The African Students Association is starting a dance team to continue their vision of spreading African awareness ahead of their ten-year anniversary on April 30.

The group will take dance lessons as well as professional dance choreography with applications closing on Monday at midnight. The group will perform at their annual banquet on April 30. ASA president Mada Samb, a senior accounting major from Senegal, said she has been working since last spring to help start the dance team and several have already applied.

“The main idea came from wanting to create that awareness as always because that’s a big deal for ACU,” Samb said. “Creating that awareness and bringing a piece of home here was a part of that decision as well.”

Alongside Samb is chaplain Annah Samdi, a sophomore finance major from Nigeria. Samdi and Samb have been working together to help create awareness around campus about African culture.

“We’re trying to form a dance team to represent African dance,” Samdi said. “We don’t really have much awareness on campus about African dance and so we wanted to have something fun where students can engage about African culture.”

ASA’s vision is that they are an innovative group that seeks to provide supportive communities that will help students nourish their African identity. Their main goal is to seek to celebrate and raise awareness of African culture on campus and in the Abilene community. Samb and Samdi said they believe that the dance team is another way for ASA to spread awareness on campus.

“I really want students to know that ASA is open to everyone, it’s not just here for African students,” Samb said.  “We want to bring this new addition of different cultures, traditions, dance moves, and things they don’t see as much and hopefully ACU enjoys it and learns something out of it.”