The winners of the High School Talent Competition of the 2014 Festival of Arts
On Thursday evening, the Bliss was the venue for an intense secondary school competition in the performing arts. The challenge is part of the National Festival of Arts. When it was all said and done three high schools from the south came out on top. News Five’s Duane Moody was at the event and has the following report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The second annual High School Talent Competition, a new feature of the National Festival of Arts, took place at the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts auditorium on Thursday night. Fifteen items, the best of the best, from high schools around the country competed to take the title as champions of the high school festival.
Kim Vasquez, Coordinator, High School Talent Competition
Kim Vasquez
“Well you saw it along with me and you were here last year with me and you can see that the quality and the competition has stepped up. And this is what we want for the national festival of arts; we want it to continue to grow and we want the kids to excel and I think we saw a good display of that tonight.”
Duane Moody
“How did we get to the position? I believe we had district competitions and ten it came to this final fifteen?”
Kim Vasquez
“Yes, we had district level festivals—we don’t call them competitions at that level—and those items are adjudicated—both at the primary and the high school level—and then the items that placed gold stood a chance to come to the high school competition. So they were able to send three items from each district. It didn’t matter if it came from the same high school, but three items from each district was able to compete in the performing arts. I must make mention of that. For example we saw two groups attached to schools. The Latino Mix Dance Company are attached to CCC in Corozal and sure, yes, many schools have their own dance companies, theatre group; that’s totally what we want to see and we want entries like that to enter the competition.”
After over two hours of nonstop creativity and energy-filled performances in dance, song and drama, Georgetown Technical High took the top spot in the talent competition with a pantomime. Despite not being a typically showcased form of the creative arts, the fourth formers took to the stage and captured the full emotions of domestic violence without the use of verbal dialogue.
Edita Martinez, Georgetown Technical High
Edita Martinez
“Putting this pantomime together with me and my colleague, we went through a lot because nobody wanted to be the person who was going to get all hurt up and thing like that so I decided to take that wrap. Why we decided to do this pantomime is because around us we notice that most of our young teenagers like us are not paying attention to life or anything that can happen to them and the only way we can get this out this message to them is by doing this pantomime that my teacher Miss Stanford helped us to do.”
Duane Moody
“Tell us about the preparation that you had to make for yourself to be able to do such a fantastic job that you did today?”
Edita Martinez
“Well it wasn’t really hard for me because my partner and I think about what we were going to do and how he was going to throw me about and with not getting any hurt or anything. So to me it was awesome.”
Duane Moody
“Did you guys expect to take the competition?”
Edita Martinez
“Well from the time we entered the regional and we got gold and we knew that we were going to be here, we know that we had this in our hands. We don’t have to worry about anything.”
Interestingly, the south took the competition as second and third place respectively was taken by Toledo Community College and Julian Cho High School from Toledo.
Sherlene Casimiro, Teacher, Toledo Community College
Sherlene Casimiro
“It just came to my mind to do a cultural fusion which is showcasing all the different cultures, the different dances. Belize is unique, we are diverse, we have several dances and I just decided to showcase that.”
Duane Moody
“You had the most dancers, the most participants on stage. How did you make sure that you tapped into their talents and still being able to put out a good show?”
Sherlene Casimiro
“To be honest it wasn’t easy; it was a tedious task. I was confident and it took us about a month to prepare. Like you said, we had thirty students who were a part of that performance. To be honest, I came into the competition with a lot of confidence. I always tell my students to be the best and for us to always have the mentality of the A game and we just came with that mentality.”
John Coy
John Coy, Julian Cho Technical High School
“Me and my teammates had troubles but we managed the stumbles and fell overs and we still battled it and it put us there. We practiced a lot and it brought us here. It satisfies us in being third because I see the other schools made a very good performance today. We are so proud that we came in third and it satisfies me and my team.”
Duane Moody
“Will you guys continue to dance and possibly come back next year to compete?”
John Coy
“Yes we will. This team’s name is the Dream Team. Eight of us, with one female and seven males and we will continue this throughout our lives and we will be back here. Someone told us that we should come back November for the Masters of the Floor and we’ll be here again.”
Apart from certificates given to all participants, the top three performers went away prizes, trophies and cash.
Kim Vasquez
“They took away cash prizes for themselves—they’ll have to share of course but this is a good thing. They won prizes for their school and then they won a trophy as well.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
