Original Painting of a Young Female Butterfly Dancer [SOLD]

Separately from the Katsina Dances performed by the Hopi men during the summer, the women’s society performs non-Katsina dances of their own. One of these dances, and it is one of the most beautiful, is the dance of the Butterfly Maidens.

In the Shoshonean language of the Hopi, the Butterfly Girl is known as Poli Mana. She is not a Katsina, but one of the social dancers who comes in the late summer in August. She does not wear a face, but her eyes are ordinarily covered by bangs of her hair. Only unmarried girls who have no children dance her. She is similar in all the mesas and villages.

Social dances constitute prayers to the Katsinas for the benefits of good health and good harvest, and in some sense they are like a harvest dance, similar to a Thanksgiving dance. That is partially why they are performed primarily in August. The girls who are dancing are considered to appear as Butterflies.

The artist of this Original Painting of a Young Female Butterfly Dancer, Terri Kelly Moyers, and her husband John Moyers, are famous Southwest artists of landscapes and people. Both are multiple award winners. The young Hopi girl who modeled for this painting was the 1^st Place winner in the Traditional Dress Contest at Santa Fe Indian Market in 1990, the year this painting was executed. The painting is in original excellent condition.