Funding for Colores was provided in part by: New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts and Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers like you Providing a safe space to explore culture, a pow wow dance class shows the importance of finding community in urban spaces, as well as powwow etiquette.

Former principal dancer Albert Watson once pursued perfection on the global stage.

Now, he inspires students through the transformative power of dance.

Bringing handcrafted stories to life one frame at a time.

Stop motion animator Mason Drumm defied industry norms by building an animation studio in the heart of Oklahoma.

It's all ahead on Colores!

THE POWER OF POWWOWS >> Niko: Thousands and thousands of years we've been here.

Powwow is a way of resistance reclaiming our culture.

When you're urban, you're disconnected and we're bombarded constantly with, our job, school, having to study, of course, technology all the time, and I wanted to provide a safe space where adults and youth could come and explore their culture in a positive way, [Drumming and singing in Native Language] >> Bella: Niko DeRoin-Silva, is the owner of Powwow Wellness.

She's teaching classes once a week in downtown Albuquerque, where folks can practice dancing and learn about etiquette at powwows, which basically are gatherings that feature dancing, drumming, and singing in the celebration of indigenous cultures.

Niko's class also gives community members the chance to share knowledge with each other, like making regalia.

>> Jaunita: They needed this for these youth, for these -- young people to give them this space where they can come and learn these things and they don't have to be embarrassed.

They can just be themselves and be happy and be open and learn to dance and learn what the songs are about and what the different dance styles are.

>> Niko: So, the word powwow, the original word is “Pau Wau” It spelled a little differently.

It's originally an Algonquin word.

[Drumming and singing in Native language] >> Bella: One translation is that original word is; “He Dreams” referring to a medicine man.

Some trace the roots of today's powwows is at least a couple hundred years back.

The gatherings continue to grow as more Native Americans move to cities As part of the Indian relocation and Act of 1956.

It was one step in a long effort by the U.S. government to assimilate Native Americans and ultimately take away our lands.

>> Niko: And so you have this uprise of, you know, these repressed indigenous communities starting to say, “Hey, we'd like to reclaim that.” And -- let's go forward and be community.

And we're in these urban areas and let's learn from each other.

- Alright, I know you Natives know how to make a circle.

Let's make a circle over here.

Make a circle over here.

This is our last activity.

>> Niko: If I call out something that resonates with you or we have in common, then all those people are going to switch places.

- I love my relatives that like the color red.

[crowd commotion] >> Jessa Rae: I have known Niko DeRoin my entire life.

We have known each other since we were just like these kids running around us.

We grew up in Juniors in Northern California.

So, we grew up in the power circle together.

And for a long time, Nicholas talks about this, for years she's talked about, her dream of creating a space for families to come together and dance and learn and, like, you know, be a part of the Powwow circle and practice wellness in that way.

>> Bella: The class we went to is held at the Resilience Hub, run by New Mexico Community Capital, a nonprofit that supports Native entrepreneurs.

Niko started the class earlier this year after teaching her first formal powwow lessons at the Native American Community Academy.

>> Niko: It was cool to see people when they came to pick up their students, you know, I had dads that said, “Hey, I have a drum, do you mind if I bring it?” And I'm like, “Yes, of course!” And I have people that I can bring and I can invite boys to the drum, show them how it's done.

And then another dad came and said, “Hey, can I jam with you?” “I sing Southern.” Or, “I sing Northern.” Another parent said, “Hey, I have these shawls that are just collecting dust.

Maybe I could donate them to your class?” I had another parent offered to sow parts of regalia.

And so, community just started to form from that one class, and it just snowballed.

- Shield Chief, take it away!

[Drumming and singing in Native langauge] >> Wil: The name of the drum group is Shield Chief.

It's a family name from my grandfather -- Great grandfather, whose name is Shield Chief, [Speaking Native language] and keeping in line with kind of the Pawnee vibe that I had going, singing with my family.

Our family group was, Pumpkin Vine, which is our clan on our Muscogee side.

[Speaking Native language] there's been a few times we've had community members approach us and ask, “Is it okay if my nephew starts singing?” Or even just a question of, “At what age can they start?” you know, is it appropriate?

And so these are questions that I never really thought of or taken for granted just because I grew up in this.

Since birth is kind of when we start.

And so, for me, you know, it would be just back home.

