In Dakar, the capital of Senegal, a man introduced himself to Giavanni Washington, asking her whether she was married or had children. Washington, a world arts and cultures graduate student, was not in Africa to find her mate, however; she was there for WAC’s first summer program to Senegal.

On Tuesday at noon, Washington and other students who attended the Senegal session last summer performed in the Kaufman Garden Theater, giving a testimonial reprise of their experience.

The Senegal program began when Germaine Acogny, a Senegalese Regents scholar, taught a seminar at UCLA in 2005. Her students coordinated efforts to study in Senegal at Acogny’s L’Ecole des Sables, also called the International Center for Traditional and Contemporary African Dance.

The plan for the program went through several phases, eventually finding a home in UCLA Summer Sessions, where it now is available to anybody who has an interest in Senegal and wants to dance.

“This was very special because it was the first summer program abroad through WAC,” said Vanessa Verdoodt, a fourth-year world arts and cultures student who helped plan the program.

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Esther Baker-Tarpaga, a WAC graduate student who speaks fluent Wolof, Senegal’s primary language, also teaches the de facto prerequisite for the Senegal program, WAC 174, “Making Dance an Offering.”

While anyone can attend the summer program, Baker-Tarpaga highly recommended this class.

“You don’t have to be a straight-up dancer, but you will be dancing,” she said.

Baker-Tarpaga also suggested taking a French course beforehand since much of the Senegalese population speaks French as well as Wolof.

According to Hayden Dick, director of international programs, 24 UCLA students attended last year and joined 15 African dancers in Dakar.

The collective dances that the WAC students performed Tuesday were the ones they learned in Senegal: everybody simultaneously threw up arms, thrust shoulders, waved off nonexistent flies and stomped bare feet.

When students went this summer, they not only got the chance to learn modern and traditional African dance, take drum studies and learn about Senegal culture, they also got the hands-on social encounters that make a summer travel session a life-changing opportunity.

Verdoodt, who acted as a translator in Senegal for other students because she speaks French, thought the considerably personable greetings of Senegalese men are normal.

“It’s a way of greeting – to ask someone if they’re married or not. Sometimes it is OK, sometimes it’s not,” Verdoodt said.

Washington traveled in Africa on several occasions and still found Senegalese personalities unusual.

“I don’t think this happens between Senegalese men and women. I think it’s because we’re Western women and we’re perceived to have a lot of money,” Washington said. “If an American guy says to me, ‘I love you,’ I get freaked out. When someone there says, ‘I love you,’ they just mean, ‘I want to get to know you better.’”