My Kind of Art: Nevada’s Adrian Stevens and Sean Snyder

10.01.2025 - 22:51 / lonelyplanet.com

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Jan 10, 2025 • 5 min read

Indigenous art, often full of symbolism and meaning, is an important part of Nevada’s rich cultural tapestry. Spanning a wide array of traditional forms from pottery to painting, basket weaving to beadwork, these expressions tell stories that explore themes of identity and nature, spirituality and history.

Nevada artists Adrian Stevens and Sean Snyder are redefining what it means to make traditional Indigenous art. The pair are celebrated for their intricate beadwork and award-winning dance and travel the world to blaze new trails for their community as they compete as a same-sex couple.

Sean, who goes by they/them pronouns, is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation and a descendant of the Southern Ute tribe. Adrian descends from the Northern Ute, Shoshone-Bannock, and San Carlos Apache Tribes. Even before they met fifteen years ago, both grew up dancing, competing, and making their own regalia in powwows – exciting intertribal events that celebrate Indigenous culture and traditions. Some powwows have been taking place for centuries and help keep traditional songs and dances alive.

Today, they are inseparable partners. Adrian is a grass dancer: a style of dance that originated in the Great Plains when dancers flattened the grass and blessed the grounds as they moved ahead of the tribe during migration. Sean is a fancy dancer: a colorful, energetic style of dance that originated in Oklahoma.

“Even non-Natives are welcome to come and look at the dancing, look at the food vendors, and really take in all that it has to offer,” Adrian says.

Powwow dancing is a spiritual experience, and both say performing in the arena is exhilarating.

“The second that song starts and you feel that heartbeat of the drum, it's like your soul is awakened, and you with it.” Adrian says. “And it translates through your movement.”

Despite specializing in different styles of dance, Adrian and Sean began dancing as a Two-Spirit couple once they fell in love. Two-Spirit is an umbrella term used to describe LGBTQ+ people of Native American heritage. Growing up, they didn’t see other Two-Spirits reflected in their communities. By dancing together, they hope to change that for the generations that come after them.

It wasn’t always easy. The pair were thrust into the spotlight when they were disqualified from a competition for being a same-sex couple. 

“It really hurt,” Adrian says. “I remember traveling home and feeling a sense of emptiness.”

But instead of sinking into despair, the pair spoke out, traveling to college campuses, appearing in a documentary, and even serving as keynote speakers in the Human Rights Campaign’s “Time to Thrive” summit, where they talked about fighting for change after being