Superior Elementary performs annual concert

SUPERIOR - The Superior Elementary School held an annual spring concert April 16, featuring an American Bandstand theme in front of a full house.

It’s a Superior Elementary tradition, one that signals the start of the Easter holiday. Days before a long weekend with family and friends, these students are vigorously putting the last touches on a well thought out rehearsal, something they have likely rehearsed for weeks to prepare.

Rockin’ Robin, the host who stood on a tiny blue platform, holding a corded microphone made every announcement and introduction with ease.

Elementary students from Amber Winters’ music class belted out hits like ‘Splish Splash’ by Bobby Darin, among other greatest hits from the Bandstand era, which was a TV show in the late 1950s running until the 1980s. The show featured artists who sang while people danced around the stage and at home.

Children stood on an elevated platform before the audience and performed songs from the era, singing duets and even doing a little swing dancing and backflips. 

The boys looked charming wearing matching red cummerbunds and bowties, while some of the girls draped sweaters around their necks.

The children filed into the gym in a neat line, sitting on either side of the floor, waiting patiently with their teachers until it was their time to perform. 

Parents took pictures often and the flash of each camera twinkled like fireflies on a warm summer night.

Cue cards were there to help the children in case they forgot a line, some used them as a guide while others barely looked in their direction.

Winter paced about in front of her pupils, energetically swaying to the music, the children following her every move.

One girl performed a solo on a guitar, followed by a boy who did the same.  

There was one dressed like a cat, and a girl dressed like a man with a big bushy fake mustache and top hat.

There was a couch, draped with a sheet except it wasn’t a couch at all it was a park bench. Some of the girls dove on it, giggly talking about boys. 

The hour-long performance reminisced of a simple time period when girls courted the high school quarterback while going to drive-ins and paying cents on the dollar for gas. 

Onlookers were mesmerized as the little ones put on a show to thunderous applause and satisfaction. The performance was perfectly choreographed, each student had a part whether it was a feature performance, or an on stage solo. One of the performers even decided to take the performance in another direction by jumping off the stage whenever she felt like it, twirling around and dancing by herself. The audience loved every minute of it. She would then go back to her regular performance before coming back out and doing it again. 

The concert ended, and teacher and students took a gracious bow and the young performers anxiously made their way off the standing platforms and into the arms of their parents, who hugged and congratulated them as they escorted them to cars. The end of the school day was over, and only a mere two days existed between them and a relaxing holiday weekend.