Asked the singer to go ahead and sing our foods.

Okay, but but for someone that doesn't come from, maybe that background or doesn't know the etiquette, the protocol could be a little intimidating.

And so definitely glad to come out and answering those questions and help them through the process and, and just show that it is open and it's welcoming.

You know, it's not -- shouldn't be a scary thing to either try to learn to dance or sing >> Niko: Niko points out that with 574 federally recognized tribes in the US, plus hundreds of indigenous communities in Canada, there's a nuance to all of this.

Plus, not all tribes host powwows.

But for anyone interested in attending, there are some basics to keep in mind.

>> Niko: I think the most important thing to remember for non-natives coming into our communities for a powwow is respect.

Sometimes a ceremony might be going on and they'll say, “Please, no pictures, no recording.” That's important.

- We ask those of you who have cameras on your phones.

We ask that you refrain from taking any pictures or video.

Again, we are said to refrain from taking any kind of picture or video during this portion of this initiation ceremony.

>> Niko: I myself, I don't mind if you come in a good way and say, “I'm not familiar, “Could you explain some of the dances or the protocol?” Or, “Where can we sit?” Sometimes they'll have a designated area for non-Natives.

>> Bella: Growing up, Niko danced in what's called the Tiny Tots category for young children.

Some of her relatives still talk fondly about Niko being in the powwow arena as soon as she could walk.

>> Niko: We call it a Coming Out ceremony where we give someone the right to dance, and the person sponsoring, the dancer will show them around the arena and teach them about the regalia I know from my own tribe, we dress them in the arena as a witness.

Everybody can see that they are loved.

They are cared for, they are supported.

And that's what really needed to happen -- is everybody coming together saying, we support you.

You are loved.

Yes, we've had some big trauma over the years, but we're still here.

We've adapted.

We overcame.

We're resilient.

And so powwow is a big force of that.

DANCING WITH A PURPOSE [Soft Piano Music] >> Elbert: Its the best freedom being on stage, performing.

It's like taking flight.

[Soft Piano Music] [Upbeat Music] >> Elbert: You are not the Academy I am the dance master.

This is my title.

One of my goals when I first came here was to make dance an integral part of life.

And so, I've made dance a corporate part of the whole lifestyle of the school I teach grades 1 through 12.

Creative dance.

Classical ballet.

Modern dance, hip hop, ballroom, musical theater.

I'm also the wellness coach for some adults here.

I do private lessons, for the pliability coach for every team on campus.

I think for the children's point of view, a dance teacher and a football coach together in the same room, communicating for the same thing says a lot about education.

You see a leap on stage, it takes hours of practice.

How can I make that leap apply to your track team.

[Orchatral Music] >> Elbert: As a little kid, I always love dancing.

I love moving.

And I remember my pride went up.

whenever a guest would come over they'd say, “Junior, come out, come out, show them the latest dance,” Whatever.

So, dance is always part of my life, but more as a hobby kind of thing.

I didn't know that you could dance professionally.

So, we're doing, my late teens, early 20s, an epiphany.

I'd heard these elderly people say, “If I could do it all over again -- I wish I could have done this.” And I said, I don't ever want to say, “I wish I had or done.” “What do you really want to do?” “You should really go to New York.” The first time I did it, they said to me, “You're really, really good but you need some ballet class.

You have no technique.” So, okay, I went home instead of two years.

Take as many ballet classes as I can and get ready.

Which paid off.

My second audition, I made it.

[Upbeat Music] One thing my parents gave me was good work ethic.

They weren't college professors.

They we're just regular people who'd say, “You've got to do your very best.” “Do your best.

Be the best garbage man.” “Be the very best at it.” The rehearsal finished at 12.

I was going to go back to more really work on it.

And I found that it had benefits.

And the benefits were that you became more acute but your technique, also sharper, more confident and that kind of consistency.

Alvin Ailey knew that I wanted it.

I could depend on me and became a principal dancer within a year, which is unheard of.

And they worked me incredibly.

I mean, I was rehearsing all night, long days to put my standard up to the level.

Well, it wasn't fun, but it was good because I realized this principal dancer, you representing the company not just the person in the back.

You're the person who is like the brand name.

What was always exciting was every season I got a new part, but then you sort of get typecast and then suddenly it wasn't exciting anymore.

