Powwow Dance And Animation Unite In Indigenous Enterprise’s ‘Still Here’

Indigenous Enterprise, the Native American dance troupe known for taking powwow traditions to some of the world’s biggest stages, returns to New York City this week with Still Here, a performance running September 16–21 at The Joyce Theater. Celebrating their 10th anniversary, the collective frames the production as a meditation on resilience, memory, and Native joy.

At the center of the work is a unique collaboration with filmmaker Stephanie Gumpel, who co-directs the animated film that opens the performance. “The first time that we told these stories in a very different way was 2021 at the Joyce. So it’s awesome to be doing it again,” she told Cartoon Brew ahead of Tuesday’s opening. “And, you know, having another chance to tell these sacred Indigenous stories through animation, it’s been incredible.”

Gumpel, who began her career as a professional modern dancer before entering the animation world at ShadowMachine (BoJack Horseman, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), explained how her connection to the troupe began. “I decided I wanted to make a feature film in 2020. I do live action as well as animation. And I reached out to Kenneth Shirley of Indigenous Enterprise because he’s an Indigenous dancer, and my film will take place in Monument Valley, a Navajo reservation. He was so open to the idea, and there was an incredible, collaborative energy between both of us.”

While talking about dance and film, Shirley mentioned that The Joyce had invited him to create a show. For Gumpel, the opportunity was staggering: “I come from a modern dance background. I was a professional modern dancer. And a show at the Joyce Theater is like saying, “Oh, you’re gonna play at Yankee Stadium in the World Series.” After enthusiastically asking to learn more about the performance, Shirley asked, “’Do you wanna help?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, I wanna help!’” Gumpel recalled.

That first collaboration, completed on a breakneck timeline of eight weeks, resulted in an eight-minute animated film that drew notice from The New York Times and was archived in the New York Public Library. When The Joyce invited Indigenous Enterprise to open its fall season, Shirley again asked Gumpel to join. “There was no way I could say no. This is just such a special project. These kind of projects are few and far between. It feels like once in a lifetime, and you know, we’re getting it two times in a lifetime. It feels really lucky.”

The new short is far more ambitious: about 20 minutes of animation woven into an hour-long performance that alternates film sequences with live dance and powwow music. In the short, “Grandpa is talking about these dances. He’s giving these stories and teaching his grandson how to sing and play the drum. And between every story, a live dance and live music will be performed,” Gumpel explained.

Producing that level of animation without studio backing was no small feat. “I am producing this fully through my animation studio. It is called Studio Novella, and we’re a boutique animation studio,” Gumpel said. “About $10,000 in grant funds came through, furnished by Indigenous Enterprise, which is also a nonprofit.”

Gumpel was overwhelmed by the input from each contributor on her team. “Shout out to the artists, because everybody was on board. Everybody understood how important this was. In the U.S., there’s not much public money for this kind of work, and any kind of public money that is out there is going through tough times right now. So it’s very thin, and there’s not a lot to spread around.

Gumpel’s team featured about a dozen artists who were “not working for free, but they’re working for so much less than they deserve, because they understand the importance.”

For Gumpel, carrying someone else’s story is an honor and a responsibility. “I have felt that from the very beginning. You know, these are sacred, Indigenous stories, and I take that extremely seriously. I was honored to be invited.”

Although she had initial concerns about being a non-Native director helming the project, Gumpel says she had to trust the process and respect that she was the filmmaker Shirley had hand-picked to animate his story.

She was also thrilled about the possible distribution opportunities for the work, which would see the film shared far and wide, and for free, especially in Indigenous schools. That accessibility, she emphasized, has always been central to the project.

“The last time we did this, the film made the rounds through the Native American-dominant schools, so that these children can see themselves reflected in animation.”

“Children see animation in a very different way than adults,” she continued. “It’s very powerful for them to see themselves reflected in animated characters that are deep and have dimension, and also to see their ancestors and their culture depicted in such a beautiful, high-quality way.”

Authenticity guided every production choice. Dance sequences were rotoscoped to ensure cultural accuracy down to the most minute detail, while background painter John Holsinger used impressionistic digital techniques to capture golden-hour desert light. “The technique is called two and a half D. The characters are hand-drawn, 2D, and they kind of sit in space, like 2D drawings. But then we project the backgrounds onto 3D objects. And that is what is creating that look.”

The technique creates an extremely tactile result. “It was literally paintings projected onto 3D objects modeled to the shape of what they represent. We could paint a tree and then, using Blender, project that flat painting onto a three-dimensional tree object. When the camera moves, you feel the dimension of the background,” she explained enthusiastically.

For Gumpel, Still Here is ultimately about empowerment, both onstage/screen and off. In her film, “Nat is the main character. He doesn’t live on the reservation. He lives in a place where he’s the only Native kid in his class, and he’s starting to get bullied for his braids and being Navajo. So he goes to Grandpa, and Grandpa is like, ‘I know just what he needs,’” she explains of Shirley’s narrative.

That’s when the song and dance of the Navajo tribe enter the film, and when the real-life Indigenous Enterprise crew takes the stage.

As the organization marks its 10th year, Still Here is a reminder that Native culture is not a relic of the past. By combining ancestral traditions and modern storytelling techniques, Gumpel, Shirley, and all of the artists who worked on the film and the theatrical performance ensure that these narratives and traditions are not only preserved, but carried forward as a living, evolving heritage.