Students dance to new music, cultures

Students danced the night away to the beats of different cultures Saturday in Dunn Meadow.

“Each culture has a different flavor,” senior Katie VanSickle said. “You move different ways to different music.”

The event was InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and Union Board’s first International Dance Party.

The purpose of the event was to bring students from all backgrounds together and enjoy each other’s cultures.

About 150 students attended the event.

“So our goal at International Party is to unite people of all ethnicities,” said Mark Abdon, campus staff worker for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. “We are trying to follow Jesus and bring all cultures together.”

Without various cultural groups, IU would not be as exciting, Erika Sutton, Intervarsity executive team member said.

Six different cultural organizations, including African Students Association, Taiwanese Students Association and IU’s Chinese Student and Scholar Association created a CD with songs from their respective countries. All of the CDs had a 30-minute to one-hour time slot.

Sutton said the group plans on making next year’s dance party bigger and hopes it includes food and more cultural organizations.

The International Dance Party was a good opportunity to expose people of different backgrounds to Japanese culture, said Senior Yasuhiro Amano, treasurer of the Japanese Student Association.

Amano is an international student from Japan. Although Yasuhiro said he has a strong Japanese upbringing, his cultural identity grew through the Japanese Student Association.

American students used to ask Yasuhiro questions about Japanese culture, but he didn’t know the answers to them.

“I didn’t know what it means to be Japanese,” Yasuhiro said.

Senior Kazuhiro Kitaoka, president of Japanese Student Association, had a similar experience.

Kitaoka is Japanese, but grew up in Hong Kong and went to an American school. With the help from his fellow board members and friends, his appreciation for Japanese culture has strengthened.

“My love for Japan has grown more now that I go to IU,” Kitaoka said.