Some students travel the world with a train pass and pack on their back. Others study abroad or volunteer with various programs. A few students entertained crowds with their fellow BYU performing groups on stage in five continents this summer.

Students from six performing groups at BYU traveled around five different continents this past summer, sharing their talents and interacting with other cultural groups. The assorted performing groups delivered more than 100 shows to varied audiences.

The BYU Ballroom Dance Company spent the month of June touring in The People's Republic of China, performing in cities that would soon hold Olympic events.

After their shows, ballroom tour team member Marie Dayton remembered how Chinese people "would come up to us in a big crowd and grab us for pictures and want to talk with us."

Some highlights of their tour were performing at the Olympic Cultural Festival in Beijing alongside students from China and recording two 30-minute segments for China Central Television. The recordings air repeatedly on the Chinese Network.

Shane Wright, tour manager of the Ballroom Dance Team, was appreciative of these recordings.

"They allow us to get out to everyone and show the quality and wholesome entertainment that BYU offers," Wright said.

Carnegie Hall, a New York City landmark, welcomed the BYU Chamber Orchestra for a concert led by director Kory Katseanes. In addition to their performance in New York, the Chamber Orchestra performed around the Eastern United States, including Washington, D.C. and Boston.

BYU Living Legends performed their routine, "Seasons," for more than 18,000 audience members in Chile. The audience got involved by singing along to the national dance, the cueca. Living Legends combined material from their own Native American and Polynesian cultures with that of Chile's heritage.

On another part of the globe, the Young Ambassadors took their performance, "The New American Songbook," to Australia and Tasmania where they performed for legislators in the Queensland State Parliament in Brisbane. They were able to fulfill their title of "ambassadors" while performing for members of Parliament, as well as members of the various communities they visited.

BYU's big band Synthesis, played in England and Scotland at five international jazz festivals. They traveled around the counties performing at 10 shows.

The International Folk Dance Ensemble also visited Europe. They took their dancing to Hungary where they were awarded the Ambassador's Award for Cultural Diplomacy by the U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, April Foley.

Artistic director Ed Austin said in a press release that the Ensemble's performance was "an attempt to preserve fragments of diversity that might otherwise be forgotten."

Copyright Brigham Young University 11 Sep 2008