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Tony Duncan, a five-time World Champion Hoop Dancer and performing artist, is just getting started. Now based in Mese, Arizona with his wife and children, Duncan learned hoop dancing from his father at the age of five.

“I grew up going to powwows and my father taught me different styles of dances, including the hoop dance,” Duncan told Annie Larkin during a special performance for the Amerind Museum.

Characterized by rhythmic dancing with colorful hoops and complex footwork, this tradition has roots in healing ceremonies and customs across Indigenous communities of the U.S. and Canada. Duncan represents the best of hoop dancing: using his hoops to tell a story with stunning images – sometimes of a snake, butterfly, eagle, or globe. Even his mastery of the hoop, constantly spinning and forming new shapes, conjures the fluidity of life itself.

Now an intertribal activity, hoop dancing has grown in popularity, with modern dancers reinventing its foundational elements.  “Everything we wear when we perform tells a story. Designs are passed down among families, the bead work, and even the tailoring of regalia speaks to someone’s tribe or clan. We wear the good feelings of our relatives on our bodies when we dance,” Duncan says of the rich meaning behind his regalia.

Though known for his dancing, Duncan is also a renowned flutist, with ten albums released under Canyon Records, a Native American music label.  After winning Artist of the Year at the Native American Music Awards in 2013, and touring with such musicians as R. Carlos Nakai and Joanne Shenandoah, Duncan believes hoop dancing and playing the flute keep him balanced.

“Hoop dancing represents fire because the flicker of a flame is constant, like my quick movements while dancing. The sound of the flute reminds me of water and its ability to heal. For me, they go hand in hand,” Duncan explains.

After touring with international pop sensation, Nelly Furtado, and performing for thousands globally, Duncan now thinks of the next generation. Duncan’s children, Naiche, Nitanis, Manaya and Mia are budding hoop dancers, and will carry on his legacy.

As Duncan told Visit Phoenix late last year, “I’ll be performing the hoop dance until I have white hair and I’m an elder. Continuing to pass down traditions and teachings to my children and their children: that’s how we keep the ‘hoop’ strong.”