By CLAUDIA LORENZANA
The Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia will all have one thing in common Saturday at 7 p.m. Dances representative of those areas will be presented at Worldance, Utah's 12th annual ethnic dance festival, held at the University of Utah Union Ballroom in Salt Lake City.
Eastern Arts, an organization that provides concerts, lectures and other events in traditional arts, is presenting Worldance to help people gain an appreciation for the differences and similarities in different cultures.
Katherine St. John, program director for Eastern Arts, said the festival will actually begin Saturday at noon in the U of U Union Deli with a free music concert.
According to a news release, the concert will feature music by Latif Bolat, a Turkish music group that plays traditional folk songs.
St. John said Latif Bolat will play 'Sufi' music, which is very mystical and meditative, using a 'saz', a long-necked strummed instrument.
The festival will continue on Friday at 7 p.m. at the home of U of U professor Bernard Weiss, where Latif Bolat will please the audience with another performance.
According to a news release, the main festivities will occur on Saturday where groups such as the Utah Character Dance Ensemble, Dionysios Greek Dancers and Darena will perform a variety of typical international dances and songs.
Narodna, a dance group that performs Polish, Hungarian, Russian, Romanian and other dances, will present three numbers on Saturday's festivities.
Margaret Strickland, director of Narodna, said one of the group's dance pieces, 'Hopak,' is a high-energy Ukrainian dance featuring male performers that do a number of kick-outs, toe touches and turns.
Strickland said viewers will not only enjoy Narodna's numbers, but will also have the desire to dance on stage with the performers.
'I hope this gives people a feeling that they wish they could do that,' Strickland said.
According to a news release, Worldance will also include Hungarian dancing by Jomoka, Korean dancing by Junghee Kim, a well-known local performer, flamenco dancing by the International Dance Theatre, and more.
'This will be a presentation of traditional music, dance and song from areas we don't usually see represented here in Utah,' St. John said.
Admission to all of the performances is free.