A group of dancers on campus gets the chance to perform songs and dances from another country and at the same time learn about that country's culture, history and religion.

Then they put all of that into a performance.

The Penn State International Dancers exists to show people all of the qualities and personalities about different countries through song and dance.

The group, which started in 1978, performs pieces from almost any area of the world, said Elizabeth Hanley, the group's assistant/artistic director. Hanley said the group's repertoire includes songs and dances from Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the United States.

When practicing, Hanley said members learn a lot about the country whose dances and songs they are performing. She said viewers can see culture through costumes, music and particular dance steps. A country's religion can also be seen through performances such Indian temple dances, Hanley added.

The group tries to do the dances traditionally but with a touch of modern style, Hanley said. Many of the dances performed are old folk dances, and the dancers sometimes modify the length and content of the original village dances, she added.

Although many of the costumes worn by the group are no longer present in the countries represented, Hanley sees the dancers as recreating history on stage.

Assistant dance director Donna Nester agreed. "I think a lot of it is cultural awareness through dance, songs . . . with our costumes from different countries," she said.

Nester said the group usually performs the same dances over the years to perfect them; they only learn one or two dances a year because of possible cultural confusion.

For the most part, the group does line dances rather then partner dances because of the group's shortage of male members -- one of its biggest challenges is recruiting more male dancers. Keith Krahulik (senior-electrical engineering) is one of only nine men in the 31-person group.

"I think a large part of it is that a lot of people are intimidated by it," Krahulik said. Hanley recruits new members from the ballroom dance class she teaches by picking out the ones who seem most coordinated and interested.

Krahulik said the type of dancing they do is far from easy. But he added that new people are usually successful at learning the dances.

In addition to dancers, there are eight voices on stage while the dancers perform. Carrie Rupert, assistant director for singing, said the singers perform just about anything, including Ukranian, Bulgarian, American and Asian songs. This spring, they will learn German and possibly Filipino songs, Rupert (senior-environmental resource management) said.

Learning songs in different languages is difficult because the singers don't know the words and don't have a lot of time, Rupert said. The group passes down the songs and dances from memory, much like folk stories are passed down.