On Friday, October 25th, Brooklyn Tech hosted its annual Talent Show for the 2024-2025 school year. Despite intermittent interruptions from fire alarms and technical difficulties, the performers delivered a captivating showcase of talent, ranging from cultural dances to contemporary pop covers and original compositions.  In total, there were 21 acts that took the stage, encompassing bands, solo and duet singers, instrumentalists, and dancers.

The first place award went to Ritika Deb (’25), a finance major who has participated in the Talent Show since her freshman year when she also won first place. This year, Deb presented a fusion of Bollywood, semi-classical, and Indian classical dance, with a touch of Bangla folk. She danced to a remix of a Taal, Cham Cham by Monali Thakur, and Aaja Nachle by Sunidhi Chauhan. The movements in her performance flowed gracefully: rapid spins, punctuated by sharp, expressive hand gestures, which gave way to the vibrant and joyful energy of Bollywood’s signature steps. 

Deb’s performance displayed her long years of training in Kathak and Bharatnatyam, two classical Indian dance forms she began learning at the age of three while living in Bangladesh. Reflecting on her journey, Deb has developed  confidence in showcasing South Asian culture over the years, especially as more students have brought their own cultural heritages to the stage. 

“I felt like there weren’t enough South Asian acts going on and I wanted people to see this side of our heritage, but I was reluctant because I don’t think anything like that was represented on the stage before; [there were] mainly western performances,” she remarked. “I felt a little weird and odd about it, but ultimately seeing how the audience appreciated it is why I’ve been able to perform for the past four years.”

Deb was surprised and overjoyed when she was named the first-place winner, as all her hard work and dedication clearly paid off. In the future, she hopes to follow her passion and travel to South India which is where her dance styles originated, and, in time, hopefully pursue a PhD in dance.

Second place went to the closing act, Stoneflower, a band who made their debut at this year’s talent show. Stoneflower consists of four musicians: vocalist and Physics major Jake V (‘25), guitarist and Finance major Natheniel Nikhamin (‘25), bassist and Finance major Sebastian D’Angelo (‘25), and drummer and Aerospace major William Reda (‘25). They performed a cover of Leadbelly’s Where Did you Sleep Last Night, made famous by Nirvana’s grunge rendition on MTV’s Unplugged.

Though the band formed two years ago, this was their first performance together after an initial growth period. 

“We all came together but it never really went anywhere,” said V. “I don’t think any of us were really dedicated to music at that time.” 

Despite their lack of prior performing experience, the band’s deep connection to the music shone through their passionate vocals and powerful instrumentals.

V noted that despite the nerves of being on stage for the first time, a connection to the music itself helped the band carry on.“I came into the show with the song first thing in mind,” he noted,  “It’s a song I’ve always felt dear to my heart.” 

The Talent Show opened Stoneflower up to expand their presence. 

“Having my first show done, I kind of fell in love with the entire process of rehearsing for something, building that purpose, seeing the award laid out in front of you before your eyes, and being able to talk to the crowd and feel their response,” explained V. “I think it opened my eyes to a possibility in musicianship in the future. Me and my band are actually taking things seriously and looking into more performance opportunities.”

Biological Sciences major Stuti Das (‘26) won the third spot on the podium for her dance performance set to a mashup of Burn It to the Ground by Shreea Kaul, Jiya Jale by Lata Mangeshkar and M. G. Sreekumar, and Lotus’ Bhangra remix of Superhero by Metro Boomin and RONDO by 6ix9ine. She previously won third place during the 2023 Talent Show for a Bharatanatyam fusion dance. This year, she presented a blend of dance styles, including Bharatnatyam, Bollywood, and Bhangra. 

Much of her inspiration for her choreography came from trending South Asian dances on social media, drawing from TikTok creators Namera Newaz and FSO. Adding her own touches into these dances, Das was able to intrigue the audience by fusing Western music with South Asian songs and dance styles. 

Das expressed that she was excited to present her culture on stage and cater it to an audience at Brooklyn Tech. 

