Talent

By Tanya Dimitrova

Our cohort's Talent Show last month was a very special event for me. (And I believe for a lot of other people too.) :)

I have to admit that organizing it was... tiny little bit slightly challenging. ERG's Annual Talent Show is conceived as a team building event for each cohort in their first year, so the entire class had to contribute is some way. This was not my show.

But it's not just that, there is also stage fright to be defeated, and priorities to be rearranged. After all, who has time to think about a talent show when John Hart's ER102 problem sets are due every week!

Just when I was about to give up (roughly two weeks before the date), things suddenly started coming together! Right in the middle of preparation for finals, the cohort discovered new motivation and we started bouncing ideas off each other.

The day of the Talent Show itself was... pure magic. We put everything together as a team more or less in the last minute, and we all felt... inspired.

Thank you class, from the bottom of my heart.

Yours truly,

Tanya

Dimitry was the best MC EVER! Totally ad-lib-ed the whole thing, but made it seem smooth...

I didn't know that one of John's many talents was poetry writing...

This is what Dick's primary activity after his retirement would look like... ;)

The audience felt inspired too and everyone was dancing!

A remix of Price Tag and Under the Bridge, dedicated to Dick. Check out the lyrics at the end of this post.

Josiah's legendary performance...

We tried to make Dick feel right at home: camping on the 8th floor of Barrows!

A glimpse of our Rock opera - tribute to Dick (check out the lyrics below). FYI, Dimitry is a bus driver!

The incredible class of 2012.

Dick abandoning colors yet again!

Thank you Sharada for being ERG's official and most talented photographer and donating this beautiful album to us! :) (The full album is available here.)

This is the only video available for now. More to come later and I will share them as soon as I have them. This is ERG Salsa Social team! I am extremely proud of each and every one of these dancers!

The one thing Dimitry forgot to mention when he was introducing us, was that this ENTIRE dance was pure improvisation, not a choreography! It is called Rueda de Casino and is typical for Cuban salsa!
 

We didn't know what was coming next, as it was being made up on the moment by the person calling the rueda. All the more reason to be proud! :)

And finally, here are the remixed songs we sang in honor of Dick.

Price Tag 
Original lyrics by Jessie J and B.O.B.

Seems like everybody's got a price,
I wonder how they sleep at night. 
When the sale comes first,
And the truth comes second,
Just stop for a minute and smile.
Why is economics so serious
Acting so damn mysterious
You got your price on your mind
And your value so high
That you can't even have a good time

Everybody look to their left
Everybody look to their right
Can you feel that we'll pay them with love tonight...

It's not about the money, money, money
We don't need your money, money, money
We just wanna make the world dance, 
Forget about the price tag.

We need to take it back in time, 
When value made us all unite!
It wasn't low blows and video hoes, 
Am I the only getting tired?
Why is everybody so obsessed?
Money can't buy us happiness.
If we all slow down and enjoy right now
Guarantee we'll be feelin' all right.

We'll keep the supply/ we won't take the demand
Just give me the IPCC/ and we'll make a plan
Put in some carbon tax/ give us all the facts
And all I need is to take a stand
And guess what, this year he's retiring hard
He's leaving across these undefeatable odds
It's like this man, you can't put a price on life.
We do ERG for the love and we sacrifice every night
So we ain't gonna stumble and fall never
Waiting to see a sign of defeat uh-uh
So we gon keep everyone moving their feet
So bring back the beat and everybody sing
It's not about the money, money, money...

~~

We will rock you... tribute to Dick Norgaard
Original lyrics by Queen

[Protesting crowd in the 60s]

Buddy you're a spray man bug man
making all the poison going up in the air today
You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Overexposed all over the place

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

Buddy you're a water man dam man
Killing all the fish in the river and the streams today
You got blood on your face
You big disgrace
Sucking it dry all over the place

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

Buddy you're an oil man tar man
Drilling those fields and spilling in the gulf today
You got mud on your face
You big disgrace
Spewing your gas all over the place

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

Buddy you're a delta man, pipe man
Seeing all the streams running low
Can really wreck your day.
All these silos must be 
Run differently
Try interdisciplinarity!

We will we will block you
We will we will block you

[Change in scene. Wearing black, present times.]

I've paid my fees
Time after time
I've done my homework
And submitted online

And bad mistakes 
I've made a few
There are lots of things fucked up on this earth
We've got shit to do

We are the ERGies, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the ERGies
We are the ERGies
No time for losing
Cause we are the ERGies - save the world!

I've got big goals
And my Macbook Pro
You brought me drive and insight and everything that goes with it. 
I thank you all.

But it's been no bed of roses
No pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose

We are the ERGies, my friends
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the ERGies
We are the ERGies
No time for losing
Cause we are the ERGies - save the world!

I will post the videos here as they become available

THE SPIRIT DANCE

THE TURTLE KING

WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SHOW HERE: