Brock Fowler / For The Post / bf278107@ohio.edu

Renil Anthony plays guitar at the International Talent Show yesterday in Baker.

Japanese rock music resonated throughout Baker University Center Theatre as both international and American students performed a traditional Japanese dance that was more involved than any Chicken Dance or Electric Slide.  

Last night, the International Student Union held its annual International Talent Show, which is a forum “for international and American students to display their talents and culture,” said Karen Sudama, the union’s programming chair.

“Anyone can do it as long as they have talent,” she said.

The theater was full of culture-rich acts, including Tari Indang, a traditional Indonesian dance that is performed while seated on the ground. The dance is martial arts-based, according to Arin Hening, a graduate student from Indonesia. The dance was also a display of traditional attire, such as a headscarf, called an udeng, and a wrap skirt, known as a sarong, she said.

Other acts had inspiration from Bolivia, Paraguay, the United States and Japan. One of the most upbeat acts was a dance to “Hare Hare Yukai,” a Japanese pop song, with three women in school-girl uniforms and two men in black suits.

Akina Fujii, a second-year graduate student from Japan who was part of “Hare Hare Yukai,” was “a little nervous because it was (her) last time performing this dance.”  Fujii said that her group copied the dance from a Japanese cartoon theme song.  

Fujii and Hening both said that talent shows are common in their home countries.      

“We have different kinds of talent shows in Indonesia,” Hening said, adding that the shows often feature song, dance, comedy and dialect.  

International students look forward to the show each year, said Sudhir Deosarkar, the union’s programming co-chair.  

“Last year the theater was packed and this year it was too,” Sudama said of the show’s turnout.

One of the crowd’s favorites was a Barack Obama imitation performed by Juan Soto, the union’s web master. Although he was in character, Soto summed up the night in his speech: “I believe you all, domestic and international students, have the potential to make your dream come true.”