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The University of Maine’s sixth annual International Dance Festival — a free showcase at the Collins Center for the Arts — drew a large crowd of all ages. Captivating lightwork flickered across the stage in time to bumping beats as dancers from around the globe entertained audience members Saturday.
“Every year’s a little bit different,” said event coordinator and Office of International Program study abroad advisor Sarah Joughin.
“This year has sort of been smooth sailing,” she laughed, pleased with the show’s efficiency and relaxed nature. Joughin explained that last year, she was nine months pregnant at showtime. The year before, the show was held at Bangor High School and commuting was time consuming and difficult to organize.
UMaine economics professor Aaron Hoshide acted as comedic master of ceremonies. The showcase was co-sponsored by the International Students Association. Additional funding came from Division of Student Affairs, Cultural Affairs, the Diversity Initiatives Program, as well as UMaine Student Government and Residents on Campus.
The show was dedicated to the people of Haiti. Donations, collected by the UMaine College Democrats, went to Konbit Sante, a nonprofit Maine organization dedicated to improving Haitian health care.
Group members pitched specific dances to organizers and did much of the coordinating, costume design and choreography on their own. They were supervised by Joughin, artistic director Forrest Dantzler and costume and choreography support groups. More than 100 people were involved with the production, both on stage and behind the scenes.
Joughin said despite appearances, virtually none of the performers are theater, music or vocal students. She described them as being “all across the board.” From engineers to history students, some of the performers have danced since childhood while others have experienced dance for the first time performing in the festival.
“There wasn’t a heck of a lot of pressure,” said Polish folk dancer Joe Pekol of the show’s relaxed atmosphere.
Pekol had no previous dance experience prior to this year’s show, but was urged to join by friend and veteran dancer Artur Palacz of Poland.
“We just watched YouTube videos of dancers,” Pekol said, explaining the origins of the group’s sophisticated choreography.
Culturally authentic costumes, fancy footwork and braided maidens’ hair characterized Pekol and Palacz’s dance, “Krakowiak and Zbojnicki.” One of the larger performances, the men danced with battle staffs, evoking days of Polish brigands in the foothills of the Tatras mountain range while the women twirled, cotton skirts fluttering.
Darshana Gayan-Ramkaloan performed the only solo act. Her Kathak dance, a traditional bard-like dance from northern India, started out slowly in prayer form and seamlessly transformed into an upbeat tempo with disciplined footwork and movement. Hoshide prefaced her performance by saying for Gayan-Ramkaloan, dancing is an extension of family and is important to her.
Visiting performers to this year’s showcase included College of the Atlantic dancers performing a South African “Gumboot” routine, as well as Bangor and John Bapst High School students Shavya Samala, Leila Musavia and Kimia Kashkooli dancing to the Punjabi song “Aaja Nachle.”
COA students traveled to Orono and stayed with UMaine IDF dancers Friday night, according to Joughin. The 10 dancers performed a neo-traditional South African form of expression, stomping their Wellington-style boots and singing to voice their message. Originally a form of subversive communication, “gumboot” dancing comes from South African gold mines, where wetness calls for “gumboots,” or rubber boots, and labor rights call for protest. The group’s synchronized, intricate sequences of stepping, clapping and chanting enthralled the audience.
Other acts ran the gamut from a traditional Vietnamese fan dance — one of Joughin’s favorite acts because of its beautiful simplicity — to a new-age hooping routine. This was the only dance where focus was shared between dancer and prop, set to ethereally remixed Gregorian chants. In between were steamy salsa numbers where dancers shimmied to “Sobrevivire” the Spanish counterpart of “I Will Survive” and crowd-wowing flips, pops and drops in D-Fusion’s street fusion sequence.
Countries represented spanned the globe from Saudi Arabia to the United States.
Joughin emphasized the appeal of the show — financial and cultural. Organizers began the two-show format (matinee and evening performances) three years ago to attract a larger youth audience demographic. She stressed the value of a free admission.
“I think it’s important to keep [the festival] free because there are lots of shows at the CCA that are cost-prohibitive,” Joughin said. She added free admission makes the show “easily accessible” to students and community members who otherwise would not have the opportunity to sample rich international experiences in their rural Maine backyard.
“It’s a lot of fun. There’s such a wide range and it’s so much fun to participate, as well as to watch,” Joughin said of the varied performances, contemporary and traditional.
As evidence of how far the show has come in the past six years, Joughin pointed at the event poster. Five years ago, the dance fest’s first performance beckoned potential audience members with generic photos from the Internet.
“We were almost worried that it was false advertising,” Joughin said.
This year a photo depicting one of last year’s performers, taken by current performer Apollo Clark, convinced potential showgoers to attend.
“It’s just very moving,” Joughin said.
