Teen champion hoop dancer

Charles Denny was 8 years old when his grandfather, Jerry Saddleback, could see his grandson possessed "the gift."

Saddleback, a well-known and respected hoop dancer in Canada, had shown young Charles how to move the hoops through his arms and overhead, and how to pick them up with his feet in a motion so fluid it was like paint strokes on a canvas.

Charles, a half Ute and half Chippewa-Cree Indian who lives on the Ute Indian Reservation in eastern Utah, is now a 17-year-old junior at Uintah High School. And this month, he earned the title of World Champion Teen Hoop Dancer at a competition held at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.

"My grandpa told me the hoop dance is something that doesn't belong to just anyone," said Charles. "You have to keep it sacred."

Charles had danced at pow wows ever since he began walking. So dancing was nothing new to him. But when his grandfather showed him how to dance with hoops — sometimes dozens of them — that was new.

From the first time Charles tried hoop dancing, there was no doubt for him or anyone watching that he indeed had that special gift. He was a natural.

"It's a spiritual dance — it is something that you really don't go ask for," said Charles' mother, Ballard-area resident Leliliah Ossie Denny, who is a member of the Ute Tribe. "A lot of kids could say they want to do that, but it is just like a lot of our other ceremonies, you have to be given this dance. It's a gift that was given to him."

Now a mature young man who is tall with the powerful build of an athlete, Charles' skills as a hoop dancer are in demand, and he recognizes his grandfather's words were true.

"He told me to 'take care of it, and it will take care of you,'" said Charles.

Hoop dancing has taken Charles to places including the National Mall and the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to dance in honor of the opening of the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian. He also went to Marietta, Ga., for the dedication and consecration of St. Catherine's Church.

He performed at the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and over the years, he has traveled to several states, where he has been invited to perform at special events at schools.

The hoop dance, steeped in centuries of tradition, has always carried a spiritual significance and is recognized for its powers to promote healing and vision.

"It is a specialty dance," said Leliliah Denny. "They don't hold competitions all over. It is a healing, a spiritual dance. He only dances at special times when he is asked."