info@theaterforthenewcity.net

JOHNSON THEATER

Friday – Sunday, January 27 – February 5

Friday – Saturday at 8pm, Children’s Matinees Saturday & Sunday at 3pm

All Tickets $10 Adults, $1 Children Under 12 (Matinees only, must be accompanied by paying adult) Proceeds for the Thunderbird Scholarship Fund

THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS

Annual Dance Concert & Pow-wow

Thunderbird American Indian Dancers will hold their 37th annual Dance Concert and Pow Wow at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, from January 27 to February 5, 2012. The troupe’s appearances benefit college funds for needy Native American students. The company’s Pow-Wows have been presented annually as a two-week event by TNC since 1976, with the box office donated to these funds. There will be dances, stories and traditional music from the Iroquois and Native Peoples of the Northwest Coast, the Southwest, the Plains, and the Arctic regions. Between 15 and 20 dancers will assemble for the event.

Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago) is Master of Ceremonies at Thunderbird American Indian Dancers’ annual Dace Concert and Pow-Wow at Theater for the New City. Photo (2011) by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation.

Highlights will include Storytelling by Coatlique Theatre (Elvira and Hortensia Colorado, from the Chichimec tribe), a Hoop Dance performed by Marie McKinney (Cherokee), a Caribou Dance (from the Inuit people of Alaska), a Buffalo Dance (from the Hopi people), a Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance (from the Northern Plains people), a Stomp Dance (from the Southeastern tribes), and a Shawl Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes). Featured performers will include the Heyna Second Son Singers (various tribes). In the final section of the program, the audience will be invited to join in the Round Dance, a friendship dance.

Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Annual Dance Concert and Pow-Wow at Theater for the New City, NYC. (L) Carlos Ponce/Eagle Feather (Mayan) and (R) Alan Browne/Shooting Star (Delaware/Dutch). Photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation (2011).

After matinees, the cast will remain in the theater to personally meet the children attending and be photographed with them. This component of the show was inspired by the troupe’s school residencies. Says Louis Mofsie, the Thunderbirds’ artistic director, "Educators try to supplement the kids’ knowledge of Native Americans and to teach them about different cultures. But the emphasis is on how we used to live, in the past tense. The kids are never taught how to relate to us in the present. Now they can meet us, and be photographed with us, and it’s present tense. It’s more than just seeing us on stage." He adds, "Learning about different cultures is important to enlarging the kids’ perspective, particularly in light of what’s going on in the world. We’re in trouble today because we don’t understand different cultures."

Native American singing, dancing, arts, crafts and foods 

February 18th & 19th at the Skookum Creek Event Center

EVERYONE WELCOME! Over $38,000 in prizes

Grand Entry Times: Saturday 1pm & 7pm, Sunday 1pm

Dance Competitions: Prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd

DRUM CONTEST: 1st-$5000, 2nd-$4000, 3rd-$3000

MC: Ray Fryberg (Tulalip), Arena Directors: Sonny Eaglespeaker (Blood) & Casey Mac Wallahee (Yakama)

Head Dancers: Nathan Nez & JoVelle Pacheco

SATURDAY SPECIALS: Owl Dance, Switch Dance, 7-12 Boys & Girls and Tiny Tots

Vendor Space Available call 360-432-3841