People from all over the world have their own unique ways of dancing. The International Student Services Team at Elizabethtown College wanted a way to bring all these culturally-different dancing styles together so that Etown students can experience them first-hand.
Kristi Anne Syrdahl, director of international student services, has been working on this idea for over a year. “In the summer of 2013, I attended a three-week intensive Peace and Conflict Transformation Across Cultures Workshop at the School for International Training,” Syrdahl said. While there, Syrdahl studied with people from all over the world of different ages, religious and political backgrounds and sexual orientations.
“We were as diverse a group of people as one could possibly put in one room, and while we shared stories of our respective country’s personal stories of struggle and perseverance, we grew to consider ourselves ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters,’” Syrdahl said. “My story of conflict was certainly not as challenging as those of my brothers and sisters from nations either actively in conflict or those who have a history of conflict, yet my heart was open, and I grew to appreciate the lives of those in other countries on a much deeper level.”
After her intensive three-week study, the last evening was reserved for a talent show. “While the talent show was a blast, it was the gathering after that stuck with me,” Syrdahl said.
“The gathering turned into a dance party of international proportions as ‘favorites’ were selected on YouTube, and the dancing became more culturally diverse. We gradually moved from nondescript hip-hop moves appropriate for ‘Thrift Shop’ to dance moves appropriate for Bengali pop music or Kenyan rap,” she continued.

“It was the most fun I had had in years, and I danced with abandon,” Syrdahl said. “It was a night I would not soon forget, given we were such a diverse group of people, yet music and movement was so natural and universal that on our final night together, we shared something so intimate and organic with one another. We embraced the music of foreign lands and followed the call to dance. It was truly magical.”
Since that night in June 2013, Syrdahl has been dreaming of a way to bring that sense of community to Etown. “One of my goals as Director of International Student Services is to internationalize the campus on the co-curricular level,” Syrdahl said. “In my mind, doing this through music and dance would be well-received and fun.”
Junior and International Leadership Assistant for International Student Services Gianni Lombardo brainstormed with Syrdahl about offering some sort of dance lesson, but the idea never was completed since they both worked on other programs.
However, after Lombardo returned from teaching dance all summer long in her home country of Paraguay, she was eager to continue working on the idea. They then came up with the name “Global Beats” and offered the first class in late September of this year.
Lombardo, who works to assist international students adapt to the College, now choreographs the dances for Global Beats. Global Beats meets every Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Royer dorm’s basement. “You can think of it as Zumba, but it’s not exactly the same,” Lombardo said. “Zumba is more like a workout where you don’t move from your row, and it’s mostly just the same kind of music, but this group is more like an actual dance where people move around and do formations, so I usually choreograph for the first half hour, and then we go over it.”
Every week Lombardo comes up with a dance from a different part of the world. During the first week, participants danced to music from the United States with a Beyoncé-themed night. By the second week, they danced to a song by a popular artist in Central America named “Daddy Yankee.”
“It’s open to everyone,” Lombardo said. “You don’t have to bring an international student to go, and you don’t have to be a dancer to go. It’s just for fun. Everything is really simple. I’m not trying to make you do a split or turns; it’s really easy. In that way, it’s kind of like Zumba where you can forget about schoolwork for an hour.”
Global Beats is also open to faculty and staff. Lombardo is open to requests for songs or dances.
“If you want to come out and have fun with your friends and roommates, come by,” Lombardo said. “You may even find another international song or dance you may like.”