Welcome Back Talent Showcase

by Patricia Selman
SEL00001@BYUI.EDU
Scroll Staff

Above: CDT dances during the song “Life’s a Beach Ball.” Middle: Poprox serenades an audience member. Below: Vocal Union harmonizes during the Welcome Back Talent Showcase Saturday in the Hart Auditorium. Photos by SEAN MILLER and JUSTIN RICH / Scroll

All the new systems, sound, lighting and video projection were used in the school’s first- ever Welcome Back Showcase.

“I know some of the technicians were working out bugs in the systems, but the new systems are superior to what they had before,” Arlen Wilcock, director of the Department of Instruction and Technology, said.

The event included 93 performers from various campus groups and also students who performed in events last semester, Wilcock said.

Optimus Prime, a group of four, as well as Poprox, a group of six, were chosen from the A Cappella Jam. Each group sang three different songs, displaying their tight harmonies and sweeping vocals.

Lynzi Hale, a sophomore from Idaho Falls, was asked to sing her song “Lime Jell-O Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise,” first performed at the All-American Talent Show.

Dugan Jackman, a sophomore from Burley, Idaho, and Dayna Powell, a junior from Orem, Utah, performed their clogging routine titled “Viking Cheerleaders,” where they tried to pump up the crowd. Sarah Mortimer performed a ballet routine to Leann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance.” These dancers were chosen from Battle of the Dance.

Shaun Heier, a junior from Kansas City, Mo., and Ryan Hodges, a senior from Rexburg, sang “Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend” which was first heard at Guitars Unplugged last September.

Nicole White, a sophomore from Rexburg, was crowned Miss BYU-Idaho 2002 last fall. She performed the piano piece “Malaguena” by Ernesto Le Cuona as her talent for the pageant and performed it again for the Showcase on Saturday.

The backup Ballroom Dance Team, Contemporary Dance Theatre, From the Heart and Vocal Union performed. Each executed their area of expertise while clear sound and bright lights from the new systems backed them up.

“It’s been really great since the renovation. [The new systems] spiced up the Hart. ... The acoustics are professional. The techs know what they are doing,” Heier said.

The last act was a collaboration from CDT and From the Heart. Wendy Bone, CDT director, choreographed the movement to the song “Amazing Grace.” From the Heart sang the song A Capella as CDT danced on the newly finished auditorium floor.

“It is important to show how the different types of performing arts can come together,” CDT member Sarah Murdoch, a junior from Kennewick, Wash., said. “It is to show the importance of art in our lives. Not very many schools do that.”