This past weekend many students came out to Gaines theater for a night of impressive talents, presented by Christopher Newport University’s dance group, Hypnotic Control, and their annual “Unleash The Talent” show. The talent show was a competition in the sense that there were winners, but most simply enjoyed the night to experience for what it was: a showcase of individual talents that were all very impressive.
Kay Barkley sang “All I Ask” by Adele. In a performance that gripped the audience with her raw emotion and sheer vocal range, the judges agreed that Barkley made a really hard song look easy. “I was very happy to sing again, everyone was so supportive and I would definitely do it again,” she said.
Sakina Thaler danced to “Money” by Lisa, bringing high energy and plenty of attitude to a song that demands it. “I enjoyed doing it. This is my happy place,” Thaler said in a post-act interview done by Hypnotic Control.
One of the many highlights throughout the night came from returning act Davis West, CNU’s very own magician and mentalist. Here he showed off similarly impressive tricks to his previous showing, with great audience participation and showmanship that kept people engaged through one of the longer acts of the night.
Closing out the first half of the show was Clara Prillaman, who played on her ukelele and sang a mixup of “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Multitasking was the name of the game for this act, with Prillaman needing to jump between two very different songs for both her instrument and voice. She did a spectacular performance among an already impressive lineup. “Being able to perform on stage is one of my passions. I love to sing and express myself through the power of the arts. Music can truly change a person,” she said.
Walt Rouu played “Lost” by Frank Ocean on his Acoustic Guitar. Rouu’s skill was evident, and the audience made their approval of his performance very clear. “I feel good, I just played through my mistakes. I hope you all like it though,” he said.
The last act of the night came from IDOLution. This act was nothing but pure fun, and while there was excellent dance choreography what really made this performance stand out was the personalities from each of the members. One of the judges would point out that there was no clear leader to the group and that everyone had their moment to shine.
After much deliberation, the winner of the show’s Audience Choice award went to Walt Rouu and the Judge’s Choice award went to Davis West. The whole show was a blast, with much of the credit going to the individual acts themselves for having the confidence to show CNU their talents, as well as Hypnotic Control who put this all together for the University.
