The chorus which furnishes the music, is composed of from six to ten
men. They sit on the in['g]lak, a raised shelf extending around the
dance hall about five feet from the floor, and sing their dance songs
keeping time on their drums. They usually sit in the rear of the room,
which is the post of honor. Among the island tribes of Bering Strait
this position is reversed and they occupy the front of the room. Some
old man, the keeper of tribal tradition and song, acts as the leader,
calling out the words of the dance songs a line ahead. He begins the
proceedings by striking up a low chant, an invitation to the people
assembled to dance. The chorus accompany him lightly on their drums.
Then at the proper place, he strikes a crashing double beat; the drums
boom out in answer; the song arises high and shrill; the dancers leap
into their places, and the dance begins.
The first dances are usually simple exercises calculated to warm the
blood and stretch stiffened muscles. They begin with leaping around
the pu['g]yarok, jumping into the air with both feet in the Eskimo
high kick, settling down into the conventional movements of the men's
dance.[2]
[2] While the northern and southern tribes have the same general
movements for their ordinary dances, they give a very different
presentation of the festival dance-songs. The northerners leap and
stamp about the kasgi until overcome with exhaustion; while in the
south the performers sit or kneel on the floor, adorned with an
abundance of streaming furs and feathers, sweep their hands through
the air in graceful unison. It is a difference between rude vigor
and dramatic art.
Quite often a woman steps into the center of the circle, and goes
through her own dance, while the men leap and dance around her. This
act has been specialized in the Reindeer and Wolf Pack Dance of the
Aithukaguk, the Inviting-In Festival, where the woman wearing a
reindeer crest and belt is surrounded by the men dancers, girt in
armlets and fillets of wolf skin. They imitate the pack pulling down a
deer, and the din caused by their jumping and howling around her
shrinking form is terrific.