Dance at the 2009 Children’s Festival May 16 and 17

Learn the rabbit dance, round dance, side step and double beat with the Tatuye Topa Dance Club and much more at this year’s Children’s Festival at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York. The free family event will take place on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 from 12 noon to 5 pm.

This year’s festival celebrates “The Art of Design” of Native nations. Young visitors will be invited to make a medallion necklace with artist Teri Greeves (Kiowa), decorate “parfleches” (replicas of Plains-style carryalls) with Kathleen Coleclough (Métis), make “Comanche” dolls with Cody Harjo (Seminole/Otoe), chokers with Angela Friedlander (Métis) and learn about tanning hides with Jeffrey Coleclough (Métis). The Tatuye Topa Dance Club, part of the Little Wound School of the Pine Ridge Reservation, will be represented by six female dancers who will also demonstrate powwow dancing styles. They will be teaching dance steps and leading dance games for young visitors.

This year’s Children’s Festival was inspired by the museum’s current exhibition, “Identity by Design: Tradition, Change and Celebration in Native Women’s Dresses,” that comprises 55 Native dresses from the Plains, Plateau and Great Basins regions. The exhibition continues through September 13, 2009.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. This program is made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Additional support has been provided by the Rudin Foundation and Goldman Sachs Community TeamWorks.