For weeks, festive posters appeared in scattered places throughout campus. Abandoned on a table in the Greenleaf, pressed against a window in Frank Family Science Center – all heralding a fall Dance Festival complete with face-painting, pumpkin decorating, African drums, and good old-fashioned family fun. The point of the Dance Festival was to introduce interested Guilford students to various genres of music and dance. Guilford has a dynamic dance program – why not show it off?

Originally designed to be a lakeside event, the Fest was forced inside the Alumni Gym by ominous weather.

The event began with a lesson on African drums, set up in a circle and operating under a call-and-response pattern. Practiced drummers then took over and beat out a rhythm to instruct participants in traditional African dance. Informative chants of “Back, back, single, single” filled the air.

I could hear the beat long before I walked into the Alumni Gym. Greeting me, dance director and host Christa Wellhausen said, “Feel free to get closer to the experience, if you want to hear the drums in your chest.”

Latin salsa band member Steve Blake had a different take on the drums. “It’s like having your head beat with a trashcan,” he quipped as he busily set up for his band’s performance.

The salsa band, West-End Mambo, is a local band that Guilford hired for the occasion. “They asked if we were free, and we were, so here we are,” said band member Cesar Oviedo. For the band, the point of the festival was simply to share their music. As Oviedo put it, they were “here to give the show.”

Despite the energy of the drums and the salsa, the event started out slowly. As the first event of its kind on Guilford’s campus, students weren’t sure what to expect of the Fest. However, as the evening wore on, more students showed up.

“A lot more people came once the food came out,” said first-year Herbert Mehnert. The food, sponsored by the German club was a hit – grilled brats and sauerkraut. The feast coincided with a pumpkin-decorating competition, which yielded very colorful and very original pumpkins. One of the more interesting sported a gay pride rainbow and miniature hearts.

Wellhausen would like for the Dance Fest to become an annual event. She truly believes in sharing the wonders of all sorts of dancing with everyone. “To my mind,” said Wellhausen, “there’s no delineation between dancers and non-dancers. That’s my philosophy.”

By the end of the event, the dancing students seemed to share her view.

“Guilford is a really different campus and really quirky,” said Mehnert. “If this thing becomes an annual event, I think it’ll get more ‘different’ and more fun every year. You know, more unique.