By Thania Figueroa/Staff Writer

The fine arts department showed off their skills and choreography at the Fine Arts Showcase and Poetry Slam event Monday night. 

Along with many beautiful dances, some students read some touching poetry, and sang a few songs and the MVC Flatliners ended the show with a good laugh. 

There were 10 dance solos performed from the Modern 1 and Ballet 3 courses. Each solo was choreographed and performed by the student, which is amazing to see what they learned in their course and how they put their knowledge into a routine. 

Tori Heglin performed a solo to ‘Everything All at Once’ by SYML which was easily one of my favorite pieces, from costume to choreography to song choice. There were many “picture-perfect” moments in the choreography.

Amber Newsom performed a Ballet 3 solo which became another one of my favorite pieces. The music was intense but the execution of ballet was done beautifully. Her turns in the routine were amazing and well done. She also had amazing leg extensions along with more “picture perfect” moments. 

Lindsey Curtis’s Modern 1 solo to ‘The Thinner the Air’ by Cocteau Twins has amazing movements. The isolations with her body were breathtaking. 

Moving on from dance to poetry, the first student read a poem about ‘her universe’ from falling in love, to breaking up, to tears and wearing no makeup, to looking in the mirror and loving herself. This took me through a whole journey of self love, we do not need anyone but ourselves, and I thought this was beautiful poetry. 

The second poem was ‘38 Days’ by Helena Talbot which was about a ‘summer fling’ coming to an unwanted end. I think this poem was relatable to myself and maybe other college students, because distance is an important factor in relationships, causing many to come to an end. The poem spoke about all the fun things couples do from going out on dates to baking sweets to the not-so-fun things, like saying goodbye. This poem was very touching. 

Kaylee Hering performed a few songs, ‘Du Bist Die Ruh’ by Franz Schubert, ‘Per la Gloria’ by Giovanni Bonocini and ‘Too Much in Love to Care’ by Andrew Lloyd. All of these were executed very well but my favorite was ‘Per la Gloria’, especially the crescendo and decrescendo of the song. 

The MVC Flatliners closed out the show and got the audience to lighten up and laugh. They did a few skits starting with a word chosen from the audience which was “knife.” They started talking about throwing knives at dogs, to not being able to have knives in the dorms, to ugly puppies, to hating cats. This skit was very funny and I was impressed at how fast they jumped from topic to topic, while still being funny. 

Overall, the Fine Arts Showcase and Poetry Slam was a success and very enjoyable. It had great dances, poetry and comedy before the stress of finals week.