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Osage Ballet to perform at World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia

The Osage Ballet has been invited to perform at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September and Pope Francis will be in attendance.

The Ballet has been asked to perform the prayer scene from Wazhazhe: An Osage Ballet at the Festival on Sept. 26 in Logan Square.

“The Osage people have a long history with the Catholic Church, first documented in 1673 when the Osages met Father Jacques Marquette, who visited them on the Osage River and visited several Osage villages,” said Osage Ballet Director, Randy Tinker Smith. “This interaction was followed by the arrival in America of Jesuit Priests, called ‘black robes’ by the Osages, who evangelized to and converted some Osages to Catholicism.”

The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Pawhuska features stained glass windows depicting Jesuit Priests meeting the Osage people.

Smith said they are currently raising money for the trip and have created a Go Fund Me account at www.gofundme.com/osageballet. The Osage Ballet is a non-profit ballet and donations are tax deductible.

“I sought to continue the legacy of two Osage women: the late Prima Ballerina Maria Tallchief, and her sister, Marjorie Tallchief. Following the path paved by them, by telling the story of the Osage people through ballet seemed natural,” Smith said.

Roman Jasinski, the son of Moscelyne Larkin, an accomplished Native American ballerina of the Peoria and Shawnee tribes, will be one of the dancers to perform, Smith said.

Wazhazhe: An Osage Ballet, was first performed in Tulsa and Bartlesville in 2012. Because of the response to the Ballet, they were invited to perform at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. in 2013.

According to their website www.worldmeeting2015.org, the World Meeting of Families event will be held in Philadelphia Sept. 22-27 and Pope Francis will attend Sept. 26 and 27.

Scheduled stops for Pope Francis will be:

10:30 a.m. mass at Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, located in Logan Square, in Philadelphia

4:45 p.m. visit to Independence Mall, 7:30 p.m. – a visit to the Festival of Families at Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

According to the website, World Meeting of Families was begun by Saint Pope John Paul II in 1992 for the purpose of “strengthening the sacred bonds of the family unit across the globe.”

The event, which takes place every three years, creates an opportunity for families from all over the world to gather, share their thoughts, dialogue and prayers. The purpose is to foster “working together to grow as individuals and family units,” the website says. Furthermore, “families can participate in discussion groups on the Christian family’s role in the church and society, led by many distinguished speakers.”

The event is free and open to the public. For more information about the Festival of Families, visit: www.worldmeeting2015.org.

For information about the Osage Ballet’s performance at the festival, visit: www.osageballet.com or follow the Osage Ballet on Facebook.


By

Osage News


Original Publish Date: 2015-08-12 00:00:00

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  • Osage News Staff

    Stories that are not primarily written by an Osage News staff member will have a “Osage News” byline. These stories include press releases and other community content that was drafted by someone externally but reviewed and approved for publication by Osage News. As an independent news organization, we strive to report news and information with fairness and balance. While being the official news organization of the Osage Nation, we base our news judgements on our loyalties to our readers and Osage citizens, and we are not directly beholden to the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches of the Osage Nation.

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Osage News Staff
Osage News Staffhttps://osagenews.org
Stories that are not primarily written by an Osage News staff member will have a “Osage News” byline. These stories include press releases and other community content that was drafted by someone externally but reviewed and approved for publication by Osage News. As an independent news organization, we strive to report news and information with fairness and balance. While being the official news organization of the Osage Nation, we base our news judgements on our loyalties to our readers and Osage citizens, and we are not directly beholden to the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branches of the Osage Nation.
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