Popular Quyana Alaska dance performances are back with AFN convention

Updated: December 2, 2017 Published: October 16, 2017

Kuukpikmiut Dancers form Nuiqsut perform during the Alaska Federation of Natives Quyana Alaska I, traditional dance and singing performances, on Thursday evening, Oct. 23, 2014, at the Dena’ina Center in Anchorage. Quyana Alaska II will be held on Friday night. (Bill Roth / Alaska Dispatch News)

The popular cultural and dance performances, Quyana Alaska, are set for Thursday and Friday nights as part of the annual Alaska Federation of Natives convention at the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center.

The performances go from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. each night. Tickets are $10 and can be bought from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the first floor sales window of the convention center. Children under 5 are free.

Both nights will be televised on GCI cable, ARCS and 360 North, and streamed at nativefederation.org.

On Thursday night for Quyana Alaska I, the lineup is:

• Minto Dancers

• Atautchimukta

• Nuiqsut Dance Group

• Anchorage Tlingit and Haida Dancers

• Anchorage Northern Lights Dancers

• King Island Singers and Dancers of Anchorage

• Barrow Dancers

The emcees will be Piiyuuk Olivia Shields, Miss World Eskimo Indian Olympics, and Nick Hanson, who performs on the national "American Ninja Warrior" television show as "Eskimo Ninja."

On Friday night for Quyana Alaska II, the lineup is:

• Lepquinm Gumilgit Gagoadim Ts'msyen Dancers

• Taprarmiut Yurartet

• Di'haii Gwich'in Dancers

• Aangun Yatx'i

• Anchorage Unangax Dancers

• Acilquq Dance Group

• Tikigaq Traditional Dancers

The Friday emcees are Carolyn Wiseman and Mattox Metcalf.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.