Many children and adults competed during the Prince Albert Winter Festival Jigging Contest on Saturday. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Maintaining Culture

P.A. Winter Festival Jigging contest showcasing culture and tradition

Feb 23, 2020 | 12:04 PM

Many people gathered at the Indian Metis Friendship Centre on Saturday to witness traditional dancing.

The 2020 Jigging Contest, which is part of the Prince Albert Winter Festival, showcased multiple age groups in different categories.

Lawrence Joseph, the emcee for the event said it’s quite an important event for the community and the surrounding district.

“A lot of proud history, basically the Metis is connected through the Red River Jig and a lot of proud history,” he said. “If you know what Red River Jigging is all about you’ll understand what to read and listen to the music and dance according to how the music is played.”

Participants as young as five and as old as 60 competed in their own categories for cash prizes.

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“People teach their kids part of our culture and tradition is dancing and having a great time,” Joseph said. “It’s always a good turnout because people like to not only hear the music, but people like to see their kids and see how they turn out dancing in front of a crowd.”

Children as young as five particiapted in the jigging Contest at the Indian Metis Friendship Centre. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

He added it’s a good self esteem builder for the younger dancers because it can be an intimidating experience.

“This is an opportunity for people to come out in a non-drinking atmosphere and it’s a good family get together and you bring all ages up here and the senior citizens really love this type of dancing,” he said.

He added it’s a good way to maintain culture because he said old time dancing is making its way back.

“It’s quite enlightening to see a lot of young people interested in maintaining that culture in this way,” Joseph said.

He said this event promotes the competitive spirit as well as displaying culture. It is also an open forum for all races and cultures to be a part of.

Participant Kala Montgrand said she has been dancing since she was 9 years old – almost 16 years.

“My grandmother used to take me to these things called dry dances and she would throw me up on the floor and she wouldn’t let me come off until I danced,” Montgrand said. “So, I just decided to learn how to jig because I was just sick of embarrassing myself.”

She admitted she still gets nervous before dancing.

“I usually dance in a group of eight on a square dance team but even then, it’s still very nerve wracking,” she explained.

Judges were placed in the crowd to analyze the dancers. In each category those who finished first, second or third won a sum of money.

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Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12