Every year, the International Students Association hosts Ethnos, a cultural show where ACU students display their talents through singing, dancing, playing instruments and other performances. ISA has selected act leaders for the various performances and began finding sponsorships and booking the Convention Center, where the show will be held on Nov. 20.
ISA held a meeting with all the act leaders to explain how they will support them through the process and in their rehearsals.
“There will be ten acts this year including a Latino act, African act, Hispanic act and Hip Hop act,” Miranda Ramirez, president of ISA said. “We normally will start selling tickets in the campus center in the couple of weeks leading up to the show.”
The money raised from Ethnos will help fund ISA’s annual banquet. ISA hopes to emphasize anyone who wants to be involved in Ethnos can participate.
“We don’t do auditions for the acts,” Jael Morel, a senior digital entertainment major from Honduras and act lead for Global Worship said. “Anyone should feel that they can come and worship in whatever language they choose.”
The Global Worship act is intended to display how cultures all over the world praise God in their own languages and through their own traditions. The act will start with a worship song being sung in English and then continue into verses in Swahili, Spanish, Rwandan and German.
Each Ethnos act conveys a message about the beauty of culture and the transcendent nature of our humanity and the things that bind us together like music, dance and worship in Christ.
“I think Ethnos has opened my mind up. It is truly a celebration of culture from line dancing to mariachis, it really has it all,” Morel said.
Through the Hip Hop act, Camii Joley, a senior communications major from Fort Worth, is hoping to send a message of confidence and identity.
“I want the act to be very empowering and freeing and show that this is part of who I am,” said Joley. “I want it be very fun and something people will enjoy watching.”