“I’ve always been very proud of my culture and representing it since I was a little kid, especially because I perform a lot outside of school,” she said. “I’ve done talent shows in my elementary school and middle school and I’ve always incorporated some kind of South Asian dance element into it because no matter how much I love ballet, contemporary, or hip hop, I’ll always feel like [South Asian dances] are my comfort zone.”

Das has a long history of training in various styles of dance, starting with her introduction to Bharatanatyam and Bangla Folk at age two, and then Ballet, Contemporary, and Jazz dance at age five. Her biggest role model is her mother, who owns a dance school that Das has been a part of since her early childhood. 

In the future, she hopes to pursue a double dance major or minor in college , and travel while teaching dance workshops, all while growing a social media presence and making plans to one day take over her mother’s dance school. 

Beyond the top three, The Cherries, a band comprised of vocalist and Social Science Research major Monica McSchane (‘26), drummer and Architectural Engineering major Kleo Nelson (‘25), pianist and Biological Sciences major Natsume Odani (‘26), and bassist Annette Leah Reisner (‘27) received an honorable mention for their performance of You Sent Me Flying by Amy Winehouse.  Their performance was a mix of jazz and soul, with McSchane’s expressive vocals carrying the emotional weight of the song. The band’s tight rhythm section, featuring Nelson on drums and Reisner on bass, provided a steady groove, while Odani’s jazz-infused piano playing added richness to the arrangement. 

There was also a diverse array of standout performances, including a Latin dance performance by Theresa Feng (‘28), a pen tapping composition by Law and Society major Eric Chen (‘25), an original piano composition by Helen Ye (‘28), and many more. 

While the talent on stage was undeniable, the show was not without its hiccups. Fire alarms went off unexpectedly, adding an additional level of stress to the audience and performers. Talent show co-hosts Dean Ms. Jacqueline Manduley and Law and Society major Hannah Chiang (‘25), stage crew, and other organizers faced technical difficulties, as they were unable to control the alarms. 

“The fire [alarms] messed up my tempo and that killed what the original beat I was going to do,” said Chen. “I tried to synchronize my pen tapping with the alarm but the alarm has 5 different tempos every time so it was hard to find a beat that kept up with them.”

The flashing lights also posed safety concerns, and as a result the stage crew had to keep the house lights on for the duration of the performances. This, unfortunately, took away the immersive quality of the acts, but the performers’ resilience kept the energy high.

“At first, my initial thought was that somebody pulled the bells and that it was a security issue, but then they just kept going off,” said Ms. Manduley. “I felt horrible for the performers to be interrupted like that and it’s just devastating to just have to go with it. It’s one thing to have the audience dark and you don’t have to deal with seeing people, but then all of a sudden you have the [house] lights on and it’s startling. My heart went out to them but I thought that they handled it like professional performers.”

Performers also highlighted several organizational issues, including rushed rehearsals and a lack of promotion for the show, which low audience turnout would suggest may have been the case. 

“We didn’t really find out about the auditions until the day before they were happening,” said V. “The school didn’t do much advertising. Maybe I didn’t check my emails as frequently as I should’ve, but after auditions we only had a week to rehearse after being accepted into the show, so there wasn’t really a lot of preparation.”

Other logistical problems contributed to the limited amount of rehearsal time. “During the rehearsal two days before, [The National Honors Society] was holding their general meeting [in the auditorium where the Talent Show rehearsals where scheduled for] and Ms. Menduley was very angry because not only did it cut off time for us to rehearse, but a lot of [performers] walked in and saw a lot of people and assumed there wasn’t a rehearsal that day even though that was an important rehearsal,” Das noted.

With lessons learned, future talent shows will hopefully be better organized and more widely publicized, ensuring even more student participation and a larger audience. The 2024 Brooklyn Tech Talent Show proved that while not everything went according to plan, the spirit and creativity of the performers took the spotlight, leaving the audience eagerly anticipating next year’s showcase of student talent.