On Thursday, April 20th, we had our second to last formal of the 2022-23 school year. Even more important was what took place after the dinner ended. We had a spring art showcase that put together a culmination of some talented students performing and then all showing their art to the whole school for one final time this year. Here are some of the highlights.
I want to start off by saying how impressive it is that this showcase was directed by one of our students, Kiet Do ’23. He helped plan the show with the help of many students backstage. Not every day one of our fellow students gets to direct a show that the community gets to see. When asked about the showcase, Kiet said, “It was a great experience to direct a show for the school. It brought a lot to my understanding of a show experience, and it is something I’d love to look into it more in the future.” It’s excellent that Northwood provides these opportunities for students like Kiet to expand their interests in such specialties. As for Kiet, directing the show wasn’t the only thing he did to contribute to the showcase. He also produced a video that showed what the performers go through to prepare for the show. It showed a backstage perspective of each of the arts that were showcased. Kiet said, “It fits my goal to see what happens before the show and showing people the work and practice it takes for a performance to reach the stage.” It was an awesome video, and here is a huge shoutout to all the work Kiet put into the performance.
Another big part of the showcase was the dance performances. This was the last performance that the dance program would showcase their talents in front of the community because the dance program will not continue next year. Since this was the last school performance, I wanted to get the perspective of a senior dancer that performed in the show. “One of my favorite parts of dance is the performance, but dancing in front of the school is honestly more nerve-wracking than the other performances we have done,” Jazlyn Lluberes ’23 said. I don’t think that is hard to understand, because performing in front of your peers is always challenging. It requires being vulnerable for the whole school to see. Jazlyn reflected on the last dance performance. “It was a bittersweet moment… it was hard knowing that any underclass dancer would never be able to showcase their hard work to the Northwood community again,” she said. I’m sure we can all understand the pain she is feeling, but for now, we can congratulate the dancers on a successful few shows and wish them luck on their dance journeys.
Some of the best experiences were the singing and instrumental performances. It’s pretty awesome to watch students you see around school take on the challenge of performing in front of the whole community. It takes a lot of courage to get up on the stage, and I commend each of them for going out there and killing it. One of the performers, Hudson Dinapoli ’23, sang along with a band that had been practicing for months. Some of these students have never touched an instrument and are now on stage. It doesn’t get much better than that. DiNapoli is known for being an energetic guy; he and his bandmates didn’t disappoint with his performance. “It was a surreal experience getting to perform in front of the school and community,” DiNapoli said. “I had a lot of fun with the band, and it looked like everyone enjoyed the show.”
Jazlyn Lluberes ’23 (photos: Mr. Michael Aldridge)
Kiet Do ’23
Hudson DiNapoli ’23
Being in the audience, I can say that the show was a blast and it had something for everyone to enjoy.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support the performers because they worked extremely hard to put on this show for the school. Again, I want to commend all the performers because getting on stage in front of the whole community is very impressive.