Give that to Elbert, he can do that.

And I thought, what?

That means I don't have to work for it.

I felt like time was going by and I was like, locked.

So I went to a place called New Conservatory, this Russian teacher he's something totally different which was great.

Then I left there, went to Germany, and he saw me totally different, which is great.

I would be in all these parts I wouldn't normally do.

[rhythmic music] The company in Germany was very unique in that you had a ballet company that was separate from the theater and opera.

That particular theater decided they wanted to give it to the ballet company and only have the opera only.

I decided to come home.

I was here for about a year and a half waiting, and in that time I was teaching the Richmond Dance Center and one in North Academy Summer Camp.

And when the letter finally came for me to go back to Germany, I realized I was a different person.

I really like teaching children.

Dancing can be a very sort of self-absorbed kind of career, because you're really working on your body, and yourself personally, and suddenly I was giving back to children.

That was an exciting thing for me.

So then I told myself, if you go to Germany, you're gonna be a dancer only.

But what about the teaching part?

What about the choreography?

But what about the directing part?

So I decided not to go back.

So that's how I wound up in Norfolk.

When they're first in class, And they have, like, no idea about what to do.

Me trying to find that way to communicate does a lot for me.

And everybody's different and we came from different backgrounds.

I mean, some people are more visual learners or just some of them with more of the images, whatever.

Once they get it, I've empowered them.

You become a role model and with that comes responsibility.

Do you do what you say you do are you personally integrit are you going to do that and they sort of expect something from me if they expect if I do something, they expect certain quality.

Just teaching the good students is not it.

It's the ones who like introverted who we just-- It's raw material and all they need is somebody to say, you can do it.

I think I was just a little awkward, but I always loved reading.

You know, I'm the kind of guy with sit up in the tree and watch birds, or we'll be catching bugs all day.

[Uplifting Music] I told myself Every day I want to see something beautiful.

I'll learn something new.

It keeps life fresh and exciting.

There used to be an old guy at my church.

He said we agree.

You grow when you wipe your downfall.

off the tree.

Dancing for me has been my identity.

It's my purpose.

I always tell people once you find your purpose, life is great.

I'm doing what I love doing and getting paid for it.

And my life is an adventure.

When it's time to move on, I'll do something.

Serving somebody somewhere.

I always know when the season's That much I do know.

Frame by frame.

>>Mason: There's some challenges with being an animation studio in the Midwest.

If it is for a lot of animators and filmmakers, if they want to go and be part of the industry, quote unquote the industry is to move to the coast because that's where the industry is at.

And I found myself feeling really discouraged, like, hey, I want to do all these things, but I also don't want to leave Oklahoma because I love Oklahoma and my family's here.

I want my daughter to grow up here.

My name is Mason drum.

I'm the creative director at Lab Cloud Animation Studio, and we specialize in telling stories through stop motion animation.

Stop motion is a very old school medium of storytelling.

Let's say you have an object and you take a photo of the object, move the object, take a photo and move the object again, take a photo.

When you play back with a series of photos, an object is animated or it's brought to life.

But everything we do is done by hand.

So whenever you are watching a stop motion film, you're seeing real objects and you're seeing like real things come to life.

So I think that's just, you know, from an aesthetics point of view, it's just very interesting.

It's such an iterative process that includes so many different mediums, from crafting to modeling to filmmaking to photography to set building.

And I love all that stuff.

So we are in downtown Edmond.

I'm really honored and thankful that I have an actual, like, brick and mortar space to do, the work that we do.

>>Ross: He's a nice boss.

He offers a nice amount of direction, but still allows a lot of room to kind of explore whatever it is you're doing on your own.

>>Mason: So right now, I have a handful of people that started as interns.

One of those people is Ross.

He is somebody that I rely on for as many projects like hand because he's incredibly talented person.

And we have Marylse.

She comes in and she's gotten to animate on projects as well.

And just depending on, you know, from project to project, we'll hire out for various needs, whether that's concept artists or even other animators.

There's a there's an incredible animator here in Oklahoma City.

Her name is Nicole Emmons.

We'll try to bring her in if we can.

Chili Pepper is our studio dog.

She is a miniature doxin, and she's perfect.

And she just lays around all day.

From 2015 to 2019 I was a videographer and photographer at the University of Oklahoma and the marketing department.

