AWR Students Share Their Talents in Annual Show

If you’re a parent, you know your kids are talented. Whether they sing like Justin Bieber in the shower, ingeniously apply their math skills to real-life situations, or get everyone laughing at their jokes at the dinner table, you probably see it all the time.

On Friday night, students in grades 5 and 6 at Allen W. Roberts Elementary School had the unique opportunity to perform those talents for their peers, teachers, friends, and relatives, and to receive some public recognition for their creative abilities, at the annual AWR Talent Show.

Nearly forty rising stars took the stage throughout the evening and entertained the audience by singing, dancing, acting, playing musical instruments, and even rapping.

“It’s an opportunity for the kids to express themselves in a different way than they can sometimes in the classroom,” said AWR Assistant Principal Justin Fiory of the show. “You see a different side of students and a lot of times, it’s just really nice to see them shine in a different setting.”

The talent show began with a welcome from the show’s director Susan Peterson, who announced, “Vital equipment has gone missing between dress rehearsal and now. However, that’s not going to take away from the work the kids have done.”

And it certainly did not. The audience barely noticed the technical difficulties that Peterson had referred to as they watched the students sing and dance and bring smiles to the faces of the onlookers, many of whom were clapping along to the rhythm of the songs they recognized.

Student emcees Paul and Ryan Seth kept the show moving with colorful commentary and comic remarks, which were used to introduce each of the acts and their respective performers.

The first hour of the AWR Talent Show was a showcase of fifth grade talent and featured acts such as an original rap performed by Ricky Miensky and one other student who cannot be named, called “Someone I Wasn’t,” a rendition of “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” sung by Gabi Tullo, a duet version of the Bruno Mars song “Grenade” as performed by Tyler DeGeorge and David Wilderotter, and an upbeat dance number to Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me,” performed and choreographed by a group of six fifth grade girls.

After a brief intermission and word from AWR’s Parent Teacher Association, which sponsored the event, the second act followed, featuring the talents of AWR sixth graders.

The show’s second half included an Irish dance performance by Kerry Buckman and Maggie Kruger, a solo rendition of “When Will My Life Begin” from Disney’s Tangled performed by Sarah Peterson, and an original skit called “Talent Show Gone Wrong,” which involved six of the six grade girls.

“I think that the best thing about it is that it is run by the kids, for the kids, and they do everything," Fiory said of the show. "They develop all their parts, all their dance routines; they do it all, together.”

Both Fiory and Peterson noted that the parents, most of whom are PTA volunteers, do assist with practices and approve of some of the talent choices. But for the most part, the kids do all the work. Even the stage and lighting crews are composed solely of students, including an AWR graduate who returned to help with this year’s show.

“We make some tweaks along the way… but they choose their own thing. If they dance, they choreograph it. If they sing, they practice on their own,” said Peterson, who noted that some of the students have been practicing and preparing for their big stage moments since early January.

Peterson explained that the in-school practices are held mainly to see what the kids look like on stage and to work with the technical aspects of the performance. She said students only had an opportunity to be on the stage three times before taking their places in the spotlight on Friday night.

“It always amazes me every single year what these kids come out with," the director said. "They’re only fifth and sixth graders, and they’re willing to get up and sing and dance, or make a fool out of themselves—and they’ve just got such talent and energy.”

The 2011 AWR Talent Show is the eleventh that Peterson has been involved with, and it will also be her last. She began her career with the talent show when her daughter was a fourth grader. That same daughter is now a freshman in college.

This year, Peterson’s youngest daughter will be completing her last year at AWR and the veteran Talent Show Director will be leaving her position. After the conclusion of the show, Peterson took a moment to thank those who she has worked with over the years.

“You can’t compare them – you just can’t," she said of the shows she’s directed and worked on. "They’re all different and the kids are different.”

The friday evening of performances officially concluded with a celebratory cast party in the elementary school cafeteria where students received participation certificates and congratulations from friends and family members.

“It’s just really nice to see the kids’ faces and the smiles and know that they did this themselves and accomplished such a nice thing on their own," Fiory said.