Get your own Free Home PageThe International Club of Ben L. Smith High School celebrated world peace March 24 in the auditorium.
Although not many in the audience were really listening to or really cared about the speeches of the students on stage, the words of those immigrant students were pertinent since NATO, led by the U.S., was undertaking the bombing of Serbs in Kosovo, Yugoslavia.
Those speeches, titled "Voices of Peace" and "Voices of Hope," expressed the dreams of students who represented 30 countries from around the world. These speeches transmitted the main theme of the show, unity through peace.
"Only from a distance can we see a wonderful world, a world full of hope, peace, love and happiness," said Thuy Tran, a native of Vietnam. "If we could only put all our differences aside and lend a helping hand, we will no longer see the wonderful world from a distance."
"War is very terrible, so please stop all war, no matter what the animosity of nations or the rights of countries," added Helen Chen, a native of China. "I hope everybody in this world will fall asleep in peaceful moonlight."
Edem Kaley, native of Ghana, spoke convincingly about the importance of getting along.
"From individual to world leader, we can all contribute to world peace and harmony," Kaley said. "We can all make a contribution by sharing our ideas with our government officials."
In addition to speech-making, the International Day festivities included plenty of dancing from around the world. Perhaps the most crowd-pleasing was the break-dancing, led by senior David Lanexang and a group of about 20 young floor burners.
"I liked the break-dancers the most," said sophomore Kevin Cephus. "I got into the moves they were doing on the floor."
Lanexang in particular brought the crowd to a fevered pitch with twisting back flips and on-his-back gyrations.
The "Tribute to Hip Hop" from the American dance group also stirred the packed house in the auditorium. The medley of songs was fast-paced and featured fast-action movements by the dancers.
Perhaps the most aesthetically-pleasing dance came from the Indian group. Darshna Patel, Dipti Patel, Meghna Patel, Jagruti Patel and Margaret Free were dressed in brightly-colored Indian garb, wearing anklets that made tingling sounds while they performed their modern Indian dance. The Indians danced to contemporary music and mixed traditional Indian dance steps with difficult paired moves.
"We worked every night until 7:30 since late February on this," Darshna Patel said.
Other highlights included an Afghan dance by sisters Fakhria and Farzana Basam, the "Sao-Khon-Ghan" by the Laotian Dancers, the Cambodian fan dance, the Ghanian Bor Bor Bor dance and the precision drills of BLS’s AFJROTC.
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