“Cokata Upo!” is the name the Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre gives to a lavish presentation of social dance which the company presented in fringed finery Friday, Nov. 12, at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono. The title translates from Sioux as “come to the center,” which a packed house — made up of enthusiastic fans as well as friends from local Indian nations — happily did.

The company was founded on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota in 1978 by fusion-dance specialist Henry Smith. Since then, it has garnered praise for both its skill and cultural outreach mission to teach others about the Sioux Nation through dance.

Accompanied by a single drum, which was played by one to four players at a time and sometimes joined by a venerably beautiful flute, the 11-person company offered ceremonial dances, prayers and songs to the earth. The performers, who were often bent at knee and waist, wore elaborate regalia made of feathers and stunningly bold-colored cloth.

Between the more than 20 presentations — grass dances, team dances, fancy dances, eagle or hoop or jingle or horse dances — performers plaintively narrated the Sioux legends of creation. They recalled the birth and destruction and modern rebirth of their nation. With the grand entry of the eagle staff, the most holy of Sioux images, they asked the audience to stand, which it respectfully, if somewhat self-consciously, did.

While the two hours of brisk demonstration enraptured many viewers, the formal setting stole some of the spontaneity from the invocations, and at times, the brilliantly colored show read more like a commercial attraction than the prayerful ceremony it proposed. Unfortunately, overmiked singing and filmed projections of life at Rosebud detracted from the live performance.

Nothing, however, could compromise the clear delight the troupe felt in visiting an area filled with the hospitality of Indian friends and “people from all four corners” of the earth. As a dramatic presentation, some may have found the show rambling and repetitive. But measured in “Indian time,” a phrase one of the company’s leaders used with amusement and pride, the Lakota Sioux Indian Dance Theatre gave a celebratory night of ancestral traditions and hope for Mother Earth as well as the brother- and sisterhood of all people.