IT was a trip around the world in 80 minutes for students at Jeddah’s Dar Al-Hekma Girls Private College when they visited 10 countries at an event that took place last week entitled “Around the World in 80 Minutes”. Around 2,000 people swarmed the college’s theater in the two-day festival on March 19-20, which included dances from different countries.
Organizers Sana’a Omari and Sahar Bahrawi said they organized the world tour using a narrative thread to tie the ten countries together. The story behind the different dance performances starts with a Saudi girl who gets lost from her home and passes by different places in the world until she finds her way back to her family.
“It shows that no matter where you go, home is always the best place for the person and it is where the heart is,” said Omari, lecturer of interior design.
The girl walks through every performance looking for her people.
“The message is to expose the different cultures to people, and we wanted to give a positive image,” she said.
At the end all the countries, represented by the performers, join together on the same stage with a positive message of cultural tolerance.
Wives of consuls general from the countries were present to watch the performances.
“We made sure that we gave the right picture of the country and we told them about the ideas we’re presenting about their countries,” she said.
The ten countries represented at the event were: Saudi Arabia, Palestine, India, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, Pakistan, India, Algeria and Eritrea. Fifteen performers represented each country. One of the dances consisted of faculty members performing on behalf of Algeria.
Noura Jan, an administrator at the Business Studies Department, said the teachers had to fill in for the Algeria dance due to a lack of students.
“So we had a meeting with the organizer, Sahar Bahrawi, and decided to participate which was a good chance,” said Jan. “We really enjoyed rehearsing and it was a good chance to meet my colleagues of the other departments that we do not usually meet a lot. We trained every other day for one hour. I had the chance again I would definitely repeat the experience.”
The costumes were made especially for the occasion and students were able to keep them as a souvenir of their participation. Some of the costumes and props were imported from their original countries, such as the drums and hair accessories and the jewelry from Bangladesh.
“The girls were good as any original Pakistani dancers and even those who did the Indian dances. They were even speaking some words of the languages and singing the songs. The atmosphere during the training was really great,” Omari said.
The idea was so interesting for Mokhtar that she came out of her shyness and participated for the first time in the Indian performance.
“I was so excided to participate this year as I attended the show of last year so my friend and I were enthusiastic to participate this year,” she said.
Students have 100 community service hours they have to do as graduation requirements.
“We spent 20 hours rehearsing after classes for almost three weeks. We had a nice time that we used in something we enjoy,” she said.