Starting Wednesday, Ohio University students will have the opportunity to broaden their horizons and get a taste of foreign cultures during the second annual World Music and Dance Festival.
“The goal is to let students realize that there are a variety of cultures, value systems and beliefs,” said Paschal Yao Younge, director of the 11-day celebration and associate professor of Multicultural Music Education.
He added that he believes one way students develop interest in other cultures is through the arts.
The first World Music and Dance Festival was held last February. During the festival, students came to learn different performance skills with artists of diverse art backgrounds.
Steel and taiko drumming workshops will be held throughout the festival, as well as African dance workshops. The festival will culminate the weekend of Feb. 10 with two concerts, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Friday night’s concert will feature performances of participants in the workshops, which will be instructed by guest artists.
“Most of the ensembles artists are bringing their instruments and our students are going to learn within ten days or even four days, and they will be on stage,” Younge said. “That’s the beauty of the whole thing.”
Colin Kruse, a senior studying chemistry, learned how to play Taiko, a Japanese drum, in one of last year’s workshops. This year, he will perform as part of his African dancing and drumming class.
“(The workshop leaders) are amazingly good instructors,” Kruse said. “(The Taiko instructor last year) talked a lot about the background of the instrument.”
When she was four, Miaghen Dahn, now a junior studying African dance, business and language, came to the United States from Liberia with her parents. Her African roots, she said, sparked an interest in African culture and dance.
“You have to learn really fast and be confident enough to go on stage,” Dahn said.
This year’s festival will have more ensembles of different cultural background and more concerts to celebrate American culture and cultures of other world, said Young.
“We really have a focus this time that is culture,” said Yu-Ching Chen, a first-year graduate student studying music therapy and a performer for both years’ events. “They may all look very different, but they are all beautiful cultures.”
sw454711@ohiou.edu
