Marina Gaytan / The Collegian Online
Sunday marked the 26th anniversary of International Culture Night at California State University, Fresno. The event was organized by the Association for the Promotion of International Culture (APIC), a student organization that encourages diversity and cultural awareness.
APIC president Tryphena Persis, a Fresno State graduate student from India, was the coordinator for the event. Persis said that International Culture Night is the association’s largest event of the year and takes months of planning and preparation.
This year, the event was held during International Education Week, according to Persis. The event showcased 12 performances representing nine countries, including Africa, China, Egypt, India, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico and Polynesia.
The Indian Student Club finished off the evening with three dances. The club’s performance was met with shouts and cheers from the nearly 800 attendees inside the Satellite Student Union.
For graduate student, Aman Mehra, dancing in front of an audience was a whole new experience.
“It was my first time doing it,” Mehra said. “It was pretty fun actually. I had no clue that I was going to enjoy it that much on the stage.”
India celebrates numerous festivals throughout the year with dancing, and each region has its own style of celebration. Much importance is placed on preserving the culture, Mehra explained, and dancing is a big part of Indian life.
“There’s something that moves us when we talk about our culture, so we really want to show people what India is made of and what kind of culture we have,” he said. “Events like International Culture Night are the perfect events to showcase Indian culture.”
The club presented three dances, each related to Indian festivals and celebrations. The first dance, the Gondal, is performed at joyous occasions like weddings and births.
“Whenever there’s a marriage, [Indians] dance. They would dance their legs off,” Mehra said.
Marina Gaytan / The Collegian Online
The second dance of the evening was the Garba, traditionally performed during the nine day festival, Dusshera. Mehra was one of 10 dancers to perform the Garba, which was set to the music from a famous Bollywood film “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.”
The final number, Holi dance, is traditionally performed during the festival of colors.
Last year the club performed dances native to northern India. This year they wanted to present something new and different, Mehra said. Many of the club members come from southern India, and both the Gondal and Holi dance showcased regional styles from southern India, Mehra said.
Rehearsals began in September with practices held three days a week, according to Mehra. During the final week leading up to the event, the club practiced daily.
“It was hard,” Mehra said, “Especially the last week, [choreographers] pushed us so hard that I was dead tired every single night.”
According to Mehra, the highlight of the evening was when all 21 dancers ended the performance together with the Holi dance and received a rousing applause from the audience.
Graduate student, Aditi Prashar was one of five choreographers that helped to arrange the dances. Prashar learned to dance at a very young age. Apart from choreographing, she also danced in both the Garba and the Holi in Sunday’s performance.
Both Prashar and Mehra are from India and came to Fresno State to pursue a master’s degree in biotechnology.
Prashar said she would love to be part of International Culture Night again if she is still at Fresno State next year.
“I’m very happy that it went really well,” Prashar said. “I know there are a lot of Indian students [at Fresno State], so we do want to present our culture to everybody here.”
tryphenapersis • Dec 8, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Thank you Collegian for revisiting and updating on International Culture Night 2009 on Dec 4th! It was beautifully done this time. I really appreciate all your efforts in considering the feedback and focusing the important aspects of events on campus. We will cherish the news forever!
Tryphena Persis,
ICN 2009 Coordinator,
APIC President.
tryphenapersis • Dec 8, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Thank you Collegian for revisiting and updating on International Culture Night 2009 on Dec 4th! It was beautifully done this time. I really appreciate all your efforts in considering the feedback and focusing the important aspects of events on campus. We will cherish the news forever!
Tryphena Persis,
ICN 2009 Coordinator,
APIC President.
Aman • Nov 19, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Hello Everyone,
First of all I want to thank Collegian for covering the International cultural night (ICN) and taking the time to compile this article. It was a great night, all the cultural organizations on campus did a great job showcasing there cultures. Even though we were wearing our costumes(and believe me guys it was not easy to move around in them), we saw all the dances before going backstage to prepare for our dance. I was one of the participants in the dance organized by the Indian students, to see people cheer like that was an experience that I will never forget. All of our team had a great time, judging from the cheering I can say that audience had a great time too.
To the students who think that collegian was unprofessional by showcasing ISC or personal views, I would say that I would have been equally delighted to see this article based on an interview with a japanese or a chinese or an african student. ICN was a night to represent different cultures and I think it did a great job doing that. There was a spectacular picture of the Aztec dance in 16th Nov issue and a great pic of the Polenesian dance in 18th Nov itself. In this article collegian wanted to learn about the dance from a dancer’s perspective, there was nothing personal about it. That is why the article is shaped the way it is, I am unable to understand why some of the people think that it was unprofessional. Freedom of speech allows the press and everyone in US to present there thoughts without any interference. The purpose behind ICN is to showcase the cultural diversity at fresno state, which collegian has presented beautifully.
