Int'l Culture Night tomorrow
Joseph Vasquez / The Collegian
More than 170 performers and Fresno State students will gather on Saturday, Oct. 8 to perform for International Culture Night. The Japaneses Student Association, one of the many groups the event features, will perform three dances including Rock Solan shown above. |
By Guruchathram Ledchumanan
The Collegian
The 22nd annual International
Culture Night will feature 175 world and student performers from 25 different
countries.
The event will take place on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Satellite
Student Union.
The SSU, a building that usually sits empty as students pass on their
way to classes in the new Science building, was buzzing with activity
last Saturday afternoon during a rehearsal for the concert event.
Emcees Cyndi Kobi, an accounting major, and Vijith Premasinghe, a liberal
studies major, practiced their lines for the show.
Performing alongside this dynamic duo, there are history majors performing
Japanese dances, tap dancers and a local flamenco-dancer, who is also
an alumni member.
For Matt Mileham, leader of the USU Productions team, the commotion was
business as usual.
“Is flamenco here? Is the African fashion show here?” committee
head and Associated Students Executive Vice President Juan Pablo Moncayo
said as he organized the performers into their allocated time slots for
using the stage.
“This is a full dress rehearsal, we have everything from dancers
to emcees practicing, so anyone sitting in the audience today would not
see much difference from today and the actual night,” Moncayo told
the large crowd.
“Most of the day will be used for us to get the transitions between
performances right,” Moncayo said. “Welcome to the madness.”
The first performers were the Gumya Taiko drumming troupe. In ancient
Japan, the drums they use were played during times of war to provide timing
during marches.
The next performance will be less earth-shaking, but no less engaging.
The Tap Tones dance troupe, will perform highlights from Adam Guettel’s
Tony Award-winning musical, “The Light in the Piazza.”
“Hopefully our performance might win an award too” joked Tap
Tones treasurer, Adam Fernandez.
Performances include a dance performance by the Japanese Students Association.
There is also a lion dance, a tai-chi dance, a classical piano recital,
Bolivian dancing, Salsa and Flamenco, and the Mexican Donzales de Aztlan
dance.
There will be an African fashion show, and as fashion show from the Asian
Students Association.
Fresno State students have dedicated months of planning and rehearsing
to this event.
So Saturday night, if you should be somewhere near campus and happen to
hear the sound of drums, that is the sound of the ancient gods of war,
urging you to drop by the Satellite Student Union and partake in the cultural
buffet that is Fresno State. “International Culture Night is a great
way for any student to meet and learn from international students and
our backgrounds” Moncayo said.
For more information contact the International Culture Night committee
at [email protected].
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