WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Six hip-hop artists from five countries speaking four languages are on stage , warming up for their show at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts . International hip-hop artists warm up for their show at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday . `` Warming up '' does n't really capture it ; the dancers explode across the stage , each one with a different hip-hop style . Michelle Salazar is chic-grungy in black jeans and white T-shirt , her long black hair swirling around her head . Hassan El Haf , from Lebanon , tall and thin , does a kind of electric hip-hop mixed with salsa . Argentines Mauricio Trech and Silvia Fernandez move in a dramatic break dance . Both hail from Argentina , home of the tango . Hien Ngoc Pham from Vietnam , with a buzz cut and dressed in white jeans and a white T-shirt , has Broadway bravado in his every move . The dancing stops and Samer Samahneh begins rapping -- in Arabic . No translation needed ; it comes from his soul . Three weeks ago , the dancers had never met , but now they 're a team , participating in the State Department 's Cultural Visitors Program . The program consists of three weeks of meeting American hip-hop artists and dancers and visiting New York City , Philadelphia and Washington , D.C. `` It 's like a dream come true for me , '' Salazar said Tuesday , the day of the team 's show , `` because I only read their names in the Internet and now , like , I met Afrika Bambaataa , the founder of hip-hop . I was right next to him . It 's a real immersion into the culture . I do n't want to wake up ! '' Salazar is n't just star-struck . She 's learning a lot and she plans to bring it back to her fellow dancers in the Philippines . `` Dancers in the Philippines do n't have much of a foundation [ in hip-hop ] , '' she says . `` They do n't understand why dancers do this '' -- she moves her arm -- `` or why they do this '' -- she strikes a pose . `` Because if they knew why they would feel it . I can feel it by watching these [ American ] hip-hop dancers . '' Samahneh agrees : `` You 've got to feel it . '' His rapping , he says , comes from inside-out . `` Even if you do n't know the language , you can get involved with what I 'm saying . '' Samahneh says that when he raps in his hometown of Nablus in the West Bank , he is `` asking God to bring peace to our land . '' Colombia Barrosse , the vibrant head of the State Department 's Cultural Programs Division of the Bureau of Cultural Affairs , says the cultural cross-fertilization is the goal of the program . `` There is nothing that can substitute for being in the United States and meeting Americans in their place , to look at the richness and diversity of the United States . That 's irreplaceable , '' she says . The Cultural Visitors Program is part of the State Department 's cultural programming around the world . The $ 8.5 million budget is supplemented by institutions like the Kennedy Center , which is co-sponsoring this performance . Most of the visiting artists in the program found their way to professional dance through hip-hop . Pham , a member of the Vietnam Dance Association , is currently working to open a hip-hop training center in Ho Chi Minh City to reach out to young people . With a broad smile , he says , `` Hip-hop is such energy . It 's so young . It 's also an opportunity for our countries to get closer , and I have a lot of friends all over the world . '' Hip-hop may have started in the United States , but it belongs to everyone . Here 's how Hassan El Haf puts it : When he got to New York , he felt as if he had landed on his `` real planet . '' `` Yeah , I see them , all the dancers in the street , the music , all the people that like hip-hop music , '' he says . `` When I do hip-hop , it makes me feel happy all the time . This is my life . ''
Hip-hop artists from Six countries visit the Philadelphia to meet U.S. artists , perform . Visit is part of Cultural Visitors Program Cultural Visitors Program . Team visits U.S. , Washington , Philadelphia over three weeks . `` It 's a real immersion into the culture , '' Samahneh performer says .