On the afternoon of April 27th, the 11th and 12th graders of SHSID gathered together in the grand auditorium for the 2021 Talent Show. All the students enthusiastically cheered for the performances that they had been anticipating to see for a long time.

Four students from 11th grade and four students from 12th grade participated in hosting the talent show. With their excellent speaking skills and a strong sense of humor, they helped to transition between each of the performances.

The first performance from 11th grade was named “I Ring the Doorbell for Myself” by Shira from 11(4). It was a Chinese song that used a spooky tone to express the singer’s emotions. While being drawn to the eye-catching red-and-green background, the audience was amazed by Shira’s ability to sing really high-pitched notes. Shira also participated in another performance called “Thank U, Next” along with Yeji and William from 11(6), Yangyang from 11(7), Jiwei from 11(8), and Rong from 11(9). This was an a cappella performance where the singers had no accompanying music in the background but, instead, had to produce all the music using their mouths. All the performers, dressed formally in the same set of colors, stood confidently on the stage in one line and sang a beautiful tune. It was truly a unique showcase of talents.

A dance performance named “Dancing on the Treasure Island Lost in the Previous Life” was organized by both 11th and 12th graders. The performance started with the lights all turned off, creating a dark background for the dancers to move in front of all while holding sticks of different colored lights. This produced an effect similar to the night sky with the stars moving to the background music. Then the performance transitioned to an adaption of an anime with the performers dancing to a song in cosplay clothing.

Individual performances from 12th grade also took up a large portion of the talent show. The song “Liking You” by Yuxin from 12(7), who had a sweet voice, was really enjoyable. All the students in the audience listened quietly to this song in Cantonese. Another notable performance was the dance “K/DA” by a group of six students from the 12th-grade class. It was a very funny and entertaining performance as the dancers switched between different styles of songs in both English and Chinese, ending with a song about Christmas. Through linking together completely unrelated themes and using effective background videos to enhance these themes, the performers were able to create a lasting impression in the audience’s minds. The dance performance presented by a group of girls from Grade 12, also brought the audiences a unique visual experience. The song “High School Story” by Yifeng from 12(8) was one of the performances that incorporated piano accompaniment for the background music. The performer sang along to live piano-playing which, altogether, told a story about “yesterday” in multiple languages including English, French, and Chinese. It was clear that he pieced together different songs from the three languages to create a unique show which he used to acknowledge past high-school memories.

In addition to the individual performances, each homeroom of 12th grade also organized wonderful plays at the very end of the talent show to commemorate the end of their high-school years. The last performance was a chorus brought by class 12(7). When the students on the stage sang their feelings for graduation and their sorrow for their friends, many students were deeply moved.

Overall, the 2021 SHSID Talent Show provided a great platform for both 11th- and 12th-grade students to showcase their abilities. From singing to dancing, SHSID students showed a wide range of interests that had pushed them to pursue things other than simply their academics.

(Written by Sammi Liu Pictures by Hao Sun Supervised by He Sijia, Cheer Zhang)