We had our 
kidstarz and Teenstarz summer class showcase concerts last Saturday. It’s hard as a teacher to really enjoy the moment when you’re a cog in the machine, so now that I’ve caught my breath a bit I wanted to share my experience at the showcase concerts.
The Kidstarz (ages 5-8) did such a great job of remembering everything. They learned all of the words, music, and movement, and made their own costumes in only five classes and we even some last minute stage changes but they sailed through it all.
Both classes performed songs from four distinct genres and styled for each. One of the things I teach is how to recover from mistakes, since something will inevitably go wrong when you’re performing. Good thing we covered it, because we had a technical snafoo that caused a break in the flow. They carried it off without a hitch, helping me show the audience some of the things we’d learned while we waited for our next song to begin. No nerves (on the outside anyway). They were little pro’s.
The Kidstarz performed four songs. Arlie added the solo ‘Love Story’ and Kimberlee sang ‘Twinkle Twinkle’. Both did such a great job. Dylan did an incredible job with his hip hop routine featured during ‘Beat It’. He started out as one of three boys but scheduling conflicts left him the lone guy. He had such a great attitude throughout and his dance was the breakout surprise of the final number.
I was so blessed to have such a great group of kids to work with. They amazed me. See all the pictures here.
The second showcase, Kidstarz (10-16) or as I call them, Teenstarz, performed a total of 11 songs, 4 of them group numbers and the rest solos. We had American Idol style critiques during our classes that were sometimes tough and worked on stage movement, mic technique and vocal skills. It was so great to see each one of them improve so much from week one to the showcase. We originally planned for this group to be 12-16 yr. olds but we had two exceptional 10 year olds, Hayley and Brianna, who were right at home working hard with the others.
The Teenstarz were the most attentive group of tweens and teens I have ever worked with (that’s good parenting is what THAT is!). In fact, I kept adding more challenging material than I had planned each week and they tackled it all. I so appreciated their team attitude and their work ethic. This can be a very catty age, and there was not a hint of it in this group. I never heard anyone talking about others, but I saw all of them encouraging each other.
Through both classes it was so cool to watch their eyes light up when they sang and to see the audiences reaction. Pictures and video (soon) of both showcases is here.
They say ‘Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” Well I believe singers sing. And as a singer I can tell you that I’ve spent most of my life far preferring to sing over teach. But I have to say, on Saturday, it was a complete joy to watch these two classes perform; the kind of joy that could make me almost happier to help others find more passion in singing than to do it myself. Almost.
“The only thing better than singing, is more singing.” -Ella Fitzgerald
