Up With People brings cultures to ‘Boro

Laurianna Cull

An international performance group with over 120 students that represent 20 different countries will sing and dance its cultural heritage in “Voices” this week.

“Voices” from Up With People will be at the Performing Arts Center today at 7 p.m. The group’s final performances in Statesboro will take place Friday and Saturday at Statesboro High School.

“Voices” is about the people and is constantly changing to reflect the current country or community that Up With People is visiting.

Up With People will talk about its various cultures and dances from the show on Wednesday between 4-7 p.m. at the Eagle Village clubhouse.

The group will also have workshops inside the clubhouse where the performers will discuss the issues of bullying, human trafficking and gender roles. They will also teach students some of the dances from their show.

One of Up With People’s students is Katie Walker, a former student of Georgia Southern University.

Up With People’s students have five goals: serve the community, perform, travel internationally, educate themselves about various countries and raise awareness about world struggles.

While in America the show will feature songs from the 60s to present day with American artists like Michael Jackson, Queen and Katy Perry, Julia Frey, promotion representative, said.

“Depending on which country we are in, we add songs from that culture. It’s to thank the community. We want to celebrate the community. Because even in Statesboro, restaurants are donating food to us since we are a non-profit organization,” Frey said.

The Up With People group travels all over the world performing on stage as well as performing community service projects.

It will spend this Thursday assisting organizations in Statesboro like the Boys and Girls Club, the Averitt Center for the Arts and the Statesboro Development Authority, along with others.

The performers in Up With People will stay with host families while they are in Statesboro this week.

“Each week, our students visit a new city in the world, and while they’re there, they stay with a host family,” Frey said.

There are 55 host families in Statesboro, Frey said.

The ticket price is $10 with a student ID and $15 for general admission. All proceeds from these performances will go toward the Averitt Center for the Arts.