Work / The Jingle Dress
The Jingle Dress: Why I Dance
A dress made from a dream, and a girl it healed
Work / The Jingle Dress
A dress made from a dream, and a girl it healed
A girl was sick. A dream came to a medicine man. A dress was made from that dream so she could be healed, and in Ojibwe tradition the dress and its dance have carried that healing ever since.
Valerie Leith tells that story on camera, and her own alongside it. She came to Patricia with the idea, decided what she wanted to say, and works with her to shape it. Valerie is Ojibwe, Dakota, and Menominee.
From the dress she moves to what dancing has given her and who it has made her. She dances in prayer and in thanks. She travels to round dances and ceremonies and helps keep the tradition going. She names the powwow she loves and the dancer from home she looks up to.
She ends with her name. Valerie, and also Miskozenibaanhkwe, Red Ribbon Woman, and Hupagluzawiya, Presents the Pipe Woman, the name her we'eh, Lavender Doris, gave her.
Her voice leads a short film, with photographs beside it.
Patricia first photographed Valerie for Threads of Us. Valerie came back with an idea of her own: a film about the jingle dress and what dancing has made of her.
The jingle dress dance is a healing dance, and Valerie wanted that at the center. Her voice carries the piece. The photographs are made across the same sessions and sit alongside it.
The full film is shared with Valerie Leith's approval prior to any public release.