The High School Musical AVID Talent Show
April 30, 2019
The High School Musical AVID talent show, was a big hit. Around 550 tickets were sold to watch the sixteen performances on April 5th, 2019.
The money raised, will fund the senior AVID scholarships, the end of the year AVID celebration, and student awards at the banquet. “We host a big banquet, it’s at the El Monte community center. We have a DJ, we have a photo booth, we do all of that kind of fun stuff,” said Ms. Jaime Witt, AVID teacher.
The show featured many different acts, making it difficult to decide who had the best performance.
Mr. Dara Sem, dressed as Simon Cowell, Ms. Erica Silvas, dressed as Kiss drummer Peter Criss, and Ms. Eunice Ocampo, dressed as Beyonce, were all part of the judging panel. Silvas explained that judging was really stressful but she loved it.
“It’s really about the students coming out and giving it all with their heart,” said Silvas. Several performances caught Silvas’ eye but two particularly stood out to her.
“It was between Samantha, and David. Samantha has a great voice but David had a whole performance on the stage … Samantha made me cry and David made me want to dance,” said Silvas.
David Perry, 12, received one hundred dollars for his winning performance in the talent show. Perry lip synced to Katy Perry’s “Firework” and his performance included lights, confetti cannons and light sticks.
Witt said “David’s act stood out because of the level of production, all of the lighting, the fact that he gave everyone in the audience an LED glow stick so the whole crowd was lit up … what he does to produce his show definitely stood out to me.”
Perry explained that he does not think that lip-syncing is a talent. “Anyone can get up on stage and sing to any song they want,” Perry explained. His talent isn’t his ability to move his lips to the lyrics of a song, but rather his ability to engage the audience with a great performance. “I know how to put on a show and not many people now how to do that,” said Perry.
Other performances also dazzled the crowd that night. “Samantha’s voice as well as Karla’s voice were really surprising because they’re these little girls, and are seemingly pretty quiet and then they have these big powerful voices,” said Witt.
Witt also loved watching Crystal Mendiola‘s Yo-Yo performance, Arthuro Jimenez’s flair as he painted his picture, and Emily Lam’s willingness to be in the spotlight as she played the piano. “Rocky’s beat boxing blows me away every time, he’s gotten so amazing over the last four years,” added Witt.
The performers rehearsed the week of the show but had to audition to be in the show a month prior explained Witt.
Perry explained that preparing for the show was “very stressful but it was very exciting at the same time.”
Perry said that he’d been planning his performance since freshman year. Although his plan underwent several changes over the course of his four years at Arroyo, Perry said “it all just comes down to my imagination.”
Perry went on to say “I like to make people happy; make people smile. That was really my intention whether I win or not I didn’t really care.”
Order of performances:
(AVID Opening)
- Melissa Daliwal – Contemporary dance of Beyonce’s “Best Thing I Never Had”
- Melody and Molly Hake – Country Duo of Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine”
- Andrew Rivas Samuel Cao -Guitar Duo of Luca’s “Conquest
- Arthuro Jimenez – Painting with “In the Hall of the Mountain King”
- Dance Club (Capt. Bryant Tay) – Dance Mix
- Emily Lam – Piano Medley se
- Karla Cedillo – Sung Bruno Mars’ “When I was Your Man”
- Joseph Solano – Color Guard performance of Sia’s “Like A River Runs”
- Kenny Lee – Sun Luis Demetrio’s “Sway”
- Jiali Chen – Played the violin w/piano to Wolfgang Mozart’s “Violin Concerto No.3”
- Crystal Mendiola – Yo-Yo with Scavenger Hunt’s “Lost”
- Deja Hunter and Jordyn Barnes – Duet with ukulele playing Glee’s version of “I Feel Pretty”
- Samantha Carrasco – Sung Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”
- Mason Schoenfeld – Sung Beetles’ “Here Comes the Sun” while playing guitar
- Rocky La – Beatboxing
- David Perry – Lip-synced to Katy Perry’s “Firework”
