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On a bus between Florence and Assisi, Italy, Melanie Gallo invited the music director for the Hilliard City School District to join her in her seat.

The Davidson High School senior had an idea she wanted to bounce off of Mark Sholl, who also serves as director for the Columbus Symphony Cadet Orchestra.

Sholl asked Gallo, a dancer of 12 years and a violinist, back in April to perform.

Several students came up with the idea of incorporating music, dance and visual arts into a performance, according to Sholl.

Instead of playing the violin, Sholl thought Gallo should dance.

"I love the violin just as much as dance," she said, stressing the difficulty in choosing. "Violin is more for my own enjoyment, but dance, I want to make it my career."

She was more than willing to perform with three of her friends from Dance Extension Studio. The studios are located in Dublin and Westerville.

The three dancers, who look similar with light skin and brown hair and eyes, are like sisters and the dance sounded like a treat for them, but Gallo wanted to add another twist after attending a rock concert last summer.

A touching documentary was played between sets at the rock concert about three men who went to Uganda in search of a story and how Invisible Children was created.

"It made me really want to do something to help," she said. "It was inspiring."

So on the bus tour of Italy with fellow musicians from Davidson surrounding her, Gallo suggested the benefit concert serve as a way to bring awareness to Invisible Children.

After hearing her pitch, Sholl jumped on the idea.

Information about the plight of young people displaced by more than 20 years of civil war was shared with the audience as it listened to the orchestra and watched Gallo, Kristin Bell of St. Francis DeSales High School, Corinne Haynes of Dublin Coffman High School and Jessica Saponaro of Dublin Jerome High School dance on Nov. 29.

Andy Buck, a graduate of Davidson, addressed the audience since he was adopted by and lived with a Ugandan family while in the Peace Corp.

A priest who fled Uganda before most of the genocide occurred addressed the crowd, while Davidson alumni Anna Jackson, of NBC Channel 4, offered support for the program since two of her sisters are in the orchestra.

Children in Uganda, according to Gallo, are abducted in the night and given the option to fight or die. Millions of people are placed in concentration camps.

"The government and rebels are fighting constantly," she said, "and nothing is being solved."

A representative of Invisible Children Corp. flew in from California, Gallo said.

When the idea for the concert originated and even when Gallo proposed dedicating it to Invisible Children, Sholl said, they did not know that this year's theme at Davidson is "Creating Global Citizens".

"It more than fits this theme," he said.

The concert also gave Gallo an opportunity to be creative since she choreographed the dance to classic rock music by Led Zepplin, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and The Doors.

It is not easy to dance to Led Zepplin's music, but, Gallo said, it made her expressive.

"The original was an OK song," she said before the performance, "but for some reason I liked the orchestral version better. I had a lot of fun choreographing that one, and it is definitely the hardest one out of this whole concert. By the end we are dying. We don't want water, we don't want food, we just want air."

Sholl worried about the dancers having time to change between numbers and making it back on the stage in a timely fashion.

"We put on a professional concert every March down at the Verne Riffe," Gallo said before the concert. "I am used to running three miles, running back stage and changing in 30 seconds and getting right back on stage. To have these videos and speakers on stage in between is a blessing. Mr. Sholl is like 'Do you have enough time?' I was like, 'You do not understand where I'm coming from. We will actually be waiting to go on the stage."

Gallo, Bell, Haynes and Saponaro waited in the wings as the speakers addressed the audience for about five minutes each.

Using art to raise money for battling the treachery in Uganda was inspiring for Gallo.

"I had never heard of Invisible Children," she said. "I had always known there were problems in Africa with genocide and governmental problems and issues, and I guess I never fully grasped how bad it was. When I learned about Uganda in particular and the Sudan, it made me want to help."

It delighted Gallo that the concert was nearly sold out.

Not only was she trying to make a difference in the world, but she was combining it with her love for music and dance.

Dance, Gallo said, has become her passion.

"I love all different types of dancing, expressing myself in all different ways," she said. "It's another form of art to me and I'm an arts supporter all the way. That is another thing about this concert, not only does it raise awareness for Invisible Children but it is also raising awareness of the powers of the arts. Because they are dying in Ohio."

In Hilliard, she said, the middle schools eliminated an arts period and extended the rest. Now, students are forced to choose between foreign language or band, orchestra or choir.

Since most colleges require a foreign language, she said, it is the obvious choice.

The concert was a way of recognizing how powerful the arts can be in contributing to society, according to Gallo.