• Home
• /
• World
• /
• Gulf

Talents bloom at Spring Fiesta

Talent shows are a dirham a dozen in the UAE at the school or college level, but large-scale nationwide scouting is yet to reach our sandy shores.

Until a localised version of Idol or Got Talent franchise actively draws out the possibly underground local community of fire-eaters, contortionists and performers, the closest thing to a nationwide talent show is American College of Dubai’s hallmark event: Spring Fiesta. Touted as the ultimate youth event in Dubai, Spring Fiesta has been forum for young talents to grab a little less than 15 minutes of fame.

As many as 45 schools and colleges made up 1,760 participants for this year’s Spring Fiesta, competing in a wide range of categories such as extempore speech, basketball, dance, drama and even gaming.

Traditional talent categories like dance and drama have been pushing the envelope in terms of their composition and props every year. The dance team from Dubai Gem School has a lot to be complacent about after winning first place in the eastern dance category last year. Yet the vibrant group of dance enthusiasts have been clocking six to eight hours of intense practice every day for the past six weeks all for the love of Spring Fiesta. Made up of 12 girls from Grades 8 to 12, with special participation by a Grade 10 Michael Jackson fan, Abdul Wahab, the dance group embraced this year’s theme, “East meets West,” with an eclectic mix of music and dance styles, complete with costumes and high-tech gadgetry.

“Spring Fiesta is a part of our school culture in a way, since everyone looks up to those of us who get to participate,” graduating student Harshita Lakhiani said. After a rigorous round of auditions, the final team was assembled, although well-established dancers like Harshita were handpicked later on. “Everyone (in the team) shares a love for dance—and it shows! Spring Fiesta is happening right in the middle of our exams, yet here we are, practicing for hours everyday. Now that we have a strong team, we felt it was time to add a professional dimension to our performance,” she added.

Choreographed by renowned dance aficionado Vinod Sequira and assisted by their teacher, Anushree Phadke, the 5.5 minute routine showcased a number of styles including Spanish flamenco, hip hop, koothu (Tamil street dance) and the highly popular robot.

“The best part is the turnout on the day itself. We can usually recognise more than half the crowd cheering us on since most of them are our friends and teachers,” one of the youngest members of the troupe, 13-year-old Anisha Lachhwani, said.

In the drama category, the formidable team from Paribhasha, BITS Pilani Dubai’s drama club, put together an original script with a team of passion-driven actors and an enthusiastic backstage crew. “We had so many creative script ideas; we tried various story lines and styles out before implementing whatever worked on stage the best. I guess it was a series based on trial and error, with ideas thrown in by everyone. The whole creative process was so much fun that we only got a wake-up call to finalise the script and start practicing about two weeks before the performance,” according to Pirzan Turel, a first time participant from BITS Pilani Dubai.

After a heavy-handed round of auditions, 15 finalists made up the cast and crew for their aptly titled play, “Deja vu”. “The play is about a man who is pretty set in his negative ways, and suddenly he realises that his day is looping over and over. I guess it’s a little bit of morality play, since he ends up seeing the light at the end,” Pirzan said. The budding actor had a supporting role in the play, taking on the part of a beggar who acts as a catalyst in the main character’s repentance. “The most challenging and well-executed part of the play was this one scene where the entire day is rewound, going backwards in time. It took a lot of coordination with movement, lighting and music, but it paid off in a big way. Everyone I know from the audience were most impressed by that particular scene,” Pirzan added.

The main character, played by third-year student Yugansh Rattani won Best Actor overall, adding one more feather in Paribhasha’s well-adorned cap.

Although Pirzan is a new addition to the drama club, he feels completely at home in the group’s theatrically-charged environment. “I think I can speak for everyone in my group when I say that acting is our passion, and even though it’s a lot of work and takes a lot of time away from our heavy schedules, we’re doing what we enjoy: expressing our love for drama. And the bottom line is that it’s loads of fun!”

HIGHLIGHTS

Spring Fiesta is more than just a platform for youth talent—it grooms the organising team from American College of Dubai to plan and execute a large scale event at a professional level. Kanchan VinodKumar from Panache Middle East is a former student from the university who was part of the Student council in 2005. “I’ve helped organise Spring Fiesta as a student and now as a professional. We help integrate the current student council in the planning process. They learn how to secure sponsorship, manage security lists and press relations, handle portfolios. It gives them a lot of exposure, so I suppose it’s more than just a talent festival,” she told Khaleej Times. This year’s event started on April 4 and concluded on Friday, with dance category performances and the musical stylings of Romanian chart-toppers AKCENT.