This year’s Falls Church High School Heritage Night took place on February 27, after having to be rescheduled twice due to snow days. The show was well worth the wait, as the 25th annual Heritage Night was packed with great performances.

Julia Rodriguez, a senior here at FC, started off the night with opening remarks and welcomed out Mrs. Lafayette who is the grandmother of Paul and John Keating. Mrs. Lafayette mentioned how diverse this school is and how hard these performers have been working.

After the opening remarks, the Podsters came out to the stage to a warm welcome from the audience. The Podsters had composed a video of them singing about “Nothing Going To Keep Me Down” which was played on the big screen. Next was an a Capella choir with lead singer, freshman Sebastian Marulanda, who sang “Feeling Good” by Michael Buble. Sebastian moved on March 10 and thanked everyone at Falls Church for his time here before his performance. Then, Shianne Riley (11) sang “Rhiannon” by Stevie Nicks accompanied by Mr. Walker on the guitar. For the last act of the North American section, Rixcy Guardado (9) danced to a remix of popular songs today.

Next, Khasiah Murray (9) sang and danced representing her country of Congo. The following act was Russian exchange student, Anastasia Kriazheva (11), and Kate Maines (12) recited a poem in Russian. Anastasia spoke in her native language in Russian, while Kate translated it into English. Kiran Cardozo (10) came to the stage next and performed a Rangde and Nagada Dhol Baje Dance Mix. The last performer before the intermission was Lamya Alkayal who sang “I Will Forget You If” in Arabic.

The second half of the show started off with the cultural fashion show, which had many different countries represented. After the fashion show, Nation 5 comprised of Nono Sese (10), Sadya Ouedraogo (12), Sarah Arkoh (10), Aminata Koroma (10), and Jennifer Osifo (12) performed an African dance mix. The first singer for the Latin American part of the show was Flavia Fernandez (12) who sang “Como Se Cura Una Herida” by Jaci Velasquez. The next singer was Katie Reyes (11) who sang Vivir Sin Ti by Lali Torres.

Next up was the Guitar Class from FC who performed an instrumental. The next performers were the very popular Chicken and Rice, comprised of Destiny Sanchez (12), Dayionne Jones (12), Bona Im (11), and Jennifer Pak (11). They danced to a remix of popular songs and stuck with their usual masks for the beginning part of the act. The final act was by senior Max Warasila, who played and sang Landed by Ben Folds on the piano.

As always the Falls Church High School Heritage Night was full of talent, and reminded everyone that we are one world, one love.