NEWS
NORMAN, OKLA. – The Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma will host the Five Moons Dance Festival on Aug. 24-25 as part of its centennial celebration. The festival will feature a range of public events on Saturday, Aug. 24, including panel discussions, a Native art market and Shawnee stomp dance, culminating with a ticketed dance performance on Sunday, Aug. 25.
The event pays tribute to the Five Moons, a group of Native American ballerinas from Oklahoma who gained international recognition during the 20th century. This year’s festival will honor OU School of Dance co-founder Yvonne Chouteau (Shawnee). The Five Moons ballerinas – Chouteau, Rosella Hightower (Choctaw), Moscelyne Larkin (Peoria/Eastern Shawnee), and Maria and Marjorie Tallchief (Osage Nation) – were transformative artists in the 1940s through the 1970s.
Maggie Boyett, chief communications officer for the Shawnee Tribe and a 2014 OU graduate with a degree in modern dance performance, is excited about the festival. She says it is an honor to work with the family of Chouteau, who passed away in 2016. Thanks to them, the festival has grown in scope. Panel discussions and Shawnee cultural events have been added, and Native visual artists and musicians have become an integral part of the event.
“We intentionally highlighted other Shawnee artists and culture bearers in the festival programming, as well as included representatives from each of the other Five Moons’ Tribal nations,” Boyett said.
Boyett says this year’s festival has been in the making since 2023 and is the first of its kind in Oklahoma. “I am especially pleased that the Jacobson House and the First Americans Museum are playing a part in making this a successful event,” Boyett said.
The festival begins Aug. 24 with an exhibition at noon at the Lenaweeki Hokiishatoonaawa Art Market at the Jacobson House Native Art Center in Norman featuring artists from the ballerinas’ Tribal nations. Two panel discussions also are planned for 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. The first will focus on Cherokee-Quapaw composer Louis Ballard Sr. and the 1967 premiere of his ballet “The Four Moons,” a significant work in dance history. The term “Five Moons” originated from the Oklahoma Indian Ballerina Festivals in 1957 and 1967, commemorating the 50th and 60th anniversaries of Oklahoma statehood. The 1967 festival included a ballet called “The Four Moons,” performed by four of the Five Moons ballerinas. At the time, Maria Tallchief had retired and did not perform.
The second panel, “Madame Chouteau, Mom, Myra Yvonne,” will be presented by Chouteau’s family and will look at her life and legacy through a personal lens.
Later that evening, the festival moves to the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City for a 7:30 p.m. closing panel discussion with the museum’s deputy director, Shoshana Wasserman and the current chiefs of tribal nations represented by the Five Moons: Benjamin Barnes (Shawnee), Craig Harper (Peoria), Geoffrey Standing Bear (Osage Nation) and Glenna Wallace (Eastern Shawnee). The evening concludes with the Troy Little Axe Sr. and James R. Squirrel Memorial Stomp Dance from sundown to 11 p.m.
On Sunday, Aug. 25, the Five Moons Dance Festival will feature a performance at 2 p.m. at the Reynolds Performing Arts Center on the OU campus in Norman. The American Ballet Theatre, Oklahoma City Ballet, Tulsa Ballet and OU School of Dance students are included in the performance. Elisa Harkins (Cherokee/Muscogee) is this year’s featured artist and composer and will perform an excerpt from her celebrated work “Radio III.”
Reflecting on her own dance education that began with an outreach program at her preschool in Tulsa, Boyett emphasizes the transformative nature of being taught by one of the Five Moons.
“Miss Larkin was my teacher in Tulsa and she was just fabulous. The lessons she taught me as a child are ones I continue to draw on in my own teaching today, regardless of the age group. Miss Larkin always said, ‘It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it’ and that changed the way I danced from then on,” Boyett said.
Tickets for Sunday’s performance are $35 for general admission and $15 for students. They can be purchased online, by phone at 405-325-4101, or at the OU Fine Arts Box Office inside Catlett Music Center, 500 W. Boyd in Norman.
The OU School of Dance is helping to celebrate the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts Centennial with the festival, which is sponsored by the First Americans Museum, Jacobson House Native Art Center, The Shawnee Tribe and the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts at OU.
For more information, visit www.dance.ou.edu/fivemoonsfest.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.
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