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THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY PRESENTS ITS
46th ANNUAL THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS' POW-WOW
AND DANCE CONCERT VIRTUALLY FEBRUARY 20, 2021.
Performance will also be available on-demand until March 7.
All ticket sales and donations will benefit Native American scholarship fund.
WHERE AND WHEN:
Live streamed February 20, 2021 at 7:00 PM, recording available on-demand through
March 7.
A virtual production of Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (at Tenth
Street).
$5 general admission. Supplemental donations will be gratefully accepted.
Recommended for all ages.
TNC box office: 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewecity.net
Running time 90 min. Reviewers are invited.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO ARE AVAILABLE. See directions at bottom of this document.
NEW YORK, January 29 -- Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, will present
its 46th annual Thunderbird American Dancers Pow Wow and Dance Concert live
streamed from the theater on February 20, 2021 from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. This
"virtual Pow-Wow" will be accessible via the theater's website, www.theaterforthenewcity.net,
and available there on demand until March 7, 2021. There will be dances, stories
and traditional music from Native Peoples of the Northeast, Southwest and Great
Plains regions. The event, emceed by Bessie-winner Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago),
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. Admission is only
$5 and additional donations will be gratefully accepted. The event is recommended
for all ages. To purchase tickets, go to www.theaterforthenewcity.net.
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
and exhibitions.
Highlights will include storytelling by Matoaka Eagle (Santo Domingo/Chickahominy),
a Hoop Dance by Marie Ponce (Cherokee and Seminole) that will be set to drum
and guitar, 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 Shawl
Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes), a Fancy Dance (from the Oklahoma tribes) and
a Robin Dance and Smoke Dance (from the Iroquois). A new work, "Flute Music
Old and New," will be performed by Louis Mofsie (old) and Rob Mastrianni
(new).
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 twelve-year-old
Isabel Cespedes (Mayan) to retirees.
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. Mofsie was awarded the 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.
The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are the oldest resident Native American
dance company in New York. The troupe was founded in 1963 by a group of ten
Native American men and women, all New Yorkers, who were descended from Mohawk,
Hopi, Winnebago and San Blas tribes. Prominent among the founders were Louis
Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago) and his sister, Josephine Mofsie (deceased), Rosemary
Richmond (Mohawk, deceased), Muriel Miguel (Cuna/Rapahannock) and Jack Preston
(Seneca, deceased). Some were in school at the time; all were "first generation,"
meaning that their parents had been born on reservations. They founded the troupe
to keep alive the traditions, songs and dances they had learned from their parents,
and added to their repertoire from other Native Americans living in New York
and some who were passing through. Jack Preston taught the company its Iroquois
dances, including the Robin Dance and Fish Dance. To these were added dances
from the plains, including the Hopi Buffalo Dance, and newer dances including
the Grass Dance and Jingle Dress Dance. The company was all-volunteer, a tradition
that exists to today. Members range in professions from teachers to hospital
patient advocates, tree surgeons and computer engineers. Now Louis Mofsie says,
"To be going for 50 years is just amazing to me, and to be able to do the
work we do."
The troupe made a home in the old McBurney YMCA on 23rd Street and Seventh Ave.
Within three or four years, they were traveling throughout the continental U.S.,
expanding and sharing their repertoire and gleaning new dances on the reservations.
A number of Thunderbird members are winners of Fancy Dance contests held on
reservations, where the standard of competition is unmistakably high.
The Thunderbird-TNC collaboration began in 1975, when Crystal Field directed
a play called "The Only Good Indian." For research, Ms. Field lived
on a Hopi reservation for three weeks. In preparation for the project, she met
Louis Mofsie, Artistic Director of the dance troupe and a representative of
the American Indian Community House. Mofsie suggested a Pow Wow and dance concert
to celebrate the winter solstice. Field, who is herself 1% native American,
committed herself to bring this to fruition. The event has continued annually
to this day.
The troupe's appearances benefit college scholarship funds for Native American
students. The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers Scholarship Fund receives
its sole support from events like this concert (it receives no government or
corporate contributions), and has bestowed over 350 scholarships to-date. Theater
for the New City has been presenting Pow-Wows annually as a two-week event since
1976, with the box office donated to these scholarships
Video production of this Pow-Wow is by Alexander Bartenieff (lighting & sound director, video production manager) and Brian Park (camera/sound engineer, assistant technical director).
# # #
CRITICS ARE INVITED. Press contact Jonathan Slaff (212) 924-0496.
VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE upon request.
2019 PRODUCTION PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ebLLGRPPQVHjJsxt8
RECENT YEARS' PHOTOS: https://goo.gl/photos/tcrxbtPYtF2hdvhV6 and https://goo.gl/photos/SLr4PXEHJrsq34j9A
HISTORICAL PHOTOS of Pow-Wows from 2004 to 2015 are available for download at:
https://goo.gl/photos/wUcenp6ZcPDcBCYD7