jackieRwigamba02252010

=International Dance Festival= By Jackie Rwigamba jacjerom@yahoo.com, rwigambaj@students.nescom.edu


 * ORONO-**More than 100 students performed at the Collins Center for the Arts at the University of Maine, Orono, for the Sixth Annual International Dance Festival. The festivities kicked off Feb 22 and there were two shows. Students, staff and the community gathered to watch and enjoy the rich cultures that were presented. The light work and the graceful dancers colored the event. Their attire also added flavor to the event. Another noticeable was that none of the dancing performers wore shoes, they all danced barefooted. Most the costumes were quite colorful.

The showcase was co-sponsored by the International Students Association. Additional funding came from the Division of Student Affairs, Cultural Affairs, the Diversity Initiatives Program, as well as the UMaine Student Government and Residents on Campus.

The show was dedicated to the people of Haiti. Donations, collected by the UMaine College Democrats went to Konbit Santé, a Maine nonprofit organization dedicated to improving Haitian health care. The show started off with the beautiful Vietnamese fan dance performed by Chi Truong and Dung Tran.

Other performances were Argentina tango, Indian Kathak dance, Arabian Khaligy, The South African Gumboot, Latin fusion and in between were steamy salsa numbers where dancers shimmied to “Sobrevivire” the Spanish counterpart of “I Will Survive” and crowd-wowing flips, pops and drops in D-Fusion’s street fusion sequence. The South African gumboot dance, “the music is dance and the dance is the music,” was how the master of ceremony, Aaron Hoshede described it. The students from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor performed the dance. The college is sponsored each year by UMaine office of International programs. Only one of the students who performed the dance was from South Africa, another one was from Haiti and the rest were local students