Aman • Nov 20, 2009 at 3:39 am
Hello Everyone,
First of all I want to thank Collegian for covering the International cultural night (ICN) and taking the time to compile this article. It was a great night, all the cultural organizations on campus did a great job showcasing there cultures. Even though we were wearing our costumes(and believe me guys it was not easy to move around in them), we saw all the dances before going backstage to prepare for our dance. I was one of the participants in the dance organized by the Indian students, to see people cheer like that was an experience that I will never forget. All of our team had a great time, judging from the cheering I can say that audience had a great time too.
To the students who think that collegian was unprofessional by showcasing ISC or personal views, I would say that I would have been equally delighted to see this article based on an interview with a japanese or a chinese or an african student. ICN was a night to represent different cultures and I think it did a great job doing that. There was a spectacular picture of the Aztec dance in 16th Nov issue and a great pic of the Polenesian dance in 18th Nov itself. In this article collegian wanted to learn about the dance from a dancer’s perspective, there was nothing personal about it. That is why the article is shaped the way it is, I am unable to understand why some of the people think that it was unprofessional. Freedom of speech allows the press and everyone in US to present there thoughts without any interference. The purpose behind ICN is to showcase the cultural diversity at fresno state, which collegian has presented beautifully.
Maria • Nov 19, 2009 at 12:20 am
I was very sad to see that the collegian only highlighted the Indian performances. I attended the show, and all of the performances were great. The night was about celebrating the diversity at Fresno State.
Maria • Nov 19, 2009 at 8:20 am
I was very sad to see that the collegian only highlighted the Indian performances. I attended the show, and all of the performances were great. The night was about celebrating the diversity at Fresno State.
Preethi Sarvabhowman • Nov 19, 2009 at 12:09 am
Collegian has taken great efforts in covering most of the events that happen on campus and are doing a great job.
I am the President of Indian Student Club and am very happy that Collegian has brought ISC to limelight. But as the event was International Culture Night organized by APIC and had many other club representing different countries showing their wonderful culture, I would really appreciate if Collegian covers the other fine aspects of the event. This is totally disappointing and unprofessional to have personal views highlighted rather than talking about the whole evening and all the other on/off campus clubs.
I also wanted to let Collegian know that the description about the Indian dance was not correct. Both last year and this year, ISC depicted Uniity in Diversity in India from different perspectives (this time with the theme of Festival:). I feel that the exact description could be given by the co-ordinator of the Indian Dance.
Preethi Sarvabhowman • Nov 19, 2009 at 8:09 am
Collegian has taken great efforts in covering most of the events that happen on campus and are doing a great job.
I am the President of Indian Student Club and am very happy that Collegian has brought ISC to limelight. But as the event was International Culture Night organized by APIC and had many other club representing different countries showing their wonderful culture, I would really appreciate if Collegian covers the other fine aspects of the event. This is totally disappointing and unprofessional to have personal views highlighted rather than talking about the whole evening and all the other on/off campus clubs.
I also wanted to let Collegian know that the description about the Indian dance was not correct. Both last year and this year, ISC depicted Uniity in Diversity in India from different perspectives (this time with the theme of Festival:). I feel that the exact description could be given by the co-ordinator of the Indian Dance.
Tryphena Persis • Nov 18, 2009 at 2:21 pm
As a president of APIC I would like to thank Collegian for covering us. We as a 10 member committee (students from different countries) worked for an entire year to make this show happen. ‘International Culture Night is the time when world comes together as one’.
I am an Indian and loved the Indian student club’s performance. But as an International student here, I appreciate all the other countries who performed equally well. It will be great to highlight other cultures as well during the International education week.
I was disappointed by the way the article shaped up highlighting student’s personal views and not the entire show. APIC is an organization that promotes International culture and all cultures are our favorites.
It will be great if other performances are highlighted.
It will be great to h
Tryphena Persis • Nov 18, 2009 at 10:21 pm
As a president of APIC I would like to thank Collegian for covering us. We as a 10 member committee (students from different countries) worked for an entire year to make this show happen. ‘International Culture Night is the time when world comes together as one’.
I am an Indian and loved the Indian student club’s performance. But as an International student here, I appreciate all the other countries who performed equally well. It will be great to highlight other cultures as well during the International education week.
I was disappointed by the way the article shaped up highlighting student’s personal views and not the entire show. APIC is an organization that promotes International culture and all cultures are our favorites.
It will be great if other performances are highlighted.
It will be great to h