High school students from all over the St. Louis area, including students from Lafayette, have entered and are preparing to compete in the third annual St. Louis Teen Talent Competition.
This competition allows singers, dancers, musicians and even the more obscure acts such as ventriloquists to compete. Acts were required to sign up from Dec. 1 through 21 and acts are to perform in a preliminary round on Feb. 9 and 10, a semi-final round on March 2 and if they get that far, the final competition on April 12.
Each act is competing for scholarships, the first place act winning a whopping $7,000 in scholarship money. According to the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation website, all acts will be judged by the same criteria, no matter what the talent is. More specifically, they will be judged on their talent, their stage presence (how they move and act on stage), their interpretation and their originality.
One of many acts participating in the competition is the St. Louis Ballet School. Senior Cami Koziatek is one of three Lafayette students competing with the group.
“We’re doing a classical variation,” Koziatek said. A variation is a dance solo; everybody from the school will be doing their own dance. According to Koziatek, the group practices their variations three times a week and meets daily.
“I’m excited,” Koziatek said. “It’s a great opportunity.”
Another Lafayette student participating in the competition is junior Shayne Hayes, who is singing and playing guitar. He found out about the competition and is performing with sophomore Ryan Devereux.
“We practice once a week for a couple hours,” Hayes said.
Though Hayes, like everyone else, is hoping to win scholarship money, he is also excited to get the opportunity to have more formal experience as a musician as well.
“I really want to see where we place,” Hayes said.
