This year's dinner was noteworthy for the record number of cooks who prepared dishes representative of twenty-seven different countries from around the world.
After the dinner and before the several performances, a welcoming address by Bill Riley, U of I Dean of Students, was followed by a brief award ceremony. One award, the University YMCA's John Price Award, was given to Ashish Debroy, who is an active Cosmo member (not a requirement for the award!). The other award, the Cosmo Service Award, was presented to Lakshmi Yanamadala. See the article on page 7 to read about Lakshmi's service to others through the Cosmopolitan Club.
Masters of Ceremony Dinah Armstead and Eric Custar introduced a series of performances of music and dance that delighted the audience. Among the dancers were Sujatha Maringanti, who explained some of the theories of the Indian Bharata Natyam style and then presented two graceful dances in that style (see picture on right); Augustine Torres and Margarita Ruiz, who shared a lively salsa dance; Patience Mudeka and a group of friends, who presented several energetic dances from Zimbabwe to live drum music; a group of male dancers from the Philippine Students Association who performed the ever-popular Maglalatik dance in which they held in their hands coconuts that they struck against other coconuts fastened to their bodies; and Delores Dunn, who did a dance from Tahiti.
Grupo Folklorico consisted of musicians, singers, and dancers who performed latin dances to live music. Group members are Carlos Ramos, Giraldo Rosales, Kayleen Irizarry, Dan Llano, Ilia Rivera, Nida Almenas, and Nydia Mercado. And neither least nor last (among the evening's performances) was the three-member Dan Liven Group which played Irish music on fiddle, guitar, and concertina.
And a big thanks to all those who helped with the preparations for this event. See the middle pages of this Cosmo Connections for photographs of this fun- filled evening.
Sujatha
Maringanti dancing Bharata Natyam. (photograph by Dale Val)