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Home grown talent on display at the Dekker Center

Mar 7, 2016 | 4:43 PM

Some of the Battlefords most talented musicians took the stage of the Dekker Centre as they presented “Home…” Saturday, Mar. 6 for the first time.

“We had all kinds of music,” co-director Dianne Gryba said. “We had dancing, rap, hip hop to opera and everything in between.”

40 performers auditioned, and were chosen by a panel. Gryba said they had originally planned on having half a dozen acts, but picked 11. “We just couldn’t reduce it anymore,” she said.

One of the criteria for choosing the acts was being able to mix them together.

“We wanted the acts to collaborate with each other,” the show’s other co-director Joanne Kasper said. “Another thing that comes out of that is that we are hoping they continue to collaborate and strengthen the musical community of the Battlefords.”

Some of the highlights were Melanie Hemmerling who sang “Habanera” from the opera Carmen. Local rapper Calvin Wuttunee, or Yung-C, rapped original songs about his life and struggles with addiction.

“Part of the vision we wanted was to broaden the audience of the Dekker Centre,” Kasper said.

She and Gryba hope to turn “Home…” into an annual event. A donation by the Rowlandson family helped in the first year, but Kasper and Gryba hope the show will be self-sufficient by their third year.

 ghiggins@jpbg.ca           

@realgreghiggins