Heads bobbed and hands clapped to the heavy beat of drums as about 100 audience members celebrated the University of Idaho’s first World Music Day event Sunday evening in UI’s Haddock Performance Hall.

The evening’s show featured a milonga piece from South America, a dance in honor of the Hindu god Shiva and a special highlight on Ghanaian music from the west coast of Africa.

Navin Chettri, UI music graduate student and director of the university’s World Beat Ensemble, introduced the event as a special celebration of music, art, dance and culture.

“It has been a great pleasure for me to have so many great musicians perform for you tonight,” he said.

Along with the UI World Beat Ensemble, Chettri and fellow graduate student Alberto Cosano, the event highlighted guest performers Nii Ardey Allotey & Ekome. The musical group, originally from Ghana but now based out of Oregon, performs traditional Ghanaian music and dance.

UI music mrofessor Barry Bilderback said Nii Ardey Allotey & Ekome arrived in Moscow on Friday. They began practicing with the World Beat Ensemble to teach students the dances that accompany their music before the two groups took the stage together.

“So we’ve had two days and I think you’re going to be quite impressed by what’s going to happen,” Bilderback said.

Bilderback leads a UI program in Ghana every summer. The trip is not only an international studies course, but will be open this year to the public.

“So if you like what you’re seeing tonight and think that doing this in the soils of West Africa would be fun, it sure is,” he said.

When Nii Ardey Allotey & Ekome performed, Allotey shared the history and culture behind each musical piece. When the people of Africa were unable to read or write, they recorded everything in song, he said. Because of this, Ghanaian music contains many legends and stories.

The songs and dances performed Sunday evening ranged from a dance of the Dagomba people of Ghana, in which men dress like women for a day, to a song that tells the story of a goat herder who witnessed his goats transform into humans.

One song and dance celebrated the late-night games of children in Ghana.

“It’s a song that when I was little boy we would camp out and when the moon was full … that was when the kids would play until two or three and there were no adults,” Allotey said. “The kids would just play until they got tired.”

The evening ended with audience participation as World Beat Ensemble dancers coaxed audience members onto the stage to dance with the performers. Amidst clapping and drumming, audience members danced to a Ga youth social song.

“All these songs I was playing when I was six, I love those songs and I know you love them, too,” Allotey said.

After the final performance, the audience called for an encore and the musicians played one more energetic piece.

Doug Beyers, a senior anthropology major from WSU, attended the event to experience the music and culture.

“It sure was a lot of fun, I thought,” he said.

WSU senior anthropology major Margaret McCarty also said she enjoyed the event.

“I like to hear all the stories behind the songs,” she said. “It gives us some insight into another culture’s expression.”