The performing groups at BYU have a motto: The world is our stage. This summer student performers will leave BYU to prove that statement true - and to take their messages and talents to the four corners of the earth.

This year, groups representing BYU will visit eleven countries, including Australia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Czech Republic, Ukraine, England, Scotland, Chile, Honk Kong and China.

While in China, the Ballroom Dance Company will have the opportunity to participate in the Cultural Olympiad leading up to the opening ceremonies. In addition to this great honor, they will perform concerts in some of China's finest performance halls.

BYU has a long history of performing in China. Beginning with the Young Ambassadors in the early 1970s, BYU groups have been to China 20 times and each time have impressed audiences with their wholesome, uplifting music and dance. China Central Television, China's national TV network, has even recorded some of their live performances for broadcast on primetime TV. The International Folk Dance Ensemble will be performing across Europe with some of the top dance groups from each of the countries they visit.

"I'm excited about performing with some of the greatest folk ensembles in the world," said Jon Bay, a senior member of the Folk Dance Ensemble. "These are kids who are our age and who do and love the same things we do even though they live in totally different parts of the world."

The Young Ambassadors will spend nearly a month "down-under" as they perform in venues across Australia and Tasmania. Interestingly, although their tour does not begin until the end of April, their props, sets and costumes left last month in a giant railway-car-style shipping container to be boated to Australia.

Synthesis, BYU's premiere big-band jazz ensemble, will travel to Great Britain and perform at jazz festivals across that nation.

"It's a great chance for our students to perform alongside some of the best professional groups in the world," said Ed Blaser, the director of BYU Performing Arts Management. "It looks pretty impressive on a student's resume when they can say they have toured internationally and performed at some of the most prestigious arts venues."

Speaking of prestigious venues, the Chamber Orchestra will finish their summer tour at New York City's elite Carnegie Hall.

The Living Legends will be taking their celebration of Latin American and Polynesian cultures to Chile. This trip is especially exciting for Pablo Peñailillo - a native of Concepción, Chile.

When he started with the Living Legends, Peñailillo admitted that he "was not a very good dancer at any other dance, but [he] could dance the Cueca." The Cueca is one of Chile's most famous folkloric dances.

Over the course of his time with the group, he has come a long way with those other dances, and now he is helping the group learn his homeland's favorite, the Cueca, which they will add to their repertoire for this tour.

Wherever BYU groups travel, they strive to learn of the native culture and to build bridges and friendships with those whom they have the opportunity to serve and to entertain. And, at least historically, they are wildly successful ambassadors for the school, the church and the nation.

Copyright Brigham Young University 16 Apr 2008