by Eva Shaw-Gill (proud mother)
WorldStar proudly presented its 20th Annual World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) July 8-17, 2016 in Long Beach, CA also known as “Hollywood at the Beach.”
This is the official World Championship for talent and the only international event of its kind held annually with over 50 countries representing their best in dance, vocal, acting, modeling, instrumentals, etc.
All contestants compete for the “gold” and $380,000 in scholarships: $30,000 from the Millennium Dance Complex in N. Hollywood, CA; $150,000 from New York Film Academy, and $200,000 from the New York Conservatory for Film and Television.
Among this years competition was Kaitlyn Shaw, a rising senior at William Fleming High School. She loves modeling and playing volleyball. Her plans are to become a professional model while attending college, majoring in law, as she aspires to be a lawyer and eventually a judge.
Her journey began 8 months ago in Roanoke when she was one of the winners in a local WCOPA talent search. With hard work, training and fundraising she landed in California.
Friday, July 8 was check-in time at the beautiful Westin Hotel in Long Beach and registration. Saturday morning “Boot Camp” began with an intense training camp exclusively for dancers, singers, actors, performers and models. Kaitlyn attended Boot Camp for models, “the good, the bad, and the ugly side of modeling”, from 9:00 am-9:00 pm.
At the Opening Ceremony on Sunday, representatives from over 50 countries met at the Long Beach Performing Arts Center to display costumes representative of their country. Team USA’s theme was Marvel/DC, villain and hero adventure costumes. Kaitlyn was the Black Widow.
Monday and Tuesday featured the Preliminary competition. Every contestant gave 100% to impress the judges with hopes of making it to the semi-finals.
On Wednesday, all eyes were glued to a TV monitor, which would display the names of the contestants who advanced to the semi-finals.
Kaitlyn Shaw made the cut! Also, contestants who impressed the judges, agents, managers, casting directors, etc. received “Go Sees,” a slip of paper with the contestants name and number, along with the name of the person/company that would like to sit down with you one on one (as a job interview). Kaitlyn received two “Go Sees”!
On Thursday semi-finalists had to prepare to impress a new set of judges and again anxiously await their decision to hear who made it to “Finals”. An announcement of the contestants who would be moving on began by age group, then by category and in alphabetical order. At 9:11 p.m. Pacific Time the announcement came that Kaitlyn Shaw would be moving on to the final competition!
Friday entailed all day rehearsals for the finalist, 5:00 p.m. Red Carpet Interviews, followed by the pre-show and the Finals that began at 7:00. These talented finalists put on one heck of a show and kept the crowd signing, dancing in their seats and truly amazed. The judges’ scores were tallied and the host and co-host announced the winners–again by age group, category and in alphabetical order.
Kaitlyn did not win the over all modeling competition but made a fantastic first impression and represented Team USA and Roanoke very well. So, well in fact on Saturday, during the Award/Medal Ceremony she received 3 Gold Medals, 2 Silver and one Bronze, and has one modeling agency and a Swimsuit Line agent interested in her possibly modeling for them in the future.
The WCOPA experience ended with a celebration party Saturday night that provided an opportunity for the 50 countries to unwind and have fun! New friendships were made and phone numbers/addresses exchanged. What a wonderful experience for all to witness!
During Kaitlyn’s tight training, practice, and rehearsal schedule, her mother Eva managed to sneak away and visit bother Robyn Hale and other family and friends including old NSU roommate Deanna Latimore.
On Sunday they traveled to Malibu so Kaitlyn could visit Pepperdine University. The campus was simply breath taking. Touring the law building and the law library. The campus sits on a mountain that overlooks the beautiful ocean and Malibu beach. Not expecting to see the volleyball coach, but there she was assisting her father with a boys volleyball camp. She gave Kaitlyn a tour of the volleyball facility, just another highlight to add to the many on this West Coast trip.
