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Home Events - New Yorkled Magazine Cultural Event Fund Raiser Event The Arts Event 2023 Thunderbird American Indian Dancers’ Pow-Wow And Dance Concert

Location

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)

Jan 13 - 22 2023
Expired!

Annual Thunderbird American Indian Dancers’ Pow-Wow And Dance Concert

January 13 – 22, 2023

All proceeds benefit Native American scholarship fund.

Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM,  Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 PM
Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Tickets $15
MATINEES ARE KIDS’ DAYS: At all matinée performances, children ages five to twelve who are accompanied by a ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $15). Children under 5 will not be admitted. – Box Office (212) 254-1109

Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th & 10th Street)
JOHNSON THEATER

NEW YORK, October 14 — Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, will present its 48th annual Thunderbird American Dancers Pow Wow and Dance Concert from January 13 to 22, 2023. There will be dances, stories and traditional music from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions. The event has become a treasured New York tradition for celebrating our diversity by honoring the culture of our first Americans.  TNC donates all proceeds from the event to college scholarship funds for Native American students. 

There will be dances, stories and traditional music from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great Plains regions. The event has become a treasured New York tradition for celebrating our diversity by honoring the culture of our first Americans. TNC donates all proceeds from the event to college scholarship funds for Native American students. This is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the troupe.

A Pow-Wow is more than just a spectator event: it is a joyous reunion for native peoples nationwide and an opportunity for the non-Indian community to voyage into the philosophy and beauty of Native culture. Traditionally a gathering and sharing of events, Pow-Wows have come to include spectacular dance competitions, exhibitions, and enjoyment of traditional foods.

Throughout the performance, all elements are explained in depth through detailed introductions by the troupe’s Director and Emcee Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago). An educator, Mofsie plays an important part in the show by his ability to present a comprehensive view of native culture. He was awarded a 2019 Bessie Award for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. In 2017, he was honored, along with Garth Fagan and Martha Myers, with a Lifetime Achievement Award from American Dance Guild.

Highlights will also include storytelling by Matoaka Eagle (Santo Domingo/Chickahominy), a Hoop Dance set to guitar and flute music that will be performed on alternating dates by Marie Ponce (Cherokee and Seminole), Michael Taylor (Choktaw) and Matt Cross (Kiowa); a Deer Dance (from the Yaqui Tribes of Southern Arizona) with Ciaran Tufford (Mayan/Cherokee) and Carlos Ponce (Mayan), and various ensemble dances: a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people), a Stomp Dance (from the Southeastern tribes), a Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes), a Fancy Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes) and a Smoke Dance (from the Iroquois). As the audience enters the theater, they will be serenaded by the Heyna Second Son Singers (various tribes).

Pageantry is an important component of the event, and all participants are elaborately dressed. There is a wealth of cultural information encoded in the movements of each dance. More than ten distinct tribes will be represented in the performance. The dozen-or-so dancers are people of all ages, raging from thirteen-year-old Isabel Cespedes (Mayan) to retirees.

 

The event is finished.