Yup'ik dance

Yup'ik dance or Yuraq, also Yuraqing (Yup'ik yuraq /juʁaq/ sg yurak dual yurat pl) is a traditional Inuit style dancing form usually performed to songs in Yup'ik, with dances choreographed for specific songs which the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik dance for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Inuit of Chevak and Cup'ig dance for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Inuit of Nunivak Island. Yup'ik dancing is set up in a very specific and cultural format. Typically, the men are in the front, kneeling and the women stand in the back. The drummers are in the very back of the dance group. Dance is the heart of Yup’ik spiritual and social life. Traditional dancing in the qasgiq is a communal activity in Yup’ik tradition. The mask (kegginaquq) was a central element in Yup'ik ceremonial dancing. Inuit dancing of their ancestors was banned by Christian missionaries in the late 19th century as primitive idolatry. After a century, Cama-i dance festival is a cultural celebration that started in the mid 1980s with a goal to gather outlying village Inuit dancers to share their music and dances. There are now many dance groups who perform Inuit dances in Alaska. Most popular activity in the Yup'ik-speaking Inuit area is rediscovered Yup'ik dancing. Both Yup'ik and Iñupiaq dancing are also known as Eskimo dance in Alaska. The most obvious ways in which the Eskimo dancing of northwestern Alaska (known as Iñupiaq style Eskimo dance) differs from that of southwestern Alaska (known as Yup'ik style Eskimo dance) are in: the beating of the frame-drum from below, rather than from above; the standing, rather than the kneeling, of the male dancers; the very small use of decorative dance fans (de rigueur in the south); and the considerable musical ceremonialism that still survives (which never developed as much in the south and southwest of Alaska, although it certainly existed there). Yuraryaraq sg Yuraryarat pl (lit. "way[s] of dancing") or Yupiit Yuraryarait (lit.