The City of Rockville is celebrating Lunar New Year this year by holding a free event at this school that celebrates Rockville’s Asian cultures with performances, activities, and snacks. Organized in partnership with Rockville’s Asian Pacific American Task Force, according to the City of Rockville’s website, this “Lunar New Year celebration is a source of pride for the city’s Asian community and an educational opportunity for neighbors to learn about Asian culture.” This event is taking place on Jan. 28 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The event will feature to-go bento boxes and kids’ crafts. The following performers are scheduled:

The US Chinese Wushu Institute will be performing Kungfu. Built firmly on the concept that a person benefits from nurturing inner virtue and building up physical strength, this institute teaches both traditional and modern wushu (martial arts), including bare hands and weapon use. They aim to promote health, self-defense, health maintenance, and healing through “competition, demonstration, and enjoyment,” according to their website.

Mongol Erdem is a non-profit Mongolian language school for the Mongol community in Central Maryland, and they will be performing a Mongolian dance routine. They currently teach two Mongolian language classes for school-age children of different age groups and offer Mongolian dance classes and other educational activities open to children of all ages. Their goal at Mongol Erdem is to provide an environment for the next generation where they can learn and appreciate their language, culture and history.

Peace Mission Korean Dance Group (PMKDG) will be performing traditional drumming. PMKDG is a group that consists of families in the Washington Metropolitan area, who learn and practice traditional Korean Dance and instrumental music. Joung Sook Park, the Director, leads it. Director Park is an alumnus of Sook Myung Women’s University in Korea and has been practicing Korean Traditional arts for over three decades. In 2002, Director Park combined her two passions of giving back to her community and teaching students traditional Korean arts, creating the Peace Mission Korean Dance Group.

DC Beauty of Beijing Opera Ltd. (DCBBO) will be performing traditional Chinese opera, a form of musical theater that is deeply rooted in 5,000 years of Chinese culture. DCBBO acts as an “active vehicle of promoting the philosophy of harmonious society in many aspects,” according to their website. DCBBO is a non-profit organization with a mission to promote cultural diversity in the Metropolitan Washington, D.C., area through educational-oriented performances and workshops about Beijing Opera. Also referred to as “DC Beijing Opera Flowers” in the past, DCBBO was founded by five female professionals in an international financial institution, the IT industry, as well as elementary and high schools, who have had over 20 years of Beijing Opera performance experiences through part-time engagement.

The Natananjali School of Dance is performing traditional Indian dance, with dancers trained by Lakshmi Swaminathan in Bethesda. Natananjali dancers trained in Bharatanatyam, a popular form of classical dance from the southern part of India, and have performed to acclaim at various venues ranging from Indian community events and temples to shows in the greater community. Natananjali dancers were sponsored by the Embassy of India to perform at EducationUSA, a portfolio of the US Department of State as well as to conduct a lecture demonstration on Indian Classical dances and perform at Brightwood Education Campus as a part of the Embassy Adoption Program.

Other notable performers include the Fairfax County Dance Troupe and Xiaorong Dance Arts, both performing traditional Chinese dance, Seasharp Music Studio performing piano, and Choy Wun Dan Troupe performing the traditional Chinese lion dance.