Indigenous dancer shines at Super Bowl pre-game event

Source: Myrtle A. Morin Photography

A Cree dancer from Sylvan Lake brought his talents to the Super Bowl pre-game festivities this past weekend.

Patrick Mitsuing, 38, has been dancing since he was eight years old when he went to a powwow.

“I heard the crowd roaring, and I went running to go see what everyone was cheering for … it was like time slowed down,” he told CTV News Edmonton. “I remember looking at it and saying, ‘I don’t know what this is, I don’t know what they’re doing but I’m going to do this one day.’”

The NFL partnered with Indigenous Enterprise to increase Indigenous engagement and one day he got the call to participate in the pregame festivities.

“Our people, we’ve been here since time immemorial and all these events have been happening for a long time. We’re finally getting the space,” said Mitsuing. “The NFL has such a big audience and a lot of influence. So for them to take a lead on this to have that Indigenous representation, kind of everywhere, you can see it everywhere in the event, it’s awesome.”

Mitsuing was particularly surprised with the praises he received after performing during the pre-game festivities.

“The NFL was surprised of, like, the engagement we got because a lot of people has never seen,” he said. “They’ve seen hip-hop before and they’ve seen break dancers before but everyone freaked out when they’ve seen the Native American dancers because they’ve never seen it before … The culture of the fans, you could feel it … it was so unreal.””

After performing at the Super Bowl, Mitsuing is left with a feeling of hope for future generations, as he believes opportunities like this will only become more common in years to come.

“Beautiful things are happening. I know it’s going to open a lot of doors for people and you’re going to see a lot more of this.”