By Heather Monahan
Assistant Features Editor
St. Bonaventure students traded notebooks and pens for dancing shoes and microphones Tuesday as the Step Team hosted its 7th Annual Talent Show in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
Audience members were treated to seven acts, showcasing a variety of different talents. Juniors Andy Pacheco and Jomoh Lewis provided comic relief between the acts as the masters of ceremony.
“It was really fun,” said Pacheco, a management major. “It was the first time I did it. We were just having fun with it.”
While the show was a treat for all who came, Pacheco said it would have been even better if more people had signed up and gotten involved.
“I wish we could have had more acts, it was a pretty short show,” he said. “But other than that, it was pretty cool. A lot of cool acts.”
Pacheco also said he wished more people would have attended the show to support their peers.
“It would’ve been better if we had more people here,” Pacheco said. “But the crowd that was here was very energetic.”
Despite a lackluster turnout the audience didn’t disappoint when it came time to make noise for their fellow Bonnies.
Terrance Hanlon kicked off the show with a vocal performance of “I’m Already There,” by Lonestar. He was one of three singing acts in the show.
First place winners, seniors Mary Cole and Emily West, followed up with two songs they performed as a duet. However, the two put a spin on their act and performed mash-ups where two or more songs are blended together.
The first was a combination of two Taylor Swift songs, “Mean” and “We Are Never Getting Back Together,” and the second featured two of this year’s most popular songs, “Call Me Maybe,” by Carly Rae Jespen and “What Makes You Beautiful,” by One Direction.
“I came up with the Taylor Swift (mash-up) on my own,” said West, a senior theater and journalism and mass communication major.
The second, however, was a collaboration between the two performers.
“We were just jamming,” said Cole, an education major. “We just tried it out, and it sounded really good.”
West and Cole both said the other acts gave the duo a run for their money. Another duo, the show’s second place winner, provided the most competition.
Juniors Elliot Fanshel and Javier Ortiz gave an acoustic performance of two songs, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day and “Forever” by Chris Brown.
While Ortiz played acoustic guitar and sang, biology major Fanshel provided a jazzy feel by playing saxophone.
Mama Africa, a group of four students, gave the show a bit of cultural diversity by performing an African dance. Junior psychology major Gladys Ofori, freshman Denise Muyibi, sophomore accounting major Akua Darkwah and junior journalism and mass communication major Emmariah Holcomb captivated the crowd as they danced along to the beat of African music.
Senior Steve Kuzara was the sole poet in the show, reading one of his personal poems, “Windmills.” Kuzara said a lot of his poetry, including the one he performed for the show, is inspired by midnight bike rides he takes in his hometown of Buffalo.
Junior Ahbi Sajjala also performed an original work and put on a very energetic rap performance, finishing with a backflip.
The hosts of the show, the SBU Step Team performed the final act of the show, a variation of “Cell Block Tango,” from the musical “Chicago.” Each of the six girls on the team had their own step solo throughout the act.
