Jones Benally Family Dancers: Navajo Traditional Dance

The Jones Benally Family Dancers sign, chant and perform a repertoire of over 20 traditional Navajo dances. They are particularly well known for the hoop dance, in which they evoke traditional figures and shapes using five, nine, a dozen or many more hoops. Navajo dance is a sacred tradition encompassing a wide variety of forms, all of which aim to heal the body, mind or spirit. When presented outside the Navajo community, these dances are modified for public viewing, but they retain their deep capacity to move hearts and minds. Jones Benally's grandchildren are the next generation to take up the family legacy of Navajo music and dance.

- Jones Benally is a respected elder of the Navajo Nation in northeastern Arizona. His skill as a hoop dancer has won him worldwide acclaim and multiple world champion titles as well as the first Heard Museum Hoop Dance Legacy Award. Jones was featured as a singer in the 1993 film "Geronimo." He works as a traditional healer, and was among the first traditional medical practitioners to be employed by a Western medical facility, where he worked for nearly 20 years. He is also recognized by the state of Arizona as an Arizona Indian Living Treasure.

- Jeneda Benally has performed with her father for over three decades, and has also made her mark (along with brothers Klee and Clayson) as the Native American Music Award-winning "alter-Native" punk band Blackfire. The siblings' newest project is the duo Sihasin ("hope").

- Clayson Benally has performed with his father for over three decades, and has also made his mark (along with brother Klee and sister Jeneda) as the Native American Music Award-winning "alter-Native" punk band Blackfire. The siblings' newest project is the duo Sihasin ("hope").

For more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8944

Related resource: Jones Benally Family Conversation: https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-8945