"It is time for a feast of the belly and feast of the soul," exclaims Morgiana Celeste Varricchio, Producing Artistic Director of Mosaic Dance Theater Company, which performs "Mediterranean Mosaic," 5 p.m. March 28, Scottish Rite Center, 1544 W. Hamilton St., Allentown.

The evening's festivities include a buffet of Mediterranean cuisine prepared by chef Naji Jabbour, Scottish Rite Center's catering manager.

Imagine, with your baba ghanoush and hummus, the stage becoming a portal to villages and places that transforms your palate with indigenous music and dance.

"We are specialized and not part of popular culture. We focus on cultural differences and our internal artistic desires," says Varricchio.

The performance by Mosaic, in its Allentown concert venue debut, is described as "a rich journey of dance, dinner-theater in two parts."

"The North Shore" (of the Mediterranean Sea) reflects the cultures of Turkey, Italy, Spain and Greece. "The South Shore" portrays North Africa and the Middle East.

Varricchio, a Lehigh University graduate and originally from Allentown, is thrilled to bring the New York City-based nonprofit dance company to her hometown. She was a solo artist in the early 1990's after receiving a Masters of Fine Arts from the Dallas Theater Center at Trinity University, Dallas, Tex.

In 2003, Varricchio collaborated with Samara Adell, a protégé to Ibrahim Farrah, a performer, teacher and scholar of Middle Eastern dance and founder and publisher of Arabesque, a journal of international and ethnic dance.

Adell, Artistic Director of Dance for Mosaic, explains, "We saw a void in the world of cultural dance that Mosaic needed to fill and that is how the company came to be."

Varricchio and Adell are anthropologists of dance. Picture villagers with water jugs and the mountains of Lebanon. Dancers will portray the folklore.

"It is one thing to do the steps, but another to embody the music and dance with feeling from the people," Adell says.

Adell travelled to Turkey, Egypt and Morocco to research the music, folklore and costumes.

Rhythms from distant lands may be foreign to the untrained ear. Musical instruments are integral to maintain an account of a tale or dance from a specific locale.

"The importance of percussion from this part of the world is phenomenal. It is important to understand the music and which it comes from so the dancer can adjust and move accordingly," Adell says.

"Using what you see in the world politically and socially, the excellence of other artists, Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, the ballet and especially my inner world, is part of the process," says Adell.

Ticket information: BrownPaperTickets.com/event/1121830, MosaicDanceTheaterCo.org, 1-800-838-3006, or at the door.