Dances with Ivory will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at Waldo Theatre, 916 Main St., in Waldoboro.

This cultural music experience features piano selections based on indigenous tribal melodies. The piano is used in unusual ways to achieve ethereal effects, such as strumming inside the body of the piano on the strings and using the pedals in creative ways to pick up the tonal vibrations of native flutes, singing, speaking and playing the soundboard for drum beat effects.

Lisa Cheryl Thomas was a Fulbright Scholar in Canada in 2017 at the University of Alberta and did her doctoral dissertation on native melodies that were collected by ethnographers around the turn of the 20th century.

The performance includes native storytelling to illustrate the significance of an oral tradition, a very different way of learning compared to modern schooling. Thomas performs in native regalia and uses multi-media to illustrate the cultural background of each song. She has performed this music in many theaters and concert halls in many countries. Her repertoire also includes bluegrass and patriotic American music by American composers.

In addition to the Abenaki, the broader place we now call Maine is home to the sovereign people of the Wabanaki Confederacy: the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet, and Mi’kmaq peoples. We exist on their unceded homelands. Thomas is an enrolled citizen of Sovereign Cherokee Nation Tejas. Her native name is Danalasgisgv Unegv gola (Dances with Ivory).

Tickets cost $25 for adults and $10 for youth in advance, $30 on the day of the show and at the door.

For tickets or more information visit thewaldotheatre.org.

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