Annual Holiday Party Arrives

Northwest Academy will be holding its annual Holiday Party tomorrow. It will feature performances from students studying improv, guitar, vocal, dance and band.

“This year the Holiday Party will be featuring more performances by a larger portion of our student body,” Wade Willis, the high school Vocal Music, Theatre and Actor’s Workshop teacher, said. “There will be a fantastic visual art display that will fill the reception hall, and the advanced vocal choir will be singing as people enter the church. We have many more performances and attractions planned this year.”

Isabelle Grossmann-Ferris, a middle school vocal and dance student, is excited.

“Everyone really liked it,” she said. “In dance, we worked on our performance for the entire year, and it really paid off. Our vocal piece also went really well.”

In addition, many performing arts teachers see the Holiday Party as an opportunity for their students to get over their fears of performing in front of large audiences.

“It’s a much less stressful environment,” Jim Little, the band teacher said. “The students will be playing for family and friends. Their audience will support them and clap for them even if they’re not so good. This is just a great environment for a first performance.”

Dan Dunning, the high school guitar teacher had similar views on the holiday party.

“Having a performance to look forward to really helps motivate students to practice because the outcome of playing in front of others is an authentic assessment,” he said. “Additionally, students definitely build comfort with each performance, so having opportunities to build confidence in smaller shows helps them improve confidence in preparation for larger performances.”

The Holiday Party is a great event for the entire community, not just the students.

“The Holiday Party and arts week are the two times of year where our entire community gets to see performances,” Willis said. “Even though we have performances here and there, this and Arts Week are the two considerably large events where families and friends get to see many of the students perform.”

Although this event is a long-lasting tradition, past Northwest Academy Holiday Parties did receive some mixed reviews.

“Last year’s Holiday Party wasn’t very well prepared,” Ezra Sargent, a freshman, said. “We had to cut out an entire song because the singers weren’t ready to sing it. A lot of it was last minute. Some performances were prepared only two days before the event.”

The Holiday Party begins at 6 p.m. with a reception, arts gallery and performances.

(Additional reporting by Paolo Rueda)