Some 3,000 dancers from II countries stepped out lively at the opening of the Sixth International Folkdance Festival in Haifa Saturday night, at which Prime Minister Shimon Peres said he hoped the day would come when people would abandon the strategy of war for the strategy of football and the dance.
The participants at the week-long festival come from European countries such as Poland, Yugoslavia, Spain, Portugal and Britain, together with groups from Mexico and Bolivia among the Latin Americanos. The U.S., which provided the Sixth Fleet band for the opening ceremonies, has also sent a folkdance group from the Brigham Young Mormon University in Utah, whose Jerusalem premises now under construction are at the center of a controversy.
The Israeli dancers include a number of ethnic groups representing Hasidic, Yemenite, Circassian and other dances.
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