancers, once we get to a certain level we don’t have to practice as much,” he said. “If anything, I have to practice my hand-eye coordination and keep that up, that’s the main thing.
So, 30 years later, are there even new moves left to develop?
“There’s always new moves being created,” said Arcand.
And spinning and throwing the hoops is very precise after hundreds, or thousands of hours of practice.
“I’m like Master Yoda these days, I just do it,” Arcand laughed. “Those hoops spin pretty fast; 100 miles per hour.”
But getting to be an expert takes a steely focus.
“I was a big fan of martial arts movies and stuff when I was a kid like Bruce Lee or Karate Kid. I've seen the dedication that it takes to be a good martial artist going to get your black belt,” he said. “You got to train hard, you got to train every single possibility and become one with the water and the wind and the fire and everything. So, that's kind of what drove me to it.”
Hoop dancing and that focus has changed his life.
“A lot of my people live in poverty situations, low socio-economic status places, (and) a lot of poor people have a lot of lot of dysfunctional habits or addictions or whatever, surround that environment,” Arcand said. "So, I grew up around that. I grew up seeing a lot of kinds of stuff that kids shouldn't see and that's the unfortunate part; that a lot of people don't really know what goes on in some of these homes and in these impoverished places.”
Arcand was one of the first artists to speak up about institutional racism.
“It's a really complicated issue, because it's got so many layers so, as soon as they peel that onion it just keeps on getting more and more closer to the issues,” he said. "I'm finding out new stuff as I go along but I've been talking about it for years.”
And he channels that energy into making hoops soar and bounce, spin and magically turn into a butterfly or bison, an eagle or almost anything you can imagine, and he’s been sharing it with the world.
“It just made me more worldly and gave me more ability to discover my potential and to exercise my talents,” said Arcand. “It gave me that ability, that opportunity.”
Arcand will be performing at noon July 2 on the Riverfront Stage in Athabasca at the Magnificent River Rats Festival Society. Tickets can be purchased at riverratsfestival.com.
