The Golden Dragon Acrobats, an award-winning touring company from China, will perform for free Monday at Stephens Auditorium for the first time. 

The show will feature contortionists, jugglers, tumblers, human pyramids and hoop-divers, most of whom have been trained since early childhood.

The doors open at 7 p.m. Monday, and the show will commence at 8. Seating is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. A full house is anticipated, so producers of the show recommend arriving early.

The show is free for students, faculty and the public. The Student Union Board has focused a lot of attention on promoting the event to the Ames community as a whole, as well as ISU students.

“Some of the events we do target only a limited audience,” said Anna Prisacari, Student Union Board multicultural director and graduate student in the human computer interaction program. “But it doesn’t matter if you’re 10 or 25, you will still be mesmerized by the skills and talents of the acrobats. And there are not many big events like this that are free of charge to anyone, so that’s something we are very happy to be able to offer to the community.”

Several student organizations collaborated to gain additional funding from the Government of Student Body to bring the show to Iowa State. These multicultural clubs will be promoting upcoming events during the intermission and before the show.

“I think this will be a fantastic opportunity to spread knowledge about Asian-American culture, as well as advance our own club,” said Akshali Gandhi, senior in community and regional planning and president of ChakRaas: ISU Raas. “This is such a cool event to come to campus, and great for us to get our name out as well, both which are why we got involved.”

Other organization leaders are excited that the event will be a new form of free entertainment for students.

“The show will bring more attention and publicity to the multicultural aspect and organizations on campus,” said Nidhi Shah, president of International Student Council at Iowa State and graduate student in biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology. “It’s definitely fun and entertaining. Also, it’s a free performance, and through this guests will learn about a different culture they may not have known about. It’s a great event.”