Medley fuses cultures through song, dance
The benefit concert, A Medley of World Culture, was held Thursday at 6:30 in the Taggart Student Center Auditorium with about 250 people in attendance.
Dhiren Amin, an MBA student and president of the Indian Student Association, said, “The evening will be a conglomerate of three clubs on campus: the ISA, VIDA [volunteers involved in development abroad], and housing hosting a multicultural concert.”
Asti Bhatt, a grad student in electrical engineering, said it took an entire semester to plan the concert.
Amin said all the proceeds of the concert will go to support the tribal people, specifically children, in the Indian state of Gujarat.
A presentation during the concert explained that Gujarat was hit hard by an earthquake in 2001. Trust for Reaching the Unreached (TRU) is the organization that will take the proceeds from the show to help the children in India, who are still recovering from the quake. For example, TRU will build water reservoirs for the Indians of Gujarat.
Amin said the concert included music from all different parts of the world. Some of them were a combination of Indian classical music and Jazz, Latin music, and African drummers. Russian dancers performed, as well as a fusion of classical Indian and ballroom dancing.
Nihar Desai, a grad student in electrical engineering, said the fusion of the dancing was his favorite.
“Music and dance don’t have any cultural boundaries,” Desai said. “They transcend the geographic boundaries and synchronize together.”
Amin said about the concert, “[We are] trying to give a kaleidoscopic view of all the cultures all over the world and fuse them together.”
Brian Stevens, a junior majoring in biological engineering, said, “As much as they [ISA, VIDA, Housing] wanted to portray the whole world, they focused on India, which I think is pretty cool since that’s where the money is going anyway.”
Stevens said his favorite part was the Russian dancing.
Desai said the concert involved some of the best names in music all in one place. He also said one of the best sitar (an Indian stringed instrument) players came from Salt Lake City to participate in the concert.
He also said they were apprehensive having so many musicians planned for the event, but he was pleased with how it turned out.
Desai said it was a unique experience for the performers because they were able to share the stage with a variety of performers, rather than having the stage to themselves, like they’re used to.
Melodie Gunnell, a junior majoring in nursing, was a volunteer for VIDA, handing out programs at the concert. She said VIDA does many things for the community so it decided to help out with the concert.
Henna tatoos, which began at 5:30, were also included in the festivities.
Amin said the evening went beyond their expectations.
-sarahwest@cc.usu.edu
Asti Bhatt performs a traditional dance from southern India, the “Bharatnatyam.” (Photo by Scott Davis)