The 2010 Guan Ya Spring Festival Spectacular was held at the First Line Club in Dadong District of Shenyang. The festivities got underway at 1:30 PM after. The hosts of this year’s festival were Brett, Jeremy, Su Xin from Xinhua branch and Amanda from Huaxiang branch. The men were dressed in their Spring Festival finest and the ladies were stunning in the various gowns that they wore throughout the afternoon.

There were great performances from the various branch schools and individual performances by headmasters and the foreign teachers. The performances ran the gamut from song and dance, an opera song, a guzheng performance and a couple of rock songs. Here are some of the highlights from the Spring Festival Spectacular:

Brett, one of our hosts, gave one of the funniest performances of the afternoon by dressing up as a lotus flower for his branch’s performance. It was a green, red and gold color explosion. Brett was half-Buddha and half-lotus flower. Even his fingernails were exceptionally long and a little bit scary. Brett would have fit in well in Alice’s Wonderland with his costume while sitting next to the blue caterpillar.

One branch teachers wowed the audience in their red dresses and heels. They gave us a supercharged rendition of South Korea’s Super Junior’s ‘Nobody Nobody But You’. The choreography was excellent. The singers didn’t disappoint the audience either. It was a feast for the eyes and the ears.

Brendan and Ian thrilled the audience with their performance. Brendan played his guitar and was on vocals as he played with abandon and rocked the house. Ian was on his drum set-which was graciously for the two song set. After accidentally tossing a stick at the beginning of the first song, he quickly got into his groove and rocked out loud and with power. It was a great performance.

The afternoon also included several performances from various children’s groups from different branch schools. There was a great drum performance by a boys and girls group. We also saw a great Chinese guzheng (a musical relative of the zither) performance by a group of girl performers. One of the cutest performances was a young girl dressed as a tiger who performed a song and dance routine with a little bit of gymnastics.

All in all, it was a great Spring Festival performance. The performers worked hard to prepare for this annual event and it showed in their performances. The audience was enthusiastic and supportive of all the performers. This year’s Spring Festival Spectacular was one of the most interesting. It was a great way to start the Year of the Tiger and to send off the Year of the Ox. Next year’s performance should be even more exciting.