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Barely two weeks after a very successful Americas Regional Night, the Thunderbird community gathered together to experience the sequel, this time traveling (in mind) to the center of the map – Middle East, Europe and Africa.

Gary Napadov and Djoudie Etoundi, as hosts for the night, invited Amy Scerra and Wynona Heim to talk briefly about Thunderbird for Good, before handing the stage over to Felix, a West African drummer. Felix then brought out a posse of fellow students, including Meng Liu, Nimish Nathwani, Amir Emadi (who also showed off some beatboxing skills), Takeshi Otsuka and Andrew Carson, and together, they played along to a beat provided by an eager audience.

The audiences then judged (by cheering) Jennifer Juma and Barry Nyauke‘s eye-boggling Azonto dance-off, before feasting their eyes on a Kukere dance performance performed by a bevy of beautiful girls, including Caroline Kenduywa, Risa Ogata, Stuti Vora, Aderonke Coker, Jennifer Juma, Yemile Ojeda, Brittany Baria, Ashwathy Sreenivasan, Jaime Kotin, Meng Liu and Carolyn Fifi.

The African dances were followed by a Middle-Eastern dance (Dabka), performed by Steven Arjonilla, Noelle Al-Abdulrahim, Martina Krajmerova, Umair Karim, Aderonke Coker, Yemile Ojeda and Tsvetelina Dincheva. Some very young, adorable rockstars joined in the dance, and initiated other enthusiastic participants from the audience, to end the performance with a very large dance circle (in true dabka style).

The audience barely had time to catch their breath before they were sent into delirious surprise by a revival of the “Spice Girls“, presented with the combined charisma of Julie-Elizabeth Banner, Amelia Grana, Jessica Macias Bochatay, Story Tweedie-Yates and a very sportive Steven Arjonilla.

The kukere group then returned on stage to perform the Bobaraba and Chupa dances, and were quickly followed by a number of exuberant audience members.

Clay Adair kept the audience entertained throughout the evening with a trivia quiz about the regions of the night.

The fantastic performances on-stage were accompanied by a sumptuous spread off it. The menu included falafel, hummus, baba ghanoush, fattoush and chicken shawarma from the Middle-East; goat meat stew, jollof, rice doro, misir, tikil gomen and plantain from Africa; and mushroom paella, kufteta and banitsi from Europe.

The evening was rounded off by a captivating performance by Global Sounds at the Pub.

Photos and videos from the evening:

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