Through dancing, singing and musical performances, ACU’s international students will offer the community a taste of foreign cultures in the International Students’ Association’s culture show, Ethnos.
This year’s production, entitled Ethnos Family: The Culture Show, will take place in Cullen Auditorium 7:30-9:30 p.m Friday and Saturday, according to the Facebook event page, which already boasts more than 340 confirmed guests. Doors will open at 6:45 p.m., and musical performers Adrian Chew and Jeff Paxton will conduct a preshow performance, beginning at 7 p.m.
The production features performances by students from across the globe, showcasing countries such as China, India, Japan and Madagascar.
Kelsey Young, senior biochemistry major from Pago Pago, American Samoa, led a group of women in learning a Polynesian-style dance. Young said she has been dancing for at least seven years, and she wanted to teach the dance for Ethnos in order to share her culture and background.
“One of the most awesome things about Ethnos is that there’s people from all around the world teaching each other,” Young said. “It’s just a really good opportunity to connect with international students from all over and to really share each other’s cultures. It’s really a blessing to partake in.”
Even American students may participate in the show, Young said, and the hours of rehearsals benefit students by developing community and bonding students together as they work toward a common purpose.
“I think it’s a fantastic thing,” Young said. “It’s a great reflection of just how diverse and also how unified the student body here at ACU really is.”
ISA President and Ethnos Production Manager Ken Lake, senior accounting major from Tokyo, Japan, said the show’s family-oriented theme shows in the script, which was written first to tie together all the acts.
Young said tying it together is often the hardest part of the show. If students complain about anything, she said, it’s the slow transitions. Ethnos organizers cut intermission for the first time, in an effort to make the show run more smoothly, she said.
Lake said he hopes audiences leave with a better sense of the ACU community’s diversity.
“That’s like a no-brainer if you watch the show,” Lake said. “I think the big part is how much this international group at ACU, how much they’re really connected to each other – how much they’re giving and receiving. They gave a lot being in the show, and I think we also receive a lot, being over here in America.”
The sense of community surrounding ACU’s international students should be obvious to Ethnos viewers, Lake said.
“They get to see that in the spirit of this show, too, how much we love each other and how much we appreciate each other and how much we are so bonded together,” Lake said.
Young said Ethnos offers the ACU community a window of understanding into one of its most diverse student populations, allowing participants to share aspects of their homes and histories.
“It’s really on display for everyone to see, and I hope that people can have a better appreciation of what the students here at ACU are made of and what they can do,” Young said.
Tickets, which cost $3 each, may be purchased in the McGlothlin Campus Center from 11:30 a.m-2:30 p.m. Friday or at the door beginning at 6:45 p.m. Young said tickets are cheaper this year to give more students the opportunity to come. Ethnos T-shirts also are available for purchase in the Campus Center.
