The Nicaragua Club at PSU hosted a group of dancers from Nicaragua on Tuesday, Oct. 12. The group of dancers consisted of six adolescent girls from Nicaragua. Each girl performing was a daughter of a member of the Women in Action project. These young girls performed twelve songs of traditional Nicaraguan dances while wearing traditional dress. After every song, a clip from a movie about the project was shown.
Each dance that the young ladies performed was different than the last, and each time the dancers came out they had a new costume, theme, or members of the group dancing. A majority of their dances were performed with them wearing their traditional long dresses that allowed them to move them as though they were an extension of their body, flowing freely and elegantly.
During one song there were two ladies, one dressed as an old man and one dressed as an old woman who really had the crowd laughing. The song was about an old woman that would flirt with every man around her, and her husband would try to fend the men off. During this performance the old women went through the crowd and flirted with every man in the audience and then the old man would promptly come and “hit” the men that she was flirting with.
The audience thoroughly enjoyed this part because it was totally unexpected and comedic. Each dance was beautiful and the dancers demonstrated that they loved what they were doing and they were having fun.
The movie was about various projects that are happening in Nicaragua, but mainly Women in Action; which helps women in Primavera, Nicaragua to be more independent, earn money and help out the community. One thing that Women in Action did was they would ornately carve gourds and sell them to groups of people. This was something that the women could do every day for a couple of hours to get away from children, housework, cooking, and everyday stress. The gourd project also brought women in the community together and taught them some new skills.
Women in Action have also sponsored microloans. The microloans were small amounts of money lent out with no interest so that women could start their own business or start making their own money. The money that is used to start their business is earned back rather quickly, and the women really enjoy not having someone as their boss and making their own money.
The performance ended with a question and answer segment. One of the young ladies decided to ask the audience a question; “Being here we have noticed that there is a lot of waste; both material and food. We are wondering if you [the audience] would help by reducing the amount of waste. Who is willing to help do that?”
This was really interesting because while the girls have been in the U.S. they have been eating a lot of food and they could not stop thinking that their families back in Nicaragua are not eating the three meals a day that they are getting, but they are probably only eating one.
A member of the audience asked the girls a question that seemed a bit too profound for a group of 15-year-old girls, “How do you like your new president, Ortega?” They responded very well, and they said that he has done a lot of help out the poorer people of Nicaragua and he has been a good president so far. Some of the more questions were: “Do you like the food here?” “What is different about the U.S.?” “Where are you going next?” and, “What was your favorite place?”
The girls really showed that they were enjoying what they were doing, and they also showed their unique personalities. At several points in the performance and the question and answer period, it was obvious that they were 15-year-old girls because they were giggling and having a lot of fun. This was a truly unique experience to see what projects are going on in Nicaragua and what one can do to help out and also to see some young girls perform a dance from their own culture.
When the performance and question portion were over, the audience was told that we could donate some money to help fund these projects, those interested in going on a trip to work on these project in Nicaragua, could sign up to get more information.
There were a lot of people interested in helping out and going on the trip. The Nicaragua club plans a trip to Nicaragua every year to help the Women in Action. Students who are interested are encouraged to get involved in giving a little bit of their time to help people living in another world.