Where does a Heyokah come from?

Today we created short movement pieces about the heyokah story. 

According to Lakota Sioux tradition, each being is made up of two spirits: one that is male, and the other which is female.  When a person is born, either the male or the female spirit leaves the spirit realm and becomes human.  Through the human's life, he or she is connected to and guided by the spirit self.  When the person dies, the human part of his or her spirit rejoins the spirit that had remained in the spirit world.  The process then repeats for eternity.

The story says that this human/spirit dichotomy worked for a while, but eventually the humans became distracted and stopped listening to their spirit halves.  The world fell into chaos.  To stop the chaos, the spirits from the spirit world sent an entire being to earth; a human was born with both the human self and the spirit self, the male self and the female self.  This "whole-spirited" human was called a heyokah, and functioned to bring light to the hidden problems in Lakota Sioux society.

Bill read us this story, divided us into four groups, and then gave us fifteen minutes to create physical representations of the story.  Here are some of the results:

 Birgitta and Hannah used only their hands to tell the story.  In this picture, Hannah is descending to Earth and beginning to transform into a human, while Birgitta remains in the spirit realm.

Vanessa and Hossein performed a rhythmic dance that was both musical and silent at the same time.  In this picture, Vanessa, the human spirit, is trying desperately to reconnect with Hossein, her spirit-world counterpart.

Check back tomorrow for more pictures and info!