Campus clubs bring diverse offering to first-ever Culture Fest

Tapping her feet quickly, an attractive, petite girl stood in the center of the George Sherman Union’s Backcourt on Saturday night, dancing the cha-cha and wearing a short black skirt with a pink, sequined top. She danced seductively, enticing an intellectual-looking man dressed in a suave black suit to join her on the dance floor.

The pair, from the Boston University Ballroom Dancing Club, danced the cha-cha for a moment, before the music suddenly turned more modern than melodic and Christina’s Aguilera’s “Come on Over” began to blare.

After all, “This is not your grandmother’s ballroom,” the announcer said.

The Ballroom Dancing Club performed four numbers on Saturday night at the GSU as part of “Culture Fest 2000,” an event which aimed to increase student awareness of the cultural opportunities offered to BU students through clubs and organizations.

“The goal of ‘Culture Fest 2000’ was to bring multi-cultural groups together, so that they could meet and interact,” said College of Arts and Sciences junior Jennifer Cross, who helped organize the event. “We were not expecting a set number of students to attend, but we were hoping to get the word out to the student body. The students at Boston University lack awareness of the various, diverse clubs and organizations on campus.”

The event was organized by the CAS Forum, and was the first of its kind, according to Cross. The Student Activities Office organizes the World Fair at Marsh Chapel in the spring, but a fall semester event was unprecedented. Tables lined the outside of the Backcourt, with the middle left for performances.

Nine groups set up tables and informational booths, and four performed. In addition to the Ballroom Dance Club, the Jiu-Jitsu club’s demonstration was attention grabbing, Cross said. The club put on a short skit, which gave background about jiu-jitsu and showed basic maneuvers, then demonstrated different techniques used to break certain holds.

Each performance lasted about 20 minutes. They were spaced evenly throughout the night, giving the 150 in attendance a chance to visit each table between presentations.

Cook said the diversity of the groups involved gave students a glimpse of the broad spectrum of the opportunities before them. The BU Step Squad, the Ultimate Frisbee Club, the Scandinavian Students Association, the India Club and the Hawaiian Clubs were among those represented.

Cook said although the CAS Forum doesn’t have the budget or resources of the SAO, the event was still a success and “everyone had a lot of fun.”

“One thing that differs is we’re not on as grand a scale as the World Fair,” she said. “Whereas the SAO runs that, this is a student government-run event.”

One problem the Forum faced was with attracting groups just before finals, when every minute is at a premium. Regardless, Cook said the event helped students realize what is going on around them.

“That was the whole purpose, to get students more aware of what’s going on culturally on this campus,” Cook said. “We wanted to show that there are more groups on campus that you can join if you’re interested.”

Students agreed, saying Culture Fest was an exciting and informative glimpse into BU’s diverse cultural life.

“I was drawn in by the music and decorations when I was eating dinner at the GSU,” said College of Communication freshman Natalie Nathanson. “However, I did not know about the event prior to this evening. I think that it is important to realize the different cultures at Boston University, but I think events like this need more advertising, so that more students will be able to attend and experience diversity firsthand.”

Liza Villanueva, a senior in the School of Education agreed, saying better advertisement would help to promote a diverse crowd.

“I attended a similar event last year in Marsh Plaza,” she said. “I think it is really cool to have events like this to recognize diversity in interests and culture.”