AURORA - For the past 12 years, the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers have used the Native American social dance traditions as a way to educate people about their lifestyle and culture.

"We don't call ourselves a professional dance group," Sherri Waterman Hopper said. "We like to have a laid-back atmosphere because that is what our social dances are like back home."

Social dances are a way to interact and get to know each other. They are held for weddings and birthdays or even just to welcome new people to our clan.

Waterman Hopper said that the Native American ceremonial dances are private and not shared with anyone outside of the clan. But their social dances are for everyone to enjoy, which is why the Haudenosaunee dancers entertained those at Wells College Friday, in the last of a week-long "Strengthening Our Understanding" program.

"We want to get out and educate people about our culture and let them know that we are Native American but that we live in houses and go to school just like everyone else," Waterman Hopper said.

The group began the evening with a traditional stomp dance, and invited guests to participate.

"There is no prescribed dance steps," said Robert Shenandoah, a member of the Haudenosaunee Singers and Dancers and native to the Onondaga Nation. "The dance is how you feel in your heart. We have been performing these dances in our culture since we were born. They are a part of who we are."

Waterman Hopper said that women are held in high regard in Native American culture. The family structure is based on the specific clan of the mother.

"The second dance that is performed after the stomp dance at traditional social dances is a woman's dance," she said. "The woman is the lifegiver and, throughout our government, it is the clan mother who chooses the chief. She also works closely with the chief. That is the way our traditional government works."

The woman's dance is performed with feet kept closely to the ground in order to stay close to nature, Waterman Hopper said.

Among the dancers was Jerome Waterman, a member of the Onondaga Nation Beaver Clan.

Waterman has won many dance competitions across New York, including the New York State Fair for 10 years in a row.

"I started competing when I was about 16 years old," he said. "Dancing is something that we all learn from each other. Growing up and attending the Pow-wows (social dances), I learned from the older generations."