AKIPRESS.COM - The crowd was on its feet Sunday, cheering for the final number as nearly 1,800 dancers streamed onto the arena floor, says The Baltimore Sun.

Dance troupes came from the Baltimore suburbs, Boston, Atlanta and Los Angeles, everywhere in between. Boys and girls, parents and grandparents skipped and whooped into the finale of the 15th North American Lithuanian Folk Dance Festival.

For three hours Sunday afternoon at Baltimore's Royal Farms Arena, performers, mostly Americans, waltzed and polka'd in the traditional routines their grandparents danced decades ago in Lithuania.

"You're keeping the culture going," said Rytis Grybauskas, a dance instructor at the Baltimore Lithuanian Hall.

Since the inaugural performance in Chicago in 1957, the massive, choreographed festival has come every four years to an American city. The 15th festival featured 45 troupes from 29 cities. The oldest dancer was 77; the youngest, 7.