Breakdancers, unicyclists, poets and synchronized swimmers all gathered in a packed O’Shaughnessy Education Center auditorium on Friday, March 13 to showcase their talents and fight for first place in the ninth annual Catholic Studies Talent Show.

The talent show, “A Night at the Oscars,” also included acts such as a hip-hop interpretive dance number, a spoken word piece titled “#Catholicgirlprobs” and various musical acts. The event attracted around 300 audience members.

Alessandro Marchetti, the director of marketing and recruitment for the Catholic studies department, oversees the event – although it is entirely student-run. He said the talent show was started about nine years ago by students in the Catholic studies program who wanted to have a good time together outside of the classroom, and it has continued to grow ever since.

“A few years ago we had a couple of students that said ‘Hey, not only do we want to volunteer to help organize the talent show this year, but we’d like to really turn it into a special event where the actual structure of the show becomes entertainment in and of itself,’” Marchetti said.

Senior Caroline Stiles managed the technical aspects of the show and worked with two producers, seniors Mariah Smith and Rob Mulderink, to put the event together. She has attended three previous talent shows and thinks it is a fun way for members of the St. Thomas community to connect with one another.

“It’s an opportunity for community and entertainment and to glorify God – to have a talent show to bring all of St. Thomas and all of Catholic studies together in a night to share the gifts and talents God has given us,” she said.

Freshmen Emily Monson and Emily Hebert were part of a comical synchronized swimming performance on-stage. Their group consisted of girls living on the Catholic women’s floor in Dowling Hall. They said that practicing for the show not only prepared them but helped them bond with their peers.

“We’re separated by north and south on our floor, and there were so many Catholic women that wanted to be on the floor that it actually overflowed into south. So (the act) helped us to bond with the northern people – the northerners and the southerners,” Monson said.

Sophomore Mary Kate Van Wagner performed a spoken word piece she wrote about the struggles of being a Catholic female college student – including getting dumped by a guy for seminary and feeling second-best compared to her brother who shook hands with the pope.

“It’s all happened. I really have gotten dumped for the seminary, and my brother really did shake hands with the pope last year,” Van Wagner said. “I’ve written poems my whole life, and I didn’t realize until a couple years ago that they were starting to sound more like raps almost, like spoken word.”

Juniors Joshua Fons and Paul Florczak are two members of the seminarian dance crew who created an interpretive dance. The routine included a “Lion King”-themed introduction and continued with synchronized flips, hat tricks and a Michael Jackson moonwalk.

“Each of us could specialize in different stuff,” Florczak said. “I did breakdancing in high school, Fons did swing dancing, one guy was doing the worm out there. So we all had special stuff that we brought, and that just made it even better.”

“We mixed all the music ourselves and choreographed the whole dance ourselves,” Fons added.

The first, second and third place winners were announced at the end of the night. Van Wagner was awarded third place for her spoken word piece, the Catholic women’s synchronized swimmers won second and the seminarian dance crew was awarded first.

Margaret Galush can be reached at galu4637@stthomas.edu.