Fancy Dance
Fancy Dance
The story associated with settler colonialism in North America, includes the erasure of Native women, destruction of families, erosion of language, and the violence of education, among others. Cinema – apart from cultural mutilation, of which Native symbolism has also been a victim – has addressed the perception of Native people as stubborn and violent obstacles in the way of civilization and development. What is the ‘progress’ that we speak of? What is the civilization advancing towards? “Fancy Dance,” from the Apple TV+ does not even attempt to answer that question; rather, it asks what is the purpose of white saviors in Indian lives. That is a narrative of struggle, so much so that it simply means trying to hold the family together through thick and thin.
“Fancy Dance” is the narrative debut of Erica Tremblay as writer and director and her co-writer Michiana Alise, with a prominent Lily Gladstone in the aftermath of the actress’ historic Academy Award nomination for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone portrays Jax, a queer Cayuga woman living in Oklahoma with her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy Olsson). As a result, Jax’s sister Wadatawi, who has not been seen in two weeks or known to be killed, has given Jax a lot of anxiety. His half-brother JJ (Ryan Begay) works in the Tribal PD and while JJ knows that Tawi is also wanted, they have not really done much to help, nor has the FBI been very helpful. It is then the services come knocking in order to ask Roki’s whereabouts and she was told that in order to be a proper mother to Roki, she first had to grow up. But upon the revelation of her felony history, Roki is taken and placed under the supervision of her estranged grandfather Frank (Shea Whigham) and his second wife, Nancy (Audrey Wasilewski). Decades earlier, Frank left the reservation and his daughters resent him for having chosen a new white life over one with them.
Jax never utters those words, but there’s a lot that is unspoken here; it is now Roki who should leave and adopt a wholeheartedly Western- indoctrinated life. Roki notices that all of them look at Jax as if he were some kind of a criminal but the script of the two, Tremblay and Alise, spools such a harshness of Jax on the periphery yet there are tender flashes of simple connection with the earth.
Family and life memory are both things that nie Jax cannot do without. She even has romantic ties as well, making time to visit a nice stripper who goes by the name of Sapphire and looking further dont count on this as Jax does not mind a romantic sunset with the kind woman wishing amuch deeper relationship. Jax seems torn though; though devoted to the reservation, she doesn’t seem to want to put down roots like her mother. It is a given that she has to keep safe those that she loves; but, she just does not know how. Probably out of charge because it was getting late, Jax takes Roki, and they try to make it to the tribal Powwow in Oklahoma City. Roki goes to Oklahoma every year with her mom so it’s a tradition which Jax does not want to break. While on the way to explain herself to her important people, Jax makes Roki one promise that she knows she cannot keep: that her mom, Tawi, who is also attending the Powwow, will rekindle their family together. “Fancy Dance” has a gift of being able to somehow help us with how Jax and also Jax’s missing sister actually live. Tawi worked at the strip where Sapphire used to work, Jax used to take drugs to the trailer park where the white rig workers lived.
In every way they can, they earn a living and take care of Roki in a society that actually offers Native people very few avenues to choose from in terms of life on reservations. And to be fair here, Roki does not blame either Jax or her missing mom for any of her choices. She loves them, regardless of the reasons and some of them she does not even understand. But it does not matter, because Deroy-Olson is more than capable of holding her own with Gladstone since she is an actress who brings depth to this 13-year-old girl who is trying to grow up in bleak surroundings. In that respect, she defends her aunt as much as her aunt defends her, the protective instinct that comes from awareness and appreciation of one’s ethnic background and way of life. Gladstone builds on her performance last year in The Unknown Country and this summer in Killers of the Flower Moon to believe she is a serious actress portraying Native American culture in a film. In fact, the best sequences in the film involve Gladstone and Deroys-Olson speaking in the Cayuga language to each other, as the contents of their dialogues are not fit for being heard by white people. Roki and Jax’s journey in as much as it is undertaken is quite a dangerous one for white men are everywhere along the road they are as those who would prey on them. The most heated moment of their interaction occurs when ICE attacks them while they are in a car parked at the mall.
The FBI that was not looking for Tawi is now in full pursuit of Frank and Nancy, only because they reported Tawi’s kidnapping. And yet, none of these obstacles holds a candle to the spiritual importance of this aunt-niece bond: Jax and Roki know that there is nothing for them and are even more resolved to make the best of things on the edges. Where “Fancy Dance” is about the most irresponsible and unattractive elements, it is primarily a film that fears an assimilationist and cultural memory genocidal state. The same FBI that has desecrated the name of Osage people through systematically carrying out their murders has given up hope of redemption from the rapaciousness of racism. Family, intimacy and relatedness put on display in “Fancy Dance” tells us the extent to which communities will fight to take care of themselves. Tremblay’s narrative debut is simply beautiful, and much more is expected.
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- Genre: Drama
- Country: united states
- Director: Erica Tremblay
- Cast: Michael Rowe, Blayne AllenIsabel, Deroy-Olson
