The group known as the Entertainers took first place in the international talent show hosted by the International Student Association on Saturday.
The winning group, which consisted of Kaushik Prasad and Pamela Jensik doing a swing dance, took home $300. The second place group, The Vortex, was comprised of Adam Boo, Isuru Galappaththi and Thushara Lankananda, who received $200. Third place group Honey’s received $150.
There were 12 competing performances in addition to two guest performances one from the current ISA executive team and one from the 2013-2014 executive team.
“The ISA executives have never performed in the past. We decided to be part of the show for two main reasons,” Lambert Kabwar, current ISA president, said. “One to participate in the cultural display, which is an important component of the annual Talent Contest and two to collaborate with the future ISA executives and potentially prepare them for the next academic year.”
The ISA executive team performance included songs from countries on four different continents and the fashion show that followed consisted of 25 people wearing clothing that represented about 20 different countries.
Though many aspects of this year’s talent show were similar to that of past shows, Kabwar said there were some differences in the performances.
“Besides ISA executive participation this year, another noticeable change in the program compared to the previous years is that all the performances were musical,” Kabwar said. “For example, they were all either vocal or dance. In the past we have had various non-musical performances such as comedies, magic tricks, and more.”
In addition to the winning performers and the ISA executive team, there were several other participants, including one from the UW Belly Dance Club.
“I got into belly dancing originally because I took a fitness course. It just makes you feel really good about yourself and it’s not as suggestive as some traditional Egyptian belly dancing is,” Ily Fross, member of the UW Belly Dance Club, said.
The members of the Belly Dance Club wanted to do a traditional dance for the talent show, but chose to add some modernization to it to mix it up.
“We’ll be doing a traditional raks al-asaya dance, which is a traditional cane dance from southern Egypt and we will be doing it to a modern pop song,” Karen Aydinian, also a member of the Belly Dance Club, said.
The talent show proved to be quite diverse, even consisting of some groups that did performances from cultures different from their own.
“We’re going to be singing some traditional Indian songs. We’re called a La Mezcla because we’re a mixed group and none of us are native speakers of the songs we will be singing,” Tamara Deichert said. Some groups consisted of members who were each from a different country or culture.
“One of us is from France, one is from Greenland and another from Sri Lanka,” Siri Paulsen from the group April Blizzard, said. Some groups mixed in several different pop songs, including international hit “Gangam Style.”
“We chose ‘Gangnam Style’ because it’s Korean and it’s a hit, but we felt that just that song would be too short so we added ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ and a David Guetta song,” Adam Boo from second place team Vortex, said.
With such a diverse group, Kabwar and the rest of the ISA executive team were pleased with the talent show and look forward to what next year’s show will bring.
