Preview: Nuit Blanche To Bring Cultural Flavor To Athens
By Marlena Scott, Features Editor
International communities vibrant with differing cultures will be condensed up and down Court Street and the surrounding areas this Saturday and Sunday.
Nuit Blanche, literally translated to be “White Night” in French, is music and arts festival celebrated annually around the world in over 120 countries. This is Athens’ second year holding a Nuit Blanche festival with various performance art, dance, film and music beginning around 5 p.m. and continuing through the night until 2 a.m.
The festival was brought to Athens by Dr. Zelma Badu-Younge, Associate Professor at the Putnam School of Dance and her husband, Dr. Paschal Younge.
Badu-Younge danced in Toronto’s Nuit Blanche in front of a packed audience at two in the morning. This inspired her to get in touch with those who ran the festival and attempt to establish one in Athens. They gave her the go-ahead and when she returned, her and Younge began planning last years event, which was successful, and a little unorthodox, charmingly.
“It was crazy,” Younge said.
“Yeah, people couldn't tell between mothers who had a little too much to drink and the actual activity,” Badu-Younge said.
She is sitting out on performing this year since last year was hectic to run the festival while having to be somewhere else to perform. She has danced all of her life, beginning at three or four in ballet classes and gymnastics. Her talent transcended through the spectrum of dance, from modern to jazz and eventually exploring African and other cultural dance forms at the university level.
“Dance is part of my life, I don’t think of it as my career, but it’s who I am,” she said.
Badu-Younge came to Ohio University from Toronto where she taught contemporary dance in 2002 and the institution asked her to apply for a new professor position in African dance in 2003. Her husband came from West Virginia University where he was in charge of the cultural music programs. Younge was the first guest artist a long with his ensemble under Badu-Younge’s program.
Both Badu-Younge and Younge’s goals in teaching is to provide a cultural perspective that was not present before they arrived.
“In teaching students in my World Music and Dance classes I’m finding that they don’t know anything about the world,” Younge said. “This year will be the fifth year of the World Music and Dance concert, it’s taken some time but now it’s starting to get big.”
The pair’s goal in bringing this festival to Athens is to expose students and the Athens community to worlds outside of their own.
“Each performance is created within their own communities, so it reflects that particular culture.”
Along with the extensive amount of options to choose from for cultural enlightenment, there will be a “Pay or Perform” system at restaurants and coffee shops uptown. Donkey Coffee has been confirmed as a participant and any customer who orders a coffee can either pay for their drink or perform for it. Badu-Younge and Younge are hoping this will force people out of their comfort zones and expand the network of art that will be present.
Walking uptown this Saturday will bring a broad spectrum of cultures into the tiny town of Athens for the students and all members of the community. Anyone with a thirst for cultural perspective will enjoy this festival.
