The diversity of ACU’s student body will be on display at the Ethnos Culture Show this weekend, with acts ranging from a Chinese piano duet to an Indian dance.
The International Students Association is sponsoring the annual event, with shows scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. ISA vice president Veronica Whitt, junior elementary education major from Cebu City, Philippines, said this year’s program will feature 13 acts from a variety of nations and cultural backgrounds.
“For ACU students, the show is a really neat experience to see things like dance from other cultures,” Whitt said. “For participants, they really like sharing a part of the culture to the community.”
Whitt said the show will focus on international students like it normally does, but will also emphasize cultural groups like SHADES and Sanctify that are not tailored specifically to international students.
“This year one of the things we’ve tried to do is lessen the gap between American and international groups,” Whitt said. “We encouraged American groups to participate, and that helps bridge the gap.”
The theme for this year’s show is “Global News.” Ken Lake, senior accounting major from Tokyo, Japan, and the show’s production manager, said the theme’s purpose is to tie the acts together. Lake said students from the Department of Theatre will perform skits between each of the acts.
“Every year we have a theme, and this year its ‘Global News,'” Lake said. “The skit will be about a news station celebrating its 25th anniversary. The skits between each act will serve as a storyline tying the cultural acts together.”
Lake said the skits and the acts will work together to create a uniform performance that illustrates the level of diversity at ACU.
“The great thing about the Culture Show is that it shows how many countries are represented at ACU,” Lake said. “It exhibits the cultural awareness that ACU holds. You can also see the great connections ACU’s international students have and how they work together to build up diversity on the ACU campus.”
Miky Trivedi, sophomore biochemistry major from Sikkim, India, is participating in the Culture Show for the second time. She said the show is a chance to help American students see what Indian culture looks like.
“The Culture Show is really important because we have a large number of international students at ACU,” Trivedi said. “This is our chance to show our culture.”
Laura Blake, assistant director of international students at ACU and adviser to ISA, said the Culture Show is an important opportunity for international students to work together. She said her favorite acts are those that involve students from multiple nations teaching each other customs from their cultures.
“It’s the biggest event of the year for ISA,” Blake said. “It’s a great experience in teamwork for them. It’s great for bringing students together.”
Tickets for the shows can be purchased at a booth in the McGlothlin Campus Center this week or at the door on the night of the shows. General admission tickets are $5, but students can get in for $3 with an ACU ID.
