The Cortez Center Inc

Native American DancesOur Native American Dance program is our signature program, which showcases local indigenous dancers, drummers, and singers who share their traditional stories and songs with the community in the Centers outdoor plaza and dancing circle. For over 26 years, we have presented this nightly program throughout the Summer, June - August, where the traditional dances and songs have been passed down through four generations of performers. Audience members are encouraged to participate with the performers in the Circle Dance and engage directly with the dancers after each performance.The Native American Dances are an hour-long performance that happen five nights per week for an 8-12 week period.Over 2,000 audience members of all ages attended 60 performances in 2024.38 Ute and Din singers, dancers, drummers, and storytellers from four generations ranging from 3 to 78 years old, performed with one another and their audiences.The Native American Dance program is free to the audience, but the performers are paid an honorarium for each and every performance through grant funding.Visitors to the area make it a point to attend our Native American Dances and, as the tourism Director for Montezuma County once said, Visitors to our area usually come for Mesa Verde National Park and/or Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Then they go to the Native American Dances at the Cultural Center. Then they come inside the Center and get to meet our Cultural Specialist, get information and answers to their questions, and view our exhibits.

The Annual Ute Mountain Mesa Verde Birding Festival provides a popular venue for visiting southwestern Colorado during the second weekend in May. Nestled between alpine and mesa forests and scenic desert canyons, the Four Corners intriguingly diverse landscapes, and mild climate, have drawn people to the region for generations. Ancestral Pueblo farmers dwelled in places now known as Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, and Canyon of the Ancients. Todays meadows, pastures, cultivated fields, historic orchards, stock ponds and reservoirs establish habitat for a wide-spectrum of migratory and resident birds. Some species, such as Lucys Warbler, are found no place else in Colorado