And every once in a while they would be like, hey, Mason, you know, it's National Donut Day.

Can can we animate some donuts?

And, you know, I grew up with animating flipbooks like drawing on little yellow sticky note pads and bringing like, little stick figures to life.

So I was like, I'll do that, but with a camera and so Well, basically no equipment, just like a tripod and a camera.

I remember going, doing like this donut video and bringing to life and people liked it.

It did well on social people, you know, as far as engagement goes, stop motion performs really well From there I was like, man, that was fun.

I got to do photography.

I got to set up the exposure, I got to frame things, new composition.

But I also got to like, work with my hands and animate and have There's something very tangible about stop motion that I'm drawn to.

The first animation that I put on YouTube was called “INDOMATION” It was like a Jurassic Park fan film.

You know, I worked on it for like seven months in my garage.

Sweat away, I built all the sets myself.

I had some friends that helped me, like, paint some of the sand, helped paint some of the figures that I animated it with.

But it was fun.

And it was through that project, really, that I fell in love with stop motion.

Put that on YouTube and it has like 6 million views now.

It's crazy.

So that encouraged me to do more.

But initially I was asking.

I'd go to restaurants.

I'd ask local like small businesses.

Hey, can I do, some can I make some content for your social media?

And so I kind of built up my portfolio and experience until finally, I think my first big project was a commercial gig for the Sci-Fi Channel, produced entirely in my garage.

Eventually, I got to the point where I could quit my full time job to pursue, Loud Cloud Animation Studios.

If there's one person that I can point towards to say thank you for any of the successes that we've had.

It's Brandt Smith at the University of Oklahoma's fabrication lab, and he was the one that hired me to be a photographer, a videographer.

So he's always kind of served in this like, mentorship position.

And, Brandt always opens his doors to, Loud Cloud to say, hey, come.

If you want to tell stories, we want you to do it here.

>>Brandt: The high level purpose of the fabrication lab here at the University of Oklahoma is to support entrepreneurship.

We think that if we can increase entrepreneurship here within the region, that only benefits OU students.

They've got skill sets that value to entrepreneurs.

So the fabrication lab is one of those efforts where somebody has got an idea for a thing that you can touch.

They could come here and make it.

We've got all manner of equipments 3D printers, laser cutters all the way into wood manufacturing and some metal manufacturing as well.

So when Mason takes on a project, he can turn to the Fab Lab and say, here's the equipment that I'm going to use.

And what I think is really special was he got connected to OU students who have a skill set that he does not so that he can employ them in the use of equipment.

>>Jacob: I first met Mason, when he came into the lab one day, probably a year or so ago, and I kind of expressed to him, hey, I've got a skill set of I can use laser cutters, I can 3D printers, I can use Adobe Illustrator.

So, hey, if you need any help, let me know.

A couple months went by, I get a message from Mason.

Hey, I need some help with this new project we've got.

Working for someone like Mason having opportunities here in Oklahoma.

I thought when I got into college that I was going to have to move out to L.A., or I was going to have to move out to Atlanta to do the kind of stuff that I'm doing now, and I don't.

I live, I don't know, 20 miles from where I grew up.

>>Mason: What I found just through failed relationships, through failed jobs and this, that and other is that I need something that pushes me and challenges me.

And whether it's something like race that does that, like physically for that stop motion medium.

You cannot exhaust the needs of any project with stop motion.

And I think I'm really drawn to the fact that it enables me to push as hard as I want to on certain things to to grow myself, to meet potential, and to always just keep growing.

I'm doing this because this is the best medium for me to, I guess, whether it's express myself or just stay busy, I don't know, it just seems like the most fitting thing for me to do.

And I love it.

And I feel honored and thankful that it's had any level of success.

And I am humbled by any of the artists that we get to work with.

I get to meet so many cool people, and work with so many incredibly talented people.

So I feel like I'm a better person because of it.

So yeah.

And I'm just I feel nothing but thankfulness that I feel like to have arrived to where I am right now to see potential in the future.

But, to try to like, you know, I get too big for my britches or anything, you know.

The award winning arts and culture series Colores is now available on the PBS app, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and at nmpbs.org.

From classic episodes to brand new shows, Colores is everywhere.

Watch now on your favorite NMPBS platforms Funding for Colores was provided in part by New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts and Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

And viewers like you.