'Fancy Dance' Is One of the Most Important Films You Can Watch This Year

By Sara Clements | Film | July 1, 2024 |

By Sara Clements | Film | July 1, 2024 |

In Lily Gladstone’s Oscar-nominated role in Killers of the Flower Moon, they portrayed a Native American woman who mourns the murder of her sisters. On the same land in Fancy Dance, they portray another Native American woman mourning the murder of her sister. Now streaming on Apple TV+, both films are a combination of the same story at different periods, but Fancy Dance is a much more intimate experience. Erica Tremblay’s feature debut immerses the audience in the relationship between an aunt and her niece. In doing so, it works as an homage to Indigenous women, their strength and beauty, and also the importance and power of kinship in Indigenous communities.

Jax’s (Gladstone) sister, Tawi, is missing. In her absence, Jax is taking care of her niece Roki (Isabel DeRoy-Olson) on the Seneca-Cayuga Nation Reservation in Oklahoma. The pair are scrapping up whatever money they can to pay for Roki’s entry into a powwow, where she and her mother are reigning champions in the mother-daughter fancy dance. She’s hopeful that her mom will meet her at the powwow, while Jax keeps her doubts to herself.

Jax grows increasingly frustrated with the lack of attention or care authorities are putting towards her sister’s case. Her brother JJ (Ryan Begay), who’s tribal police, has no jurisdiction to investigate outside reserve borders. The only people that can are the FBI, but cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people aren’t important in their eyes. The search is dependent upon the community. Community and kinship are important to Native people, and it’s what Roki needs most now that her mother is gone; however, the law doesn’t see it that way. When CPS comes knocking, seeing Jax as unfit as a guardian, Roki is placed with her estranged grandfather, Frank (Shea Whigham). She is taken away from her community and her culture and placed in a foreign, white environment - an act of assimilation that isn’t new.

Jax, having just lost her sister, is determined not to lose Roki, too. So, in a moment of rash judgment, Jax takes Roki away to continue searching for Tawi and make it to the powwow. The film turns into a road movie with elements of a thriller as the law is hot on their tail. It’s ironic. When a white man calls to report his Indigenous granddaughter missing, suddenly, the FBI cares. But when Jax does the same for her sister, there’s just silence. As the situation grows in tension, it becomes more and more clear to Roki that her mom may be gone for good. Jax providing Roki with false hope turns to anger. It’s a difficult, painful journey, and the pair’s relationship is put to the test.

Fancy Dance is an arresting, meditative look at this land and its people. Specifically, it’s an intimate look at the bond between an aunt and her niece. This connection is what drives the story. The connection Native women share is what drives the story. In one scene, Roki asks Jax what “Aunt” means in Cayuga. It’s a word that means “other mother,” breaking a line that divides relationships in other cultures. Every relationship here is emphasized to be important, and you’re hooked by Jax and Roki’s relationship instantly. This has a lot to do with performance. Gladstone is a performer whose emotion pierces the heart. That’s no different here. You feel one with their character with a simple expression, like you can read Jax’s mind, as Gladstone holds this film on their shoulders. (It’s also just cool to see a queer Native woman portrayed on screen). Their chemistry with DeRoy-Olson (in her first film role) genuinely does feel like that of family. The newcomer is a performer with an old soul feel about her. There’s a perfect mixture of maturity and vulnerability that allows her to capture so many nuances in a scene.

In Fancy Dance’s powerful story of family, loss, and culture lies a much deeper conversation. It’s fitting that Killers of the Flower Moon and Fancy Dance were released one after the other, working to contextualize each other and show that colonial violence has never stopped. The epidemic of Indigenous women going missing or being murdered is an example of ongoing genocide that seems to have no end because of the lack of institutional support and jurisdictional issues that make solving these cases seem impossible. Reservations become a haven for non-Native men to take advantage of Native women without consequence. This is just one example of Native people being taken from their communities. Another is assimilation policies, like the Indian Child Welfare Act, that take Native children away from their community, their culture, and their language. Tremblay and co-writer Miciana Alise look at all these issues deftly with a gentle eye and light hand. We experience these issues as the characters do. These aren’t facts and figures that need to be spelled out with force, but they are amplified with importance.

Fancy Dance may be a sobering, melancholy experience, but it holds power in how it highlights Native beauty, strength, and joy. Much of the strength, much of the resistance, comes in the use of the Cayuga language. It’s one that is endangered, but its use highlights the inspiring language and cultural revitalization that is happening in Native communities. It’s also beautiful to see that, even in the darkest moments, the characters find moments of levity. There’s laughter but also dance. Dance is a beautiful celebration of life, even when surrounded by so much loss. It’s also a celebration of Indigenous women - the heart of this story. Fancy Dance is truly a rare experience and one we need more of.