Dance of the Nations

by Dianna Troyer

The eruption of music, color, and street dancing suggests the United Nations is holding a party and the world is invited. For seven full days, folk dancers from around the world, arrayed in a rainbow of costumes, transform Main Street into a musical microcosm of world cultures greeted by the cheers of thousands.

This isn’t Times Square, however; it’s Rexburg, Idaho, during the midsummer Idaho International Folk Dance Festival when folk dancers from such places as Brazil, Peru, Indonesia, Romania, China, South Korea, and the nearby Shoshone-Bannock Indian tribe transform Main Street into a swirling blur of color.

The festival is rated one of the top 100 events in North America by a trade organization of tour groups, and it has been transforming Rexburg’s streets into a world stage since 1986.

“There are only three other festivals like this nationwide, two in Utah and one in North Carolina,” says festival executive director Donna Benfield.

The festival’s mission is to promote international understanding through dance, while showcasing the cultural heritage of both Rexburg and the state of Idaho. Dancers teach workshops for three days followed by three days of performing shows, and Rexburg’s 17,257 citizens wouldn’t miss it for anything.

“The festival makes us realize how people and cultures of the world have more similarities than differences,” Benfield notes.

For example, teams perform courtship dances for the parade.

“The girls sing ‘come and dance with me,’ and the boys answer,” explains Romanian translator Camelia Motoe, as couples wearing black and white dance together.

Then there are the differences. Peruvian couples in pink, green, and blue dance the humorous Wifala de Caylloma “Witite,” in which men disguise themselves as women.

The town traces its roots to Thomas E. Ricks, a Mormon leader who established Rexburg in the scenic Snake River Valley in 1883. Ricks also founded a local college that was the nation’s largest private two-year college—with 9,000 students—until last fall, when it expanded into a four-year school and was re-named Brigham Young University-Idaho.

In 1983, the college’s dance-team chaperones returned from a dance festival in Europe convinced that Rexburg could host a similar event.

“They had an idea but no budget,” organizer Benfield recalls.

The Rexburg Chamber of Commerce agreed to organize the event. The college offered its facilities, and the first festival opened in 1986 with a budget of $40,000.

“Now we have a budget around $150,000,” Benfield says. “We raise about $100,000 and have about $50,000 in show ticket sales.”

Today, the festival, which runs from July 17-27, brings in thousands of people from 30 states and more than $2 million in revenue, according to a chamber survey. To keep the festival diverse each year, teams from different countries are invited. Since 1986, about 4,000 dancers from 128 teams and 50 countries have participated. Applications are narrowed down from 100 to 15 teams. Then 100-200 local families volunteer to house 250 to 300 dancers.

“Whether you can speak the same language or not, you grow to love them so much that you feel like you have family around the world,” says Tami McNett, who hosted Eraldo and Ana Catarina Pacheco, directors of Brazil’s team.

“We’re impressed with the welcome and how well it’s organized,” says Ana Pacheco.

When this year’s festival ends, Benfield and others will begin contemplating next year’s event.

Both the cities of Boise and Pocatello will host events as well during the festival, radiating international good will throughout southern Idaho.

Dianna Troyer is a freelance writer from Pocatello, Idaho.

first appeared: 7/7/2002