Original Painting “Navajo Fire Dance” [SOLD]

The Fire Dance starts just before dawn as the weather is at its coldest on the reservation. Many young men gather and drag in trees for a roaring fire. Once the fire is blazing enough to burn one’s front side, the shrill cry of the fire dancers fills the air. Their cry is a trilling made with the tongue against the lips, like the fluttering of a quickly burning fire.

Erna Fergusson, witness to a dance, described the event as follows:

“Then into the circle of light dashed the dancers, about fourteen of them, all naked and all painted white, heads as well as bodies. Each man carried a large bundle of shredded cedar bark almost as long as himself. One man brought several. They circled the fire too, but with leaping dash instead of the querulous whining crawl of the other groups. There was no chorus, but the dancers never ceased their trumpeting inhuman call. For a long time they fought the idea of the fire, circling toward it until the terrific heat drove them off, then yelling, turning, and daring each other to approach it again. Finally the leader threw himself flat and poked his faggot along the ground until it ignited from coals at the base of the fire. Then he rose and, sounding a great call, threw the bundle over the fence to the east. Taking other bundles from the man who followed him, he threw one in each direction. Before the last brand started on its whirling arc, he lighted all the others from it, the naked shivering figures gathering close around him and waiting until their brands were flaming well.

“Then began the real dance. The men, racing in a circle round the fire, close to the unbearable heat, whooped like demons and beat their own bodies and each other's with the flaming brands. One man beat the bare back in front of him until it slipped away. Then he flared his brand over his own back, showering sparks, he straddled it as he ran, he turned and threw its flames over the man who followed him. They washed each other's backs with flame. They leaped so close to the fire that their bare feet seemed to be treading on live coals. The figures, following each his own devices, together made a painting such as Doré might have done for Dante's Inferno: pale inhuman figures, capering in the firelight, bathed in the red glow and the showers of orange sparks, always calling that queer suggestion of flickering flame. It seemed to last a long time; actually until the cedar brands were well burned out. Then each man dropped his smoldering bark and, still trilling loudly, ran out of the corral. Intense, brilliant, savage.

“As the dancers left, spectators swarmed in to pick up bits of the burned cedar, sure protection against danger of fire for the year to come.

“By this time the east was showing white, that comfortless early morning light which makes everyone ghastly. Even brown Navajo faces looked gray. White people appeared as at the end of a long illness or a terrific debauch. The fire was burning low again, but nobody built it up. Then the chief medicine-man came in. He had not been seen all night, his task having been to sit in the hogan, chanting. Now he entered, accompanied by his assistants, and chanted while they scattered water on the fire at the four ceremonial points. Then young men tore gaps in the circle of branches, one opening toward each direction. As the medicine-man went back to the hogan, they demolished the whole corral, leaving the branches on the ground.

“Day was full by that time, and the circle of prostrate branches was like a stage with all the scenery removed and the curtains rolled up. The only important matter seemed breakfast, especially coffee.”

Irving Toddy is a son of Beatien Yazz and has followed in his dad’s footsteps in pursuing an art career. In this fine painting, Toddy easily conveys the idea that the Fire Dance is carried out by the young men of the tribe. It is a very active dance, requiring strength and endurance.

The painting is signed lower right E. Toddy. It is not dated. Painting and frame are in excellent condition.

Reference: Dancing Gods: Indian Ceremonials of New Mexico and Arizona, by Erna Fergusson. 1931.