At the annual Variety Show on Thursday, Jan. 13, dozens of students impressed the audience with their performances, on and off stage.
Students showcased their various talents ranging from playing an instrument, singing, dancing, or even doing magic tricks.
The show is called the Variety Show for a reason. Each performance was unique and showed the personality of all the performers.
The acts varied from relaxed, slow instrumental pieces such as “Blue Waltz” by Mairead Shocklee, freshman, to upbeat hip hop dance performances like Sean Casimere, junior, who danced to Michael Jackson’s “Black and White.”
The variety extended to outside the American border. Seniors Rashmi Madhavan, Esha Sama, Nevatha Mathialagan, juniors, Ravali Gummi, and Michelle Joevin, performed “Dhoom Taana,” in which they danced in costume in the traditional Indian style.
Juniors Libby Cozzoni, Yeseul Park, and Payton Lloyd, performed the song “Into Your Arms” by The Maine.
The day of the show, Park said they weren’t really nervous about performing, and felt pretty conformable. Park, like many of the other participants, had experience being onstage before.
“It went better than I thought it would,” Park said after the performance. “Everybody did really well, and I didn’t mess up as much as I thought I would.”
Kelly Dunlap, sophomore, performed two different times in the show. In act one, she sang a duet with Karen Nightengale, junior, and in act two, she performed the song “Speechless” by Lady Gaga, while playing the piano in full Gaga attire.
“I wanted to do something different than last year,” Dunlap said. “This was a little more theatrical. I thought Lady Gaga would be good because everyone would like that.”
She was right – the crowd cheered wildly the moment Dunlap appeared onstage in an old red dress with puffy sleeves from Goodwill, enormously high heels, a blonde wig, big sunglasses, and bright red lipstick.
Dunlap copied Lady Gaga’s style as well as her voice very well. The song showcased her vocal range and she added personality by singing loudly and almost in a growl at certain parts, just like Lady Gaga would.
“I just listened to the song a few times,” Dunlap said. “I’m pretty good at mimicking what people sound like.”
Having never been to the Variety Show before, I was quite impressed with the quality and variety of all the performances. It was not a typical talent show. Some acts seemed a little forced, but for the most part everyone showed great stage presence and personality.
