Music, dance, and flow arts took center stage at Collin’s Got Talent, Nov. 8 at the Plano Campus. The now annual event entertained the crowd and collected donations for the North Texas Food Bank.
This year’s first-place winner was Kayla Fryz, a Health Sciences major originally from Canton, Michigan, who has been studying dance since she was 3 years old. Fryz said that while she started in tap dance and studied multiple styles, her tastes have evolved into the hip-hop style that she choreographed and performed at Collin’s Got Talent.
“这是我一直热衷的事情，”弗莱兹说。 “Dancing runs in my family. 我想与观众分享这种快乐。”
While Collin’s Got Talent is known for vocal and instrumentalist acts, this year’s show included Fryz and another dancer, Shreya Jadav, who performed a Bollywood-style dance. It also included Caleab Hutto, a flow artist who mixed movement and juggling into a choreographed show that impressed the crowd.
Musical performance remained a strong favorite in the contest, with second and third places going to pianists performing in different musical styles.
Kyle Cornelison, a senior home-schooled dual-credit student from Wylie, took second place with an abridged performance of Rachmaninoff’s Polichinelle。 Cornelison began playing the piano formally at age 7 but said he has never competed in a talent competition like this one.
“There was a lot more camaraderie between the contestants,” he said, noting that the contestants hung out for a sound check and supported each other in the wings as they waited to perform. “我想我在很多比赛和表演中都错过了这一点。”
Gina Haley, who took third place performing 不会太久 by Aretha Franklin, enjoyed the camaraderie as well but said that this performance was a bit more nerve-wracking than others she has done.
“I hadn’t performed in a really long time because of COVID,” Haley said, mentioning that her last live performances for an audience were a series of shows in England in February 2020. “能有观众，能欣赏一场表演真是太棒了。 我只是没能做到这一点。”
Other performances included guitarist Leila Dandan performing an original song, Annaliese Penix performing 不再爱你 by the cast of Star, and Morris Mims singing 在百老汇.
该活动还为北德克萨斯食品银行筹集了125笔捐款。 Audience members were asked to bring a non-perishable food item to the event as an entrance fee.