Grammy winner returns to Lisbon park event

Posted: Aug. 7, 2012

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Kelly Smith/ksmith@jcpgroup.com

Thriza DeFoe will again perform Native American hoop dances during Heritage Weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the Town of Lisbon Community Park. De Foe, whose parents are from the Lac Du Flambeau and Red Cliff reservations, is a Grammy-award winning artist.

Kelly Smith/ksmith@jcpgroup.com

Thriza DeFoe will again perform Native American hoop dances during Heritage Weekend on Saturday and Sunday at the Town of Lisbon Community Park. De Foe, whose parents are from the Lac Du Flambeau and Red Cliff reservations, is a Grammy-award winning artist.

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Town of Lisbon - A Grammy-winning Native American musician and actress who dazzled local audiences last year with her graceful and athletic hoop dancing, and dramatic stories of Native American lore, is returning to the Heritage Weekend historical event at Lisbon Community Park on Saturday and Sunday.

Although Thriza De Foe, 30, of the Lac Du Flambeau Reservation, performs at major entertainment and cultural venues around the world, she is carving out time from her busy schedule to perform at the Community Park because, "it is extremely important to me to give back to communities."

"I have a special interest in attending because my roots are in Wisconsin. I have family throughout the state and some are not able to travel much any more," she added.

"I think it is wonderful that the Lisbon parks department makes a huge effort to bring the best they can to their small community. Events like these abolish discrimination and barriers. I have seen the warmth from the presenters, patrons and youth. It is a ritual that hope continues…" De Foe said in an email to Lake Country Publications.

She will perform at 10:15 a.m., 12:45 p.m. and 2:30 on Saturday and at 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

In 2009, De Foe performed on the Grammy award-winning album "Come To Me Great Mystery," a collection of traditional Native American songs. Also in 2009, she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress by the American Indian Film Institute for portrayal of Sally, a boarding school runaway in the film "The Only Good Indian," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Her acting credits also include the starring role and narrator in the Emmy award-winning Public Broadcast System production "People of the Forest."

She also performed at the opening ceremonies of the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain; the Millennium celebration in Cairo, Egypt and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

She is presently a musical theater fellow at the John Tesch School of Arts at New York University. She is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts and earned a master's degree in writing from Goddard College in Vermont.

De Foe will be among the more than 65 individuals dressed in costumesreenacting the lifestyles of various periods of history in 25 different exhibits and campsites that will be located at the north end, lower level of the 125-acre park near Lake Five and Oakwood roads.

The annual event provides park visitors with information and exhibits about various periods of history including the Roman Empire, Scottish Highlanders, Colonial America, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II and the Korean War.