American Indian Dance Theatre is respected as a professional performing arts company presenting the dance, music and traditions of Native Americans. In 1986, writer-director producer Hanay Geiogamah and director and producer Barbara Schwei presented a full-length dance production featuring American Indian dancers and dances at the Beverley Theater in Los Angeles. Following its critical and commercial success, Geiogamah and Schwei founded the American Indian Dance Theatre in 1987. Since its first performance as a company at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC, they have toured extensively throughout the US, Canada, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

The company is proud to be active in the Native American cultural renaissance that is challenging and changing the stereotypical misrepresentation and misunderstanding of its cultures through live performance, television and film.

Hanay Geiogamah is a celebrated playwright, director, producer and a leader of the Native American arts and cultural renaissance. Recently retired as Professor of Theater at University of California Los Angeles’ School of Theatre, Film and Television and the former director of UCLA’s American Indian Studies Center, he is from the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and has lived in Los Angeles for 35 years. He is the founder of the American Indian Theater Ensemble (1970) and cofounder of the American Indian Dance Theater (1987).