Culture, entertainment, music, and dance are the main components of most of the best shows showcased anywhere around the world. But of course, none of this can be achieved without great leadership and teamwork.
Landstown High School’s (LHS) Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Society (APICS) has held their annual APICS Talent Show and it’s definitely one to remember.
The sponsor behind supervising the whole talent show, Mrs. Garner, explains that hosting the talent show creates an inclusive environment for the crowd and performers attending to celebrate culture and community.
“My favorite thing about APICS is just the whole camaraderie and everyone supporting each other type of thing,” she states.
The club’s main goal is to maintain culture and pass it on to the next generation, and the show gives any student from any school the opportunity to celebrate their culture on stage.
Mrs. Garner says, “Culture’s important because I feel like sometimes it gets lost. I love the fact that, like V2V and even the Tallwood group, there’s still something there that the kids are interested in.”
For Landstown holding such a big event, it is essential that everyone pitches in to prepare for the show. The show is planned two months ahead of time to solidify the exact blueprint of how the show will be carried out the day of.
Poster makers are given a few weeks to plan and paint posters that inform students around the school about the event. This year’s committee definitely proved that it takes creative minds to execute around six or seven large posters to hang up around the school.
The APICS officers, especially, are featured in social media advertisements to appeal to people who do not attend LHS, but are welcome to attend the show. These advertisements follow popular trends, such as the 500 Days of Summer trend, in order to encourage people to come to the show.
LHS senior, Jasmine Estrada, explains her role on the welcoming committee stating, “I’ve been on the welcoming committee since my freshman year and I basically make sure guests have a ticket and give them a wristband to show that they have paid.”
From memorizing specific lighting for every act, to planning for the worst case scenario, it takes all hands on deck to be prepared for technical issues that may occur during the show.
“I think that the most challenging thing is the thing you can’t control. You can’t control the technology part of it, especially if the sound technology decides to go kaput. You just have to learn how to adapt and have backups,” voices Garner.
Beyond having to prepare for setbacks, this year’s talent show featured many bands, dancing, and singing acts, and last ever performances from K-Pop cover group Eunoia and Vietnamese dance group Vietnam to Virginia (V2V).
Eunoia had performed K-Pop dances by groups such as Hearts2Hearts and Enhypen to get the many K-Pop fans hyped during their set. V2V’s strong performance featured a fast-paced Vietnamese song with the dancers holding blue fans and a slow Vietnamese song with the dancers holding flowing white fans. Both groups gave their thanks on stage to Richie Le for putting their performances together and choreographing V2V’s performance.
Vegan Armageddon’s lead singer and LHS junior, Jacob Tria, expressed his inspiration for performing being LHS alumni Jeremiah Cayab who performed with his band, Jirichi, in his past high school years.
Tria also shout-outs certain V2V and Eunoia members saying, “Mylani’s a really amazing dancer and she has a lot of talent. She’s one of the people to look out for in Eunoia. For V2V, I would say Marissa Mendigorin. She’s been pretty talented.”
This year’s show had several bands from students attending various schools such as Porcelain Knife, Vegan Armaggeddon, Gulay, and Atlantic Avenue. All band members came from cultural backgrounds and got the crowd going through performing popular songs by Asian-American singers or songs in certain Asian languages.
Both Tallwood’s Filipino Cultural Club (TFCC) and the act combining PREVa, SCAPA, and kuntaw made their famous return to the APICS talent show by performing traditional Filipino dances such as tinikling and showcasing kuntaw, a traditional Filipino martial art form. TFCC had their traditional music pre-recorded, while PREVa had played their music live, shadowing SCAPA and kuntaw.
Solo acts by Angie, Gwapo Macho, and Rein helped slow down the pace of the show and got the crowd to come together by waving their flashlights in the air.
Throughout the show and between each act, emcees Jaxon Concepcion, Mia Garcia-Lim, Elisha Ibaldez, and James Gonzalez introduced acts and entertained the crowd as performers prepared to go on stage.
Concessions such as banana pudding and matcha and a fighting skit for intermission were provided for the guests in between transitioning from the first and second half of the show.
All in all, this show was one of the most successful and memorable compared to previous years and Landstown’s APICS hopes to maintain the same, if not better level of inclusivity for the Asian community, families, and youth in Virginia Beach.
