From rap to tap, Tech’s got talent

LYNN – From rapping to tap dancing, Lynn Tech students and teachers showed off their artistic sides at the school’s first-ever talent show Wednesday night.More than a dozen performers sang and danced to a crowd of well over 100 cheering Lynn Vocational Technical Institute students and family.The talent show served as a night to break out from the school’s more technical-based curriculum, said the talent show’s co-host, senior Michael Duarte.”We kind of have enough talent,” said Duarte, who also plays basketball for Lynn Tech.View a photo gallery of the Lynn Tech talent show.Lynn Tech has put on other performance-based events over the past few years, such as a fashion show and an international night, but Wednesday marked the school’s first full-scale talent show, said class advisor Jeremy McKeen.McKeen and Jason Jimenez, also a 2012 class advisor, spent months preparing for Wednesday night.Enthusiasm for the show started as far back as this fall, when Duarte and other organizers held auditions for the show. Duarte said students seemed eager to showcase their talents outside of class.”We looked for someone who just wants to have fun,” he said.The talent show also raised money for the senior class to hold more events in the spring. But several Lynn Tech students said they wanted to attend simply because it offered a night of entertainment.”I’m here to see great dancing and music,” said junior Tabitha Rosari.”I’m out here to support my friends,” said junior Brianna Alicea, who also filmed the show for a television class she’s taking.Several teachers who performed Wednesday said the show was an amusing way to connect with students.Spanish teacher Desiree Croteau and campus monitor Colleen Richards performed a tap dance duet to the hit Adele song “Rolling in the Deep.” Their gig was a rare break among the night’s many rap songs and group dance performances.”I just thought it’d be fun for the kids to see their teachers doing something different,” Croteau said, adding “? Some of these kids haven’t seen a tap dance before.”Backstage before the show, Richards said she had another expectation.”We just hope we don’t screw up,” Richards said.But some students attended the talent show hoping for just that.”I’m looking forward to seeing my English teacher embarrass himself,” said Lynn Tech senior Chris Watson, who sat in the audience before the show.Watson was speaking about Lynn Tech teacher and football coach Jason McCuish, who performed in one of the night’s highlight acts, a gig called “McCuish’s White, White Baby.”McCuish, dressed in a sparkly gold vest and white plastic sunglasses, danced to a version of Vanilla Ice’s song “Ice, Ice Baby” while football players and seniors Jeremy Quinton and Jacob and Joel Devaney danced behind him in matching silver vests.”It’s senior year, I figure you go out with a bang,” said Jacob Devaney about why he performed in what was by many accounts a successful talent show at Lynn Tech.Amber Parcher may be reached at [email protected].