International+Festival+Aliyah

Aliyah Burr December 5, 2014 International Festival December 5 2014, the Oasis team went to the 22nd Annual Vermont International Festival. The first performance I watched at the festival was A2VT. A2VT is a African/ American Song, Rap, Dance group that consists of 3 men from Africa. Jilib, George (MG man), and Cadoux are all from Africa. These three were forced to leave Africa in the early 2000’s when war began and ended up here… in Vermont! These men live in Vermont writing songs and producing music. They even have an album “Africa, Vermont”! Their music was loud, fun and very upbeat and in your ears! When invited onto the stage, the kids all piled onto the stage to join A2VT in their performance! A wonderful performance overall. シ

Shortly after watching A2VT perform, Belly Dancing group Shimmy On was next on stage. Shimmy On consisted of 5 women each of which knew how to dance various types of belly-dance. They showed us traditional belly-dancing, and dances from egypt! This performance was personally my favorite from last year and was what i was looking forward to seeing this year. After performing a few numbers for the audience, the group of women then invited us all on stage to do a belly-dancing routine alongside with them! We danced some salsa, we danced traditional, and we even danced to some Bruno Mars! It was LOTS of fun and I believe my friends and I had a great time doing it.

Henna (Lawsonia inermis, also known as the “henna tree”) is a flowering plant and the sole species of the Lawsonia genus. One of the three activities that i did at the festival was getting Henna done on my hand. Henna is oftenly used as a dye in hair coloring and temporary body art. The dye is taken from the dried leaves of the plant that are mashed into a type of paste that is mixed with a mild acid like lemon juice. Like a temporary tattoo, the Henna, or Mehndi, will gradually fade. The plant is native to Northern Africa, western and southern Asia, and northern Australasia. You can create many of beautiful designs and art with henna. Later in the day, we came to The Young Traditions Vermont “Instrument Petting Zoo”. Here there was dozens of instruments out on racks for everybody to try out and, well… pet! A collection of instruments are lated out for the sole purpose of allowing anyone and everyone to play with them and try them out! They even had signs hanging that said “Please touch the instruments!” The IPZ has a large variety of traditional acoustic instruments: drums, guitars, kazoos, maracas, recorders, ukuleles, fiddles, violins, and so much more! Last but not least, I had my name written in Japanese calligraphy at the festival. Japanese Calligraphy is a form of artistic writing of the Japanese language. The Chinese roots of Japanese Calligraphy go way back into the twenty-eighth century B.C. when illustrated symbols for words and phrases were commonly inscribed on bone for religious purposes. Calligraphy in the Chinese tradition was estimated to be introduced to Japan around 600 A.D. Although I do not know/recognize any of the symbols that were written as my name, I do believe that each symbol may have had something to do with the pronunciation of my name. Being as though the lady who was writing it asked me for just that. In modern day calligraphy, the tools that are used include an ink stick (the older the stick the better), mulberry paper, inkstone to grind ink stick against, paper weight, a cloth to place beneath paper to prevent bleeding of ink, and a brush. By the end of the day, I had my name beautifully written in Japanese calligraphy.





Thanks to Kayla Saltis for sharing her pictures with our newspaper.