His performance made the highlight reel for the parade, and his grandfather could not be more proud of “Baby E,” as Brown is known as on the powwow circuit.
He danced hard on the on the asphalt for 2-and-a-half miles,” Abeyta said. “He just stopped and danced his little heart out up to 30 times along the route.”
The pair had been invited this year by Native Pride Productions to perform in New York City over the Thanksgiving holiday.
It is Abeyta’s second time to be in the Macy’s parade and he said the experience was very positive. [The] dancers received a warm welcome by New Yorkers.
“It's pretty awesome,” Abeyta said. “There's an electricity in the air that you don't experience too often, especially when there's people jam packed on both sides of the street.”
Usually, Abeyta dances with his family as the Chief Washakie Descendant dancers or with others outside his immediate family as the Eagle Spirit Dancers.
With these two groups, he performs all across the nation, showcasing his Shoshone culture.
This performance, however, was coordinated by Larry Yazzie of Native Pride Productions. “Larry is my powwow brother and we invite each other to perform when we can,” Abeyta said. “He had a select crew of nine dancers from all over the United States and Canada, that he invited just to represent a nice variety of dance styles and categories as well as age groups.”
Among the dancing featured were fancy feather dancing, jingle sancing and grass dancing....