Page 8 - Dinuba Sentinel 1-24-19 E-edition

A8 | Thursday, January 24, 2019 Back Page The Dinuba Sentinel
Dinuba's got talent, lots of talent
Some of the lineup for Saturday night's DHS Talent Show include performances by Citlaly Garcia, left, Pearla Cazares, center (Winner of the 2017 Talent Show) and Ramon Navarro, right. A total of 16 acts will take the stage on Saturday night.
Dinuba High School Talent Show is Saturday, 7 p.m. at Heilbaum Auditorium
Rick Curiel | The Sentinel
Teens
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in church, where it allowed him to find opportunities to be a leader in Vacation Bible School, serve food at church luncheons and even help rebuild family homes that were burnt in recent forest fires.
Rodriguez has also taken full advantage of Dinuba High School’s Medical Career Pathway Academy, where he was chosen his freshman year to be a representative for the academy in New York. He is now looking to pursue a future in medicine by attending UC San Diego, where he plans to major in Biology.
He has been involved in HOSA, MED and Link Crew. He was also the Junior ASB President last year. In his time at Dinuba High School he has also participated in four sports, basketball, water polo, football and golf. Of the four sports he’s played, he said golf is his favorite.
Lauryn Paredez
Rodriguez isn’t the only candidate who prefers golf. Lauryn Paredez is also fond of the sport. She took it up her sophomore year when she found out that she didn’t have to take P.E. if she played two sports. At the time she was playing softball and needed to add just one more sport - so she added golf.
As it turns out, Paredez is a natural at the sport and is the Co-Captain of the Lady Emperors golf team. She has lettered in the sport and has also been named to the All League Team. The honors have earned her a scholarship to Tabor College in Kansas.
On top of being a natural at golf, Paredez is also an academic star. Her cumulative GPA is 4.21, good enough for 11th in her class.
She also participates in HOSA, MED and the California Scholastic Federation.
Her future plans are to pursue a career in medicine and hopes to become an anesthesiologist.
"I am a student, an athlete, a 'MED kid and a daughter," said Paredez. "All these have contributed to my personality and have made me who I am today, and who I strive to be tomorrow."
By Rick Curiel
School, when she took third place in the competition.
“I had the feeling that, hopefully, I would get better,” said Cazares of receiving third place her freshman year. So she put in a lot of practice for the following year and had a good feeling about her chances.
“I wasn’t nervous or shy when I competed,” she said of her performance the following year. “So I had a good feeling but I was still surprised I won.”
She expressed taking pride in the victory because it was out of the norm for the talent show.
“Dancers usually don’t win,” said Cazares. “It’s usually the singers that win.”
As for her style, Cazares admits it’s a style of her own. It’s a mix of pop and interpretive, free flowing and freestyle. One of the things that also makes her performance unique is that every time she steps on the stage she doesn’t know what to expect. “I don’t really know what’s going to happen when I do a song,”
said Cazares. “Each time I do something different. I don’t have a routine. I just do what I feel. How I express myself is how the beat moves me.”
Last year was the only year she didn’t compete in the talent show. Instead, Cazares was at a youth retreat in Three Rivers as part of her faith formation for confirmation at St. Catherine’s Catholic Church.
As far as her return to the stage, Cazares said there is more to performing than just winning.
“It’s not really about winning or losing,” she expressed. “It’s about me showing what I like to do... I’ve always liked to dance.”
Also performing on Saturday night will be Dinuba High junior Daniel Gutierrez, who will be performing a genre in Spanish music called ‘Regional Mexican’. And like Cazares, this is not Gutierrez’s first rodeo when it comes to performing in talent shows.
Gutierrez has experience in the talent arena that has
earned him a spot on television, twice. Last year he performed in the Estrella TV talent show ‘Tengo Talento, Mucho Talento’ (Translated: ‘I’ve got talent, lots of talent’.)
To audition for the show, Gutierrez traveled to Burbank, Ca. where he was among hundreds competing for a spot on the show. Gutierrez made the cut after his performance, where he both sang and played guitar. In fact, Gutierrez made it all the way to the quarterfinals and nearly made the final six, but was the final one cut prior to the start of the finals.
“I was really nervous,” said Gutierrez of his audition for the Spanish talent show. “But it was interesting. The audition was full of people but, after that, we sang in a studio and the studio was small so it made it easier.”
Gutierrez said he has only been singing for about three years now, and playing the guitar for about two. He said he was inspired to get into music
after hearing the music of Ariel Camacho, a young Mexican artist who died tragically in an auto accident a few years ago.
“When I first heard him I thought, wow, I want to do that,” said Gutierrez.
He added that his family was a bit surprised by his new love of music.
“When I asked my dad for my first guitar, he was like ‘What?’” recalled Gutierrez. “No one in my family is a musician. I’m the only one.”
Gutierrez said he now even performs gigs here and there with a small group of friends.
Also performing will be Citlaly Garcia, who has a way with the guitar and a voice akin to a mesh of a young Shakira with a bit of Sheryl Crow.
These are just a few of the performers that will be taking the stage on Saturday night.
The talent show will be held at Dinuba High School’s Heilbaum Auditorium, beginning at 7 p.m. Tickets for adults are $8 and
Editor@thedinubasentinel.com
Prepare to be impressed.
That is, if you plan to attend Dinuba High School’s talent show on Saturday, Jan. 26.
Just based on rehearsals from Monday afternoon, where just some of the 16 contestants rehearsed their routines in preparation for Saturday’s show, the level of talent here at Dinuba High School only continues to climb.
One of the talent acts will be by Dinuba High senior Pearla Cazares, who was the winner of the talent show two years ago. Cazares is like any other teenage student, with one big difference. She loves to dance.
Dancing isn’t anything new for Cazares, she said she’s been dancing since she was three. And talent shows aren’t new to her either. This will be her fourth talent show competition, having competed in junior high and her freshman year at Dinuba High
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