Vietnamese fortune tellers, videos of Bollywood dance and a game of Lotería transformed the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall into the Office of International Service's annual IU World's Fare on Friday night, greeting visitor's with a taste of the international organizations IU has to offer.
The fare featured 18 cultural performances and booths from 19 international student organizations. Booths featured a sneak peek into the mission of each organization, activities pertaining to the country and culture of the organization and ways to get involved.
Visitors were greeted by the Vietnamese Student Association’s booth as soon as they entered Alumni Hall. VSA’s booth featured a colorful display detailing symbolic animals of Vietnam, a short quiz titled “Which Vietnam Symbol Are You?” and a card reading into visitors’ fortunes based on their Vietnamese symbol.
Attending to the booth were IU students Britney Ho, Jessica Dinh and Vivi Tran. Dressed as a fortune teller, Ho guided visitors to the quiz and gifted Vietnamese fruity jelly after completion.
Ho is a senior musical theatre major, a first-year member of the VSA and serves as the organization’s culture chair, a job that primarily consists of research of Vietnamese culture and making sure the VSA continues its cultural accuracy and consistency.
Ho’s parents are from Vietnam, and she said she wants to get the word of the culture out there to the IU community. The booth aimed to make Vietnamese culture accessible to visitors from any background.
“I wanted to make it personal to, obviously, relate to Vietnamese culture,” Ho said. “So, I wanted to make it relatable to the people, because sometimes it can be hard to step into a culture that’s not yours.”
Opposite from the VSA, a line began to form at Ballet Folklórico de IU’s booth. Visitors were welcomed with a poster board featuring custom cards from Lotería, a traditional Mexican board game resembling bingo.
Dalia Hernandez-Diaz, the president of Ballet Folklórico de IU, is a senior studying marketing and has been a member of Ballet Folklórico de IU for four years. She said the idea for a Loteria-themed booth stemmed from wanting to accurately represent Mexican traditions on campus.
“It was just really nice incorporating those different elements about Mexico that aren’t usually represented,” Hernandez-Diaz said.
Ballet Folklórico de IU focuses on traditional dance, bringing along small lessons about costumes and songs they are dancing to. Hernandez-Diaz appreciates this aspect of the organization, crediting it for bringing her closer to her culture and finding a community within IU.
“I wanted to be more connected to my culture,” Hernandez-Diaz said.
The group’s members slowly dwindled from the table and got into costume for the two dances they were set to perform, El Toro Mambo and Pelea de Gallos.
Visitors continued to mingle at booths while performances began onstage. Moderators Prakriti Khurana and Karin Dag introduced the Indonesian Student Association, or PERMIAS, at around 6:30 p.m.
Following PERMIAS, the Filipino American Association took the stage with a fusion of Tinikling, a traditional Filipino dance also known as the “bamboo dance,” and American hip-hop.
Choreographer Anastasia Ilgan said the hip-hop aspect was added to draw a bigger crowd to FAA performances.
Ilgan is a senior studying business at IU and has been a member of the FAA for four years. This was her first year as part of the choreography team, where she oversees teaching and making the variations of traditional Filipino dance.
“It’s a completely original choreo, and kind of out of my own head,” Ilgan said. “That is my thing, making the choreo into being.”
The FAA’s performance of Tinikling was part of the organization’s effort to combine the members’ Filipino and American backgrounds. By integrating the two styles of dance, it hopes to create a community of Filipino Americans and those interested in the culture.
“It’s very hard to marry the Filipino identity to the American identity, but we do our best,” Ilgan said, “especially trying to integrate two different styles of dance together, and dance is our big way of expressing our culture and identity.”
Following the FAA, Inayat at IU performed a combination of western, northern and southern Indian dancing. Its booth, which featured competition videos and Indian snacks including a Badam Drink, was run by Inayat’s manager Shriya Bhargaca and social chair Ishani Patel.
“There’s so many different dance styles across India, not even just India, in the South Asian region,” Bhargaca said. “We have all ethnicities in our team, and I think that’s why we did American style, because most of us are born here, so it’s a good influence of their parent’s cultures and our culture.”
Saahil Kotwal, the Inayat dance team’s captain, said the upcoming competition’s theme and competition dates being kept secret for the time being. Inayat members have been practicing for around 16 hours a week putting together their 10-minute set for the upcoming spring season. Last year, they competed nationally against other Indian dance groups with a Pixar-themed set.
After Inayat’s performance, Ballet Folklórico de IU flipped their skirts as they waltzed on stage. Hernandez-Diaz watched from the organization’s booth.
“I would say a very big part of our culture, in many Mexican celebrations, weddings, birthdays, even Christmas, there’s always a big party, music and there’s always dancing,” Hernandez-Diaz said.
Capping off the night, event coordinator Feihong Yu counted votes and prepared to reveal which organization would be awarded for the best performance and best booth.
Yu is a master’s student at the Jacob’s School of Music studying computer music. She coordinated the event last year and has been planning the IU World’s Fare since early September, reaching out to groups to attend and organizing the venue. At the event, she oversaw performances to ensure everything was running smoothly and made sure votes got counted properly.
“People love it a lot,” Yu said. “I saw people are very excited about it. Right now, I feel relaxed because it’s close to done.”
As Yu beckoned the moderators back on stage, performers began migrating to watch as anticipation bubbled. Finally, moderators invited Ballet Folklórico de IU onto the stage, crowning the group as having both the best performance and the best booth.
Last year was Ballet Folklórico de IU’s first time attending IU World’s Fare, where the group took home the same titles. Hernandez-Diaz smiled onstage alongside the rest of the ballet as history repeated itself.
“I think it’s so important to learn about other people’s cultures,” Hernandez-Diaz said. “I love that I have learned throughout the World Fare’s about the different student associations that we have on campus. I think it’s beautiful.”
