Metis activities

I was looking for some of the older HBC Metis activities such as
their Dancing and songs. Here is one of the dances. There will be
more to follow.
Peace, TwoBears

Meti Paddle Dance. We had fiddlers playing a jig, but probably any
instrument would do: guitar, mandolin, penny whistle etc. Everyone
claps to the music, cause the rhythem is more important than the
song. Participants line up in two rows facing each other, I think
women were on one side and men on the other, but I don't think it
matters. To start, a woman stands at the end of the row holding the
paddle and she gets to choose which man to dance with. The first two
men in the lines step forward and each tries to impress the woman
into choosing him as her partner. Here's the fun- the men strut and
flex the muscles, bow, tip their hat, click their heals or do
anything they can while circling the woman to get her to choose
them. This goes on for I guess 10 seconds or so, what ever time it
takes to check over both candidates. Of course the more animated you
are the better. The woman makes her choice by handing the paddle to
the looser. The couple then "dances" down the line in any method
chosen- skipping, quick waltzing, twirling- anything goes. When the
couple reaches the end of the line, they split off each going to
either side of the line. The person left with the paddle quickly
gets over their dissappointment because they now get to do the
choosing. The next two women in line step up and try to be choosen,
fluttering their eyelashes, combing their hair, being seductive-
whatever works. That's the Paddle Dance. The more animation the
better and there's lots of room for indivdual creativity in the
parading, the choosing and the dancing method. The dance can
continue as long as you like- at least until everyone gets a turn to
dance down the row.



Instructions from Old Fort Williams:

"Regarding the paddle dance, it's probably one of the simplest to do-
-
-form two lines of people, spaced apart by 6 feet or so, hands
clapping, music playing; one person is at the head, standing between
the two lines, holding a paddle; that person has to choose a dance
partner from the head of either line; the respective heads of the
line can make a show of trying to "win" the favor of the person
choosing the dance partner, going on bended knee, bowing grandly,
playing up their appearance, apparel, grooming themselves etc--making
a show of it;

once the choice is made, the "chooser" hands off the paddle to
the "losing" candidate & the newly formed couple dances down the
middle in between the two lines, going to the end; the couple thens
splits off to rejoin the respective lines; meanwhile, the "loser"
with the paddle can make his/her choice of a dance partner and so it
goes...it can go on & on...