BOUNTIFUL ó For the last 20 years, the heart of Bountiful/Davis Summerfest International has beaten to the rhythm of dancersí footsteps. Though this year those dancers were joined by a host of other people and events, including chefs, weavers and world dignitaries, it was still the dancers from countries such as South Korea, Russia, Siberia, Mexico, Greece, Israel, Costa Rica, and the U.S. that anchored last weekís worldwide festival of events. #From the Street Dance on Aug. 6 to the World Music Jam that signaled the end of Summerfest, the dancers and musicians that came to perform offered a vivid, engrossing glimpse of the larger world. ##M:MORE##

Sometimes, seeing them challenged preconceived notions a person might have had of another country. Israelís dances were infused with a surprising amount of modern dance, while the Azerbaijani representatives from IOV congress took to the stage to prove that they were just as adept at dancing as they were at cooking.

Siberia also proved to be a big surprise, particularly when paired up with the Cossack dancers who also came from Russia and shared an hour of stage time with the Siberian performers.

Though both groups were, technically, from Russia, the two couldnít have been more different. The Cossacks hewed closer to the traditional view of Russian dancing, with a magnificent amount of bouncing, ducking, kicking, and shout-outs that left the audience feeling as cheerful as the dancers looked. The Siberian group, on the other hand, were strictly musical performers, with ornate dresses and a wide variety of stringed instruments unknown to American audiences. One song, which the announcer translated to mean ìHappy Talk,î sounded remarkably close to Siberian rap, a result that ended up sounding oddly delightful.

Other times, the dancers proved that some elements of life hold true no matter what country a person was born in. Some of the dances were based around universal traditional activities such as fishing or cooking, and several of the groups offered up flirty, fun dances that dramatized the eternal battle between the sexes.

The best moments, though, came at the beginning and the end of Summerfest, when the dancers came together and all danced to the same beat. The World Music Jam, held the night of Aug. 9, was the more dramatic of the two events, with the different groups all coming on stage together in full costume and all joining in the same dance.

The jam, however, was simply a more colorful echo of Summerfestís kick-off event, held Aug. 6 and known simply as Street Dance. There, the costumes are simple or non-existent, but everyone (including local residents) has the chance to not only join in the same dance, but eventually everyoneís dance.

Song after song the international crowd was out there together, not entirely sure what they were doing but all doing the best they could do to move together to the same rhythm.