The ORA Talent Show in Jowett Walk has long been something looked forward to with excitement. Since the first week, students have been practising their performances, thrilled to have the chance to impress their friends with their skills. Last night all the hard work and laughter during rehearsals came to fruition, with a talent show that was truly one to remember. Has ORA Got Talent? You bet.
Before that, though, there was a morning and afternoon of lessons and workshops. The Acting and Performance students continued to hone their command of voice and poise in a series of short sketches focusing on the theme of ‘discoveries’; Leadership and Teambuilding students were taking part in the group project of the ‘egg drop challenge’, in which they had to work together to cushion an egg in a helmet so that it can survive a fall; and the Photography and Sketching students struck out into Oxford to the Botanical Gardens. There were some beautiful pieces created on the trip: Isaac, from the UK, caught a particularly impressive photo of a flower after having waited patiently for a bee to vacate it, and Xinyi Cai, from China, drew a beautiful cluster of four roses with oil pastels which held everybody’s attention. Everybody demonstrated a very great attention to detail and understanding of their art, and it’s wonderful to see how far they have come!
If the students have proven talented out in the field clutching cameras and sketchpads, last night proved that they were no less talented on the stage. There was a baffling amount of talent on show: even Simon Cowell could not have been anything other than impressed. Hannah, from Hong Kong, bounded up to the stage to give an utterly captivating demonstration of martial arts. Normally she would use a sword, but it was –understandably enough—left at home. This did not deter her, and we’re glad of it after seeing her in action last night. Alex answered Hannah’s demonstration with one of his own: no sword was required, because his apparently limitless energy was channelled into karate, something at which he is clearly very skilled.
In a different vein, a different -Alex Miller, from the UK- stepped up to deliver a superbly polished comedy routine, stunning audience and judges alike. Almost all the jokes were chemistry-themed (one of them has been stolen and altered to give the title of this post), and despite the unpromising terrain he was brilliantly funny. Cameron rounded off the show with a hilarious comedy dance routine in a personalised street dance, capping off a wonderfully impressive night.