In December of 2007, as part of its Native Theater Festival, the Public Theater brought Native theater professionals from around the U.S. and Canada to New York City for a series of readings and discussions. The five-day festival included play readings, post-performance discussions, concerts, roundtables, and the performance of Darrell Dennis' 'Tales of and Urban Indian.' This video documents an interview with Hanay Geiogamah, conducted by Graydon Wetzler as a part of a supplementary Native Theater Festival interview series.

Interview with Rulan Tangen (Dancing Earth) and Leland Chapin (Los Colores Studio), conducted by Jennifer Cayer as a part of the 6th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics

Dancing Earth is an array of indigenous dance artists who work as a collective under the leadership of Rulan Tangen, striving to embody a unique essence of Indigenous identity and perspective by creation and renewal of artistic and cultural movement rituals.

Creation stories and rituals--constant reminders of our origins are woven on our huipil along with our present day stories of social, political injustices and racism, the Colorado Sisters, Elvira and Hortencia explain. Huipil, presents these stories, along with traditional music, hand choreography and rap, woven together the way a traditional huipil is woven on a back-strap loom. This is our personal statement of our role in the universe, community, and family, as sisters and as women. Theses stories symbolize our strength and survival.

Coatlicue Theater's 'Chicomoztoc-mimixcoa - Cloud Serpents,' was first performed as a work in progress in 1996 at the New World Theater in Amherst, MA as part of a summer program titled 'New Works for a New World.' Elvira and Hortencia Colorado explain the piece as being 'a journey through dreams, stories, time and memory, across mountains and deserts, retracing the footsteps of the ancestors, traveling back to Chicomoztoc (the place of our origin), searching, digging up and gathering stories that have been buried through centuries of shame and denial in our family, but which connect us to our past and identity. Some stories/secrets remain buried, and they are also part of who we are. We honor all those who struggled with their shame and denial. This is an offering to all of our relations.'

The second video was filmed during the American Indian Community House's (AICH) 2000 Indian Summer season and captures the first time the completed work was performed in New York.

Coatlicue Theater Company's Blood Speaks deals with the pivotal role that religion/Christianity played in the oppression and genocide of native people. In the course of the play the artists reclaim their voices and begin to rewrite history, in their own terms.

The Coatlicue Theater Company's 'A Traditional Kind of Woman: Too Much, Not 'Nuff,' deals with issues of domestic violence, incest, rape, HIV/AIDS, alcoholism, drugs, cancer, diabetes, nutrition and racism. This piece was commissioned by the American Indian Community House's (AICH) Women's Wellness Circle. It was developed from healing and empowerment stories collected from women from the community with the goal of empowering other Native women. Using music, song and 'larger than life' props, the sisters communicate the heartbreak, absurdity, pain, humor and power of the stories. It has been shown across the country to Native audiences, healthcare providers and at numerous conferences.

Moments in Tlalteuctli is the working title for this work in progress. In it, Hortencia and Elvira Colorado, of Coatlicue Theater Company, tell stories of environmental and societal violence against women offered as a healing performance for the earth and humanity. The stories examine border exploitation, abuse, the appropriation of culture and spirituality, NAFTA, the dispossession of indigenous people from their land, and the impact of the low intensity war on indigenous communities in Chiapas.

This video includes excerpts from four Coatlicue Theater Company productions. Included are: Open Wounds (Welcome scene); Coyolxauhqui (Sister/Yoyolotl/End scene); Traditional Kind of Woman (Cancer scene); and Huipil (Rap ancestor/Dark angel scene).

Mélange of music and dance by contemporary Native American and African American performers, presented at the Francisco Nunes theater in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as a part of the 5th Encuentro of the Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, titled Performing Heritage: Contemporary Indigenous and Community-Based Practices (http://hemisphericinstitute.org/eng/seminar/brazil2005/index.html). This performance brings together four contemporary American performances drawing from the artists' cultural roots: Quetzal Guerrero (Native American violinist and dancer), Larry Yazzie (Meskwaki/ Dine World Champion Fancy Dancer), David Pleasant (African-American Gullah/Geeche percussion and song, performing with dancer Joyah Pugh), and Dancing Earth (Indigenous Modern Dance collective directed by Rulan Tangen, with the participation of Quetzal Guerrero, Anthony Thosh Collins and Alejandro Meraz). Quetzal Guerrero and Thosh Collins open the evening with a traditional chant from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa indian community, followed by Quetzal's original solo violin piece. Larry Yazzie then performs his dazzling powwow Fancy Dance from Tama, Iowa, followed by the energetic and powerful percussion of African American David Pleasant, who draws on rhythms dating back to slavery in the United States. Dancing Earth performs a dance piece about the creation of the earth, and the evening ends with all performers bringing together their traditions--and the audience--on stage. There is also a post-performance discussion with the artists, in which they talk about the origins and meanings of their performances.