Showcasing culture: Students share cultural heritage through dance, art, food
Jul 09, 2024 02:51PM ● By Julie Slama
Student Sivaani Narendra Babu performed a Southern Indian dance at Midvale Middle’s cultural night. (Julie Slama/City Journals)
Shortly before 7 p.m. one May evening, eighth-grade students Ziary Diaz and Luciana Gonzales were anxious to get back to Midvale Middle School’s auditorium.
The two Latinos In Action girls already had taken the stage performing a Latin dance they worked with others to choreograph; now, they wanted to see their friends’ dances from other countries.
“It was fun to make a dance that represented my culture,” Ziary said. “I had a great time doing it.”
Luciana agreed.
“We like the dances that we have, and we want to spread that to everyone so they can see how amazing they are,” she said.
The LIA group, which has students from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Venezuela, worked on the dance for 30 minutes every week since December, before performing in May at We are Midvale – Cultural Night.
In the first session of student performances with LIA were dances from Tonga, Southern India, Guanajuato, South Africa and Hawaii. The second set of performances featured dances from Western Samoa, Venezuela, India, Tahiti and Mexico.
Midvale Middle counselor Matt Magee said the school is composed of students from more than 30 countries. He, joined by instructional coach Krista Edwards, were in a room with many students’ displays about their own culture from around the world to right here in Midvale.
“Any student who wanted to make a display could,” Magee said. “These displays are from so many different countries, but they unite us here at Midvale Middle.”
Edwards said it was a night for the entire community.
“It’s an opportunity for students and families to celebrate their unique individual culture and to honor the rich heritage that forms our school,” she said. “Students are excited about the opportunity to share heritage and try the international foods from the food trucks. They’re sharing with their parents what they’ve been working on and what they’re proud of.”
Assistant Principal Courtney Long was helping food truck drivers circle on the back patio of the school.
“Our food trucks are our current students’ families, who are part of this community,” he said. “This has become much more of a community and a student-driven event and we get a great turnout. We have kids from past years coming back to say hi, we’ve got our current students, and it has become a beloved tradition in our
community.”
This is the third year of the cultural night in recent years. Previously, Midvale Middle had cultural events, but not to
this extent.
“We have students who are part of the planning committee, and they came up with the ideas of what they wanted to see. We have parents who are involved and together, we’re able to bring this event for everyone,” he said.
Midvale Middle Community School Facilitator Jessica Olmos, who coordinated the event, said the 20-student committee gave guidance to the event.
“They were fantastic and offered ideas of what we should do,” she said. “They came up with the photo booth, the myths and folktales from other countries and offering candy samples from different
countries.”
Seventh-grader Brooke Wallace had just sampled some candy. Her sixth-grade sister made a poster and was helping with the events, following her footsteps.
“I like culture night because it’s just fun to see where all these people who I go to school with come from and it just makes me love and understand them all the more because I can empathize with them,” she said. “I’ve learned about the hardships of Japanese people in my Utah Studies class because we were learning about the internment camps, but here, we can learn about their culture. I’ve learned a lot from my friend from India and about her traditions which is cool. I’d love to go to Ireland and Scotland someday to learn about
my heritage.”
Upstairs from her, students could make a craft or if they continued down the hall, they could learn a Latin dance near where there were handprints of some of the 900 Midvale Middle students displayed on
the walls.
Olmos, with teachers Shelley Allen and Alex Jensen, used the handprints as a lesson to teach students about culture and how to incorporate things about themselves. Some drew the school in Midvale and symbols of their culture—international flags, henna, Native American jewelry, religious symbols, dog prints, food, the word “family.”
“We have a student who is big into skateboarding and has won competitions. So, he decided his culture was going to include his skateboard on his hand,” Olmos said. “It brings everybody in our school together. We have so many kids from so many different areas, with many different experiences in life so this is a great way for us to come together as a community. It’s a great goal for our school to have.” λ