A Maasai dance troupe floods the Peninsula with their beautiful culture.

Years ago, Jonathan Berkey served as the associate Peace Corps country director in Kenya for five years, where he became acquainted with the nomadic, cattle-herding Maasai people. They emigrated down the Nile into Kenya 600 years ago and traditionally wear red, and don colorful ornament and jewelry.

“Encounters with them, you never forget,” Berkey says.

Now he’s the president of the board and acting executive director of Carmel’s International School-to-School Partnership, a cross-cultural exchange program between Monterey Bay schools and those in Kenya and Cameroon. They are hosting a Maasai song, dance and storytelling troupe for a tour packed with nonstop performances.

Berkey’s friend, Nicholas Sironka, a Fulbright Scholar based out of the Engong Hills outside of Nairobi, heads the performing members, called Friends of Sironka Dance Troupe.

Part of Sironka’s mission is to educate the next generation to thrive in modern professions instead of cattle-herding, and to keep girls in school.

And the troupe puts on a helluva show.

In a recent preview at Pacific Coast Church, the audience maxed out the capacity.

“They blow the roof off,” Berkey says.

There are shows daily through Feb. 13. The bigger shows with seating still available are 6:30pm this Thursday at the Irvine Auditorium of Middlebury Institute of International Studies; 7:30pm this Friday at Haute Enchilada in Moss Landing; and 12pm Friday, Feb. 13, at CSU Monterey Bay for the One Billion Rising event.

FRIENDS OF SIRONKA DANCE TROUPE perform throughout the county Feb. 5-13. Check www.FriendsOfSironka.com for complete schedule or call 915-2706. Most events are free; donations to the dancers are appreciated.