More than 300 students attended the International Student Association’s first Ethnotopia Cultural Showcase Friday night in the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

The ISA was born this past summer and its main goal is to reach out to international students at NIU and in the DeKalb community. It wants to make connections that help students adapt to the culture and environment in the United States.

Ethnotopia provided a showing of different culture with a variety of acts such as a Balinese dance and a Chinese instrumental group.

The NIU Gamelan Orchestra performed before the event to set the tone for the evening as students arrived and settled down. The orchestra consisted of bronze gongs, cymbals, a time beater and metallophones, which are similar to a xylophone.

Stressing internationalism

NIU President John Peters, DeKalb Mayor Frank Van Buer and Sajo Jacob, a computer science graduate student and president of the ISA, spoke to start off the night.

Peters talked about the importance of cultural exchange and said he hoped the event would help build bridges between cultures while entertaining and educating the audience.

Van Buer emphasized the importance of studying other cultures and how important his international experience has been to him. He explained the music and dance performed from different cultures can give someone a general understanding of a culture.

Jacob then introduced the ISA and the Ethnotopia Cultural Showcase.

Twirling, swirling …

Many dances were performed, including the tango, a Latin night-club salsa from Argentina, an African dance and a folk dance from Punjab, India.

Both NIU graduate Imelda Ruiz and Wendy Rissman, a graduate of Concordia University in Wisconsin, agreed Ethnotopia was a good show. Both had friends who performed at the event.

Ten-year-old Jean Stein impressed the crowd with her skill as a Scottish dancer alongside 12-year-old Molly Zogler of Elgin and Bethany Toms, a freshman elementary education major.

The trio did a series of energetic traditional and national Scottish highland dances, including the highland fling and the sword dance.