The second and final night of the 2026 Teller Cultural Festival saw a packed house. The bleachers inside the school gym became so full, it became standing room only.
The festival has been a staple of the community for two decades, and Cora Ablowaluk has been organizing it since the start. She explained it’s the people who make Teller and its dance festival so special.
“Teller is unique. We’re a little bit of everything,” she said. “It’s a mix of everybody from our region.”
Eight dance groups performed, including dancers and drummers from Nome, Saint Lawrence Island, Little Diomede, and Brevig Mission.
The dancing didn’t stop when the sun went down. And Ablowaluk didn’t either.
“Dancing got done after 3 a.m.,” she said. “By the time everybody left and we fed the dancers a snack, it was already almost five, and I have to be here by six to start breakfast.”
Between coordinating schedules, cooking and cleaning, putting the festival together requires months of work and some long, long days. Ablowaluk does it because she loves it. But now, she’s ready to be able to enjoy it.
Before the weekend began, she announced that this would be her final year organizing the festival. She becomes teary-eyed reflecting on the past two decades.
“A lot of emotions were triggered,” she explained. “Just thinking of 20 years of all the people who took part in it and who are no longer with us.”
Finding a new festival coordinator will be a problem for next year. Back in the gym, hundreds of people surrounded the basketball court-turned-stage. Dancers of all ages — from elders to infants — move their arms to the rhythm of the drums. The beat continued to echo through the school, as the late night turned into early morning.
