Native Dancers

Since its inception in 1987, the American Indian Dance The atre, appearing this month at New York's Joyce Theater, has faced barriers that would have made other companies crumple. Says artistic director Hanay Geiogamah, an Oklahoman Kiowa-Delaware, "We had to prove that Native American dancing did not consist of a bunch of guys dancing around a pole as someone burned." Geiogamah and producer Barbara Schwei painstakingly scouted the dances of the more than four hundred tribes in the U.S. and found an upsurge of cultural interest among the young, who not only perform traditional dances but also are creating new pieces. Notes Geiogamah, "Dancing has become one of the main pillars in the defense of Indian life."

K.M.