A WORLD OF DANCE FROM VIKING FOLK . . .

The annual International Festival at San Diego State University is putting the spotlight on dance.

When the doors open at 6 p.m. Sunday, Montezuma Hall will be laden with books, clothing, maps, currency, and arts and crafts, gathered from all over the world. But at 7:30 p.m., the focus will shift to the exotic dance and musical from faraway lands, such as Egypt, Russia, China, Japan and Iran. Even the indigenous American folk forms of Appalachia will be featured during this international celebration of culture.

International Student Council adviser David Neptune, a 30-year veteran of this annual event, said, “It used to be primarily a dinner. Performances were incidental. But now the performance is the main attraction, and there will be mostly finger foods to sample after the program.”

But there’s more to the festival than food and music.

“The international council connects American and foreign students. It helps foreign students cope,” council President Thao Phan said. “The festival aims to bring the people of the world closer together by building a bridge of cultural understanding.

Neptune agrees. “It’s a good opportunity for people in the community to enjoy these cultural offerings.” Students from the various countries will be at the booths talking to the public.

“It’s been a popular event through the years,” he said, “and this year . . . our 30th anniversary, we’re making a special effort. We have invited about a dozen guests from the consulates around San Diego County to help us celebrate.”

The foreign student population at SDSU has exploded since the first festival, when there were no more than 35 or 40. “Now we have a staff of six in the international student area and nearly 700 regularly enrolled students, plus about 250 in our American Language Institute,” Neptune said.

There will be 14 pieces on Sunday’s program, and many of the performers were culled from the student ranks. But the organizers also managed to entice some professional dancers and musicians from the community to flesh out the roster.

“We tried to get a balance in terms of parts of the world, and the number of dancers and musicians. The mix depends on who is available,” Neptune said. “The performers are not necessarily students . . . there are a number of professionals even among the students. Diana Lai (the Chinese zither player) has made several tapes in Taiwan, and she’s well-known there. She will perform in Tokyo and New York soon. But we usually try to have students feel that they can perform whether they’re professional (caliber) or not.”

Peggy Smith is one of the local artists contributing to this year’s event. Her troupe, the Viking Folk Dancers, which specializes in dances from all Scandinavian countries, will perform two pieces during the two-hour program.

“We’ll be doing a polka dance,” said Smith, “but it isn’t similar to the traditional polka. It uses the schottis, a pattern of steps that has a lot of turns. We’ll also do an old Finnish dance. And both dances will be costumed in our own native dress, so you’ll be seeing Norwegian, Swedish and Islandic costumes.”

Keiko Reich, a local exponent of Japanese traditional dance, will present an ancient Okinawan theater piece; SDSU Prof. Graham Hempel will present folk dances from Russia and Appalachia, and Hengameh Ayari will direct her students in the dances of Iran.