The county's fifth world music and dance festival is this week.
This week Ohio University will host music and dance performances and workshops from many cultures across the world without the pain of paying for a plane ticket.
“The flights to these countries are very expensive,” said Zelma Badu-Younge, associate professor of dance. “So if you want to actually enjoy cultures from different countries, this is our way of bringing it to Athens. It’s like having a free ticket to (many) different countries all in one week.”
The fifth World Music and Dance Festival brings international artists for a week full of cultural perspectives in the arts.
Putting this festival on isn’t a walk in a park, but rather a trip around the world, and organizers are feeling a little jet-lagged from all of the hard work they put into it.
“I’m excited and tired…but it’s very important that we expose our students to variety and different ways of looking at the arts — especially music and dance,” said Paschal Younge, professor of music education. “Cultures are different; there are different ways of interpreting, different ways of teaching, different ways of notation and different ways of looking at the arts.”
Because the festival was moved to an earlier date in the year, planning and preparation had to be taken as soon as possible.
Younge said cultures are different when it comes to music.
“For example, ‘music.’ That word is not used in every language, it’s not used in every culture,” he said. “Many cultures don’t have any word for music, so what are you calling music? It depends on the culture. It’s a cultural phenomenon. It’s not a universal language, it’s a universal phenomenon.”
Rawya Aljared, a sophomore Interdisciplinary Art student, said that this festival is a “fantastic idea” because art helps shape cultures.
“Generally art forms are used to explain societies and cultures and sometimes it’s easier to use art to kind of mold these cultures,” Aljared said.
Badu-Younge said that the dancers are getting very anxious for the festival.
“Every year it’s an exciting presentation…we have a guest from Ghana (Nii-Tete Yartey) who will be performing a contemporary African work and choreographing and arranging a traditional piece for a group of students,” Badu-Younge said
Yartey is currently the director of the National Dance Company of Ghana and Badu-Younge said that they are very lucky to have him here teaching the students.
Guest artist Sashar Zarif will return due to popular demand. He was a former student of Badu-Younge at York University in Toronto, and Badu Younge said that he has gone on to be a terrific performer and artist.
Badu-Younge said that though the festival has many outstanding events and opportunities she is most excited for simply being able to put it on.
“I’m excited that we’re able to do it,” Badu-Younge said. “Every year it’s not a given we prepare we look for artists and we hope for the best as far as getting support and we’ve been lucky and really happy to see that we’re very supported by the schools in the college.”
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