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Show 7 4 Friday, March 23,2007 The Missing Link: For everyone who refuses to be inspired by a picture of a kitty, there's www.despair.com 797-1769 diversions@statesman.usu.edu Around the world in just one big meal International Banquet and Chinese New Year combine to create a night of many cultures BY RcncKAii BRADWAY Copy Editor For those hungry for exotic foods and foreign entertainment, the combined annual International Banquet and Chinese New Year Celebration will offer an array of international dishes and amusement to bring the world to Logan. For the first time, the International Student Council and the Chinese Students and Scholars Association have combined their separate events in order to unite the organizations. "ISU represents every USU international student," ISC President Amrith Gardihewa said. "Now we are doing (the event) for a greater purpose - unity." The show, tomorrow in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom, will feature about eight international activities as well as six more focused on Chinese tradition, Gardihewa said. Included are dances from Congo, Polynesia and Japan as well as songs from China, India and solos from Mr. and Ms. International. To go along with the dances and songs, the CSSA will be putting on a fashion show that highlights Chinese clothing going back 2,000 years in Chinese history. "It's a show blended with many different cultures, and same with the dinner menu," Gardihewa said. "Where else can we enjoy pork, Indian rice, Togolese chicken together with an Italian dessert?" Diners can choose from more than six dish options, ranging from Chinese sweet and sour pork to Sri Lanka fish cutlets. The ISC will spotlight its special, vegetable curry, and diners can finish the evening with desserts like Italian tiramisu and the Chinese sticky cake, nian gao. "This is what it's all about, a show blended with many cultures," Gardihewa said. The banquet will be held at 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., and the cultural show will follow. Tickets can be purchased at the USU Ticket Office, the Spectrum or at the door. Prices are $9 for students and $12 for adults. Admission is free for children under 12, and it costs $2 to watch the cultural show only. The ISC and CSSA will also provide coupons for $1 off at the TSC Information Desk and at the door until they run out. —rebrad@cc.usu.edu Jessica Alexonder/ja!exander@ccusu.edu f] Tuning up Multicultural Messiah to present Handel's masterpiece in way that can be enjoyed by everyone BY T O M LILJEGREN . . Senior Writer Some in the audience will never hear a musical performance exactly like it anywhere. Others may not hear it at all. But, that's kind of the point. The 6th annual Multicultural Messiah concert is not just a musical performance of Handel's revered oratorio; it also features interpretation of the performance in American sign language. "It's an experience when you get into it you know you'll never forget," said Andrew Beck, a senior deaf education major who is a signer for the program for the fourth time. The Multicultural Messiah concert features Handel's "Messiah" sung in English, with a portion in Spanish, by a chorus of more than 100 people and a 40-person orchestra, with 21 additional signers contributing the theatrical interpretive signing. The concert will be held today and tomorrow at the Eccles Theatre and March 30 at Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden. All performers involved are volunteers - people "from all backgrounds and all faiths become a real common unit," said John Ribera, musical director and organizer for the event and deaf educa- said. • . i "To my knowledge, 'Messiah' has never been theatrically interpreted anywhere (outside of these performances)," said Freeman King, who directs the interpretive signing for the performance and is a professor in the deaf education department at USU. The idea for this unique performance of the "Messiah" came from watching the film "Mr. Hollands Opus," Ribera said. He said he was moved as he watched how Holland, a music teacher, communicated musically with his deaf • MESSIAH see page 6 Dance group steps all the way to USU BY T O M LILJEGRCN Senior Writer Photo courtesy International Student Union tion professor at USU. George Frederic Handel's "Messiah," written in 1741, is one of the best-known pieces of classical music in the world. While it is often performed at Christmastime, Ribera said Handel originally wrote for the piece to be performed in the spring. Each year the performance has grown both in community support and in quality, said Ribera. Last year marked the first year the performance played in Ogden, and this year, the event is moving from the Kent Concert Hall to the more intimate Eccles Theatre, which will "allow the audience to interact with the performance," Ribera One of the United States' most unique dance groups is coming to USU's Kent Concert Hall on Thursday, March 29, to celebrate stepping - a form of dancing where clapping, stomping and speaking is used to create rhythm and music. Step Afrika was the worlds only professional stepping group when it was founded in 1994. Since then, the Washington, D.C., based group has performed on four continents and been named as cultural ambassadors for the United States, performing in various countries around the world at U.S. embassies' requests, according to the group's Web site. Recently their choreography was seen in the movie "Stomp the Yard." "It's going to be a killer show," said Kyle Milne, arts and lectures director of ASUSU. "They incorporate so many elements of dance. They want to make sure that you have a good time." Milne said he expects the group's performance to interest many students. "Stepping culture is very much embedded in college life." In fact, stepping existed on college campuses long before it ever was done in more formal performances. Although it was born from many African-American traditions of dance and movement, stepping began in the early 1900s in fraternities among AfricanAmerican students, according to Step Afrika's Web site. It's unique from other from other dancing because it doesn't use any sort of musical backing. Instead, stepping creates the music and rhythms as part of the dance. Now, the popularity of stepping has increased. It is still practiced in many colleges, but it has received increased attention as the subject of several films, documentaries and books. However, performing stepping professionally is still a relatively new phenomenon. Brian Williams, founder of Step Afrika, first became interested in starting the dance group when he visited South Africa and saw people performing their traditional "gumboot" dance that he noticed resembled the stepping that he had performed in college. Shortly after, he met with members of the acclaimed Soweto Dance Theater in South Africa and organized the South Afrika International TEP AFRIKA see page 7 Photo from www.stepafriHa.org S u p AFRIKA COMES TO USU March 29 with their unique blend of step and traditional dancing. |
