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Languages@Muhlenberg.edu
Newsletter 2003
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International Night
21 March, 2003
Baker Center for the Arts
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Under the direction of Dr. Lisa Perfetti, students from language
classes came together on the evening of 21 March with students of
literature, music, and dance to present poetry, drama, song, and
even word games in the different languages taught at the College.
This year’s program featured a politically charged contemporary
German poem by Anni Becker and a hilarious and original skit of
a mock German class written by Professor Marita Reeder and performed
by her students. French songs spanning several centuries and genres
were performed by , Spanish was well represented with, among other
performances, Manuel de Falla’s El paño moruno sung by Melanie
Zachariades ’06, Agueda Ramírez ‘04’s dramatic reading from Spain’s
Golden Age theater, and a charming narration of Neruda’s Ode
to an Artichoke by first-year student Jessica Phifer. Fanny
Flikshtein ’03 and Rachel Miller ’04 showed their multilingual talents
as they recited French, Russian, and Spanish translations of Shakespeare’s
Sonnet 130. The evening closed with the words of Mallarmé’s
White Water Lily provocatively blended with dance and music
in a stunning performance by Jennifer Kayle’s dance students.
As Dr. Perfetti noted in her introduction, the study of languages
is much more than an intellectual exercise performed in class: it
is a means of “engaging thoughtfully and creatively with another
culture, expanding the ways of viewing the world.” International
Night offers our dedicated students the chance to truly “embody
the kind of openness to other cultures and to other ideas that are
so vital in times like these.” |
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