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TNC PRESENTS ITS 51st ANNUAL
THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS' POW-WOW AND DANCE CONCERT
JANUARY 30 TO FEBRUARY 8
All proceeds benefit Native American scholarship fund.
WHERE AND WHEN:
January 30 To February 8, 2026
Fridays at 8:00 pm; Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm, Sundays at 3:00 pm
Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (at Tenth Street). Presented by
Theater for the New City.
$20 general admission. 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 $20).
TNC box office: 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewecity.net
Running time 90 min (all shows). Reviewers are invited to all performances.
PHOTOS AND VIDEO ARE AVAILABLE. See directions at bottom of this document.
NEW YORK, December 29 -- Theater for the New City (TNC), 155
First Avenue, will present its 51st annual Thunderbird American Indian Dancers
Pow Wow and Dance Concert from January 30 to February 8, 2026. 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.
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 event
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 include storytelling by Matoaka Little Eagle (Tewa, Apasche
and Chickahominy); the Hoop Dance set to guitar and flute music that will
be performed by Marie Ponce (Cherokee and Taino); a Deer Dance (from the Yaqui
Tribes of Southern Arizona) with Gabriel Perez (Mayan) 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 Rabbit
Dance (from the Great Plains people) 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 nine dancers are people of all ages, raging from teenagers
to retirees.
Native American crafts and jewelry will be sold in the TNC lobby.
Matinées are kids' days, when children aged five to twelve
accompanied by a ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $20).
At the conclusion of these matinées, young audience members are invited
to pose for pictures with the dancers.
ABOUT THUNDERBIRD AMERICAN INDIAN DANCERS
The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers are the oldest resident Native American
dance company in New York State. 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 Kuna tribes. Prominent among the
founders were Louis Mofsie (Hopi/Winnebago) and his sister, Josephine Mofsie
(deceased), Rosemary Richmond (Mohawk, deceased), Muriel Miguel (San Blas
Kuna/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 61 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.
Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Avenue (at Tenth Street).
Performances are January 30 to February 8, Fridays at 8:00 PM; Saturdays at
3:00 PM and 8:00 PM and Sundays at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $20 general admission.
Matinees are kids' days when children ages five to twelve accompanied by a
ticket-bearing adult are admitted for $1.00 (adults $20). The TNC box office
is 212-254-1109, www.theaterforthenewecity.net.
# # #
CRITICS ARE INVITED to all performances. Press contact Jonathan
Slaff (212) 924-0496.
VIDEOS ARE AVAILABLE upon request.
2024 PRODUCTION PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wKjAMXA8zt6qMoLA7
2023 PRODUCTION PHOTOS: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BQefisDJzPgvr7Db9
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