CultureFest kicks off with Capoeira

CultureFest, Johns Hopkins' nineteen years old tradition of cultural celebration kicked off last Thursday, starting a 10-day event that will celebrate diversity within the Hopkins community and in the surrounding areas. The themes of the activities for 2003 are "Understand, Embrace, Celebrate," and "United in Diversity."

In an introduction taking place in the Glass Pavilion, adorned with flags from all regions of the world, Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell extended a welcome to everyone, thanking and inviting people to further participate in the annual festival. Cochairing the event along with Alethea Duncan, Erik Espinosa '05, explained the purpose of CultureFest.

"Students at Hopkins share experiences and learn from each other. This event in particular allows smaller groups to have their voices heard on campus, while still allowing large groups to reach out," he said.

Ending with an address from the campus chaplain, Sharon Kugler, the chaplain reiterated this year's themes by sharing how the lessons of CultureFest are really a yearlong event.

Kugler said, "You need to tell others about this and what you learn. Let it spread. We want to embrace the lessons we learn year and continue journeying towards embrace diversity throughout the year."

The festivities of the opening event concluded with a rousing performance by the campus Capoeira group. According to Capoeira.com this Brazilian form of street dancing has its origins in tribal dances from Africa. Dancers go out two at a time and engage in a coordinated fight through dance moves. Other troupe members form a circle and provide song, chants, and music to accompany the dancers.

In the pinnacle event of CultureFest week, the show Saturday night featured nineteen performing groups. The show opened with the "Egyptian Sun Belly Dance" and moved right into the Korean Students Association's Fan Dance by Audrey Chan.

Shortly after the crowd got excited as the African Students Association danced Mandiani and Coucou. Several other successful dance numbers were performed. Sambrita Basu performed Odissi, an ancient form of Indian classical dance.

Freshman Maytal Saltiel said, "Basu's costume reminds me of the movie Bend It Like Beckham, which is my favorite movie. I want to be able to perform Indian dance like she does."

The Lambda Phi Epsilon, Asian-Interest fraternity, performed their award winning step routine. They are currently the East Coast Step Champions among other chapters of their fraternity on the east coast. The team, consisting of six fraternity members, wore scream masks and Lambda Baseball Jerseys. Freshman Donna Ackerman said, "I thought the Step team displayed the most talent. In addition to keeping on beat, which I can't do, they also incorporated elements of humor into their performance. I didn't know where to look first."

The sisters of Alpha Kappa Delta Phi, the national Asian American interest sorority performed to modern popular music with an introduction by Alex Chu on the Chinese flute.

Over the past two months, CultureFest members have been visiting each of the performing groups to monitor their progress.

On Friday night there was a full dress rehearsal for all groups, and all participated in a walk through the afternoon before the show. Duncan commented that one challenge was accommodating new state laws regarding lit candles indoors. "Several groups were planning on using candles, so we had to go out and buy lights to use instead," he said.

Several CultureFest events remain for the week. On Thursday, Nov. 13, in the Glass Pavilion at 8 p.m. will be the Faces of the Caribbean Pageant. On Friday, in the Great Hall at 7 p.m. will be Salsa Dance lessons, co-sponsored with the BDA and Ol??.

This will be followed by an E-live Reggae concert. On Saturday, Nov. 15, the closing ceremonies will include cultural cuisine and student performances, and will act as a reflection on the past week's activities.

When asked about the success of the event Duncan said,

"This year is better than past years. We have moved back to traditions and stressed cultures. In the past some of the performances have not been culturally relevant. We have come back to the original focus."