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The Middle School Art Festival

December 26, 2013

The Middle School Art Festival

The students, teachers, and administrators slowly trickled into the vast auditorium, hopes high for the entertainment to come. Not just ceilings and balconies but also eager anticipation loomed over the hundreds of people present for the Art Festival. The annual Art Festival’s curtains gently pulled open as the hosts strode on to the stage and announced the beginning of the long-awaited display of talents. The lights dimmed and the audience quieted down in anticipation as music began blasting through the amps and speakers. The back curtains lifted and the Art Festival began.

The orchestra, with its assemblage of musicians and instruments and delicate sheets of music perched on a black podium, came into view. The magnificent sight of over thirty students playing the same composition and the sounds from all manner of instruments blended into one harmonious melody were overwhelming. Waves of music flood over your senses and create a sensational experience for those on stage and below it. The audience got a chance to enjoy a wide variety of performances. The Korean pop dance routine, performed by five girls, aroused whoops and hollers from the crowd. There was an ancient Chinese martial arts performance that exhibited the spell-binding art of movement, power, and discipline. The band “The Randoms,” with its beautiful lead singers and drums, piano, guitars, and basses, gave the audience an original performance with its improvisational style of music.

A piano was then rolled onto the stage and the crowd simmered down to hear the flying fingers of young pianists-to-be. For a moment, the loud, rowdy atmosphere was gone and a feeling of serenity and calm took over. The petite shadow of the students towered over by the black cover of the grand piano created an ethereal sensation for the students onstage and below it. The performers began with their eyes closed, backs straightened, and hands poised and ready. One moment there was pressing silence, the next flying music pouring forth from the piano. The music eventually came to an end, and the audience erupted with applause, calls for an encore, and shouts of approval.

Santa Claus sauntered onstage and picked tickets with names on them out of boxes. As he read out the names, the entire auditorium held its breath and waited. Those who got chosen were ecstatic. Those who weren’t chosen remained stuck in a state of cheerful anticipation.

Smoke, Flashing lights, Blinding colors. The pounding of music, applause, shouts, and shrieks filled the auditorium. As the hosts announced the teachers’ shows, all the students laughed in remembrance of the teachers. As they went on stage, the crowd went wild. The “Time Warp” was a teacher’s show in which many teachers danced to the cheerful melodies and rhythms of jazz music. Running into the audience and grabbing random students’ arms, ignoring their protests, the teachers pulled a handful of students onstage. The auditorium filled with laughs and smiles as the students jumped and hopped around to the beat, trying to mask their embarrassment by mimicking the teachers’ dance moves.

The teachers hosted talk shows and competitions, setting talent against talent, attempting to single out the best, yet they failed. There was no best. Putting their extraordinary talent on display for others’ enjoyment, putting forth such tremendous effort, spend such long hours pouring over sheets of music, fighting the nervousness before going onstage – all the students deserve to be called the best for doing these things. The Art Festival was more than a few shows. It was a gift of gratitude from the students and teachers to the school as it prepares its students for their future. In that moment of pride and love when we look at the fruits of the students’ efforts, we know we have succeeded. In that moment, we are infinite.

(Article: 8(3) Chloe; Picture: Mr. Ni)