Prescription to Save a Civilization
- Rebecca Burnham
- May 14
- 4 min read
I was going to introduce you to another character and song from the Eyes Wide Open musical this week, but there are a couple things buzzing in my mind and heart and begging to be shared with you instead.
First, I want to tell you about a dance show by the Westwind Thunders that I saw on Monday night at my tiny town’s one and only elementary school. The Thunders are a multicultural troupe of 39 students, ranging in age from 9 to 14, under the direction Jerry First Charger (who has a remarkable story about trading in a life of crime and substance abuse in exchange for a life of service and healing through the arts). They do a mix of breakdancing and traditional Indigenous dancing (including guest performances by Jerry’s 18-year-old son Cyrus, a world-championship hoop dancer). As I watched, the significance of what they are doing hit me hard.
The show started with Jerry, a Blackfoot man, performing an honour song and then an interpretive hoop dance to music by Oneida composer Joanne Shenandoah. Then the kids performed a series of dances to an eclectic mix of songs that ranged from Boney M’s “Rasputin” to Halluci Nation’s “It’s Over” to traditional Pow Wow drums and singing.
I watched a traditional art form that is precious to Indigenous culture being participated in by a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. There was a palpable sense of Indigenous culture being honoured, while it was also being shared.
I was especially touched when they performed a “modern hoop dance” that incorporated a mix of hip hop, vocal chanting and drumming. What I saw was inclusion without assimilation, the ability to engage together in something that honoured each other across differences.
Talking with Jerry later, I learned that what he’s doing is sometimes controversial; some believe that Indigenous dance should only be done by Indigenous dancers. But Jerry says that’s missing the point. “If you don’t connect other cultures to the music and the dance, they will never appreciate and respect our music and culture.” For Jerry, dancing, especially hoop dancing, is about healing and connection with the help of spiritual beings. The dancer's job is to create the atmosphere that allows those spiritual beings to work. Watching, I saw connections that heightened my hopes for cultural healing.
Then, yesterday, a friend forwarded me this article by music historian and American jazz critic Ted Gioia. I think it's a must read because of the perspective it offers on today’s polarized society. Gioia calls the patterns of division we see today a “binary crisis” which, left unchecked, can destroy civilizations like it did with Rome. And then he recommends one tool for bringing us back from the brink of destruction: music. Not just any music, but music that intentionally resolves conflict.
For example, there was some controversy when country star Luke Combs’ 2023 cover of Tracy Chapman’s 1988 debut hit “Fast Car” scored the top spot on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. It was the first time a song written by a black woman hit number one on a country chart, but there was some bitterness about it taking a white male performer to get it there. Then Chapman and Combs performed the song together at the 2024 Grammy Awards, with so much appreciation and respect for each other that the dissonance just disappeared.
“Nothing in human culture has done more to bring people together than music,” Gioia writes.
“There’s scientific reasons for this. When we join together in singing or music-making, our bodies release the hormone oxytocin—which makes us more trusting and less suspicious of others.”
“And trance-inducing rhythms have a similar impact—although now it's our brainwaves that are impacted, as well as our body chemistry. This is why dance is so liberating—it reduces our defenses, and actually lets us enjoy the moment when we become most vulnerable.
“This is the role the arts should play in a divisive culture. Songs bring us together—and diminish the deadly energy of the binary crisis. The dance, by the same logic, is the opposite of the military march—it is the rhythm that frees us, instead of dominating us.
“The same can be true of poetry, and painting, and movies, and games, and the rest of it. Even if they can’t defuse a crisis on their own, they are still the best place to start the process.”
Amen! That’s what I experienced Monday evening. And it's why Summit Stages exists: to help unleash the power of music, dance, and staged stories that can unite us.
Thank you for being part of this movement.
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