Emersyn's winter festival (aka school Christmas concert) was held last night at the Catalonia Maroma resort. We didn't know how long it would take to get there so we left in plenty of time for the 530 pm start. When we arrived at the gates there was a line up of cars and the resort staff greeted all wearing our school's Colegio Ingles t-shirts!
We finally found a parking spot and made our way into the auditorium 10 minutes before the start! This "festival" was for 5 classes of prekinder, kinder and preparataria (preschool, kindergarten and preparation for grade 1) ... and, wow were there people there! All of the 3, 4 and 5 year olds arrived in their costumes for the evening's performances and were all seated with their teachers to await their call to the stage. We were greeted by the head principal (all in Spanish) and got settled in to enjoy the evening. A large screen dropped and the beginning of "Polar Express" began to play.
Each class was assigned a song and each child within that class was assigned a costume. The children had been working on their dances for what seemed like weeks and we got to see rehearsals nightly in our living room! Emersyn's class performed a dance to "Let it Snow" and all wore pajama related costumes. Emy was in a short colorful nightie with a matching nightcap and absolutely danced her butt off! She was so cute ... her arms shook, her hips twisted and her feet never stopped moving!
I taped the performance with as much zoom as my camera would allow. I later discovered that there was an area reserved for parents of the kids on stage to take photography and video tape up close. Again, the introduction was all in Spanish and all I understood was chickas, ninos and Feliz Navidad!!
Emy finished her performance, returned to sit with her class and we enjoyed the last 4 or 5 performances. At the conclusion of the evening all the classes gathered on the stage and sang their hearts out to "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" ... this time I went down to the "reserved area" only to find my camera battery was completely dead.
Following the festival, the families gathered for food outside of the auditorium, all of the teachers, dressed in black, gathered on the stage for pictures and the children played or visited with their parents. It was a different experience than what we were used to. Not only were the kids let out at noon yesterday to prepare for the festival, there was only one song sang by the children ~ the rest was choreographied dance numbers ~ and the costumes were what we would see in drama productions. Quite the show!
Hunter's festival is tonight and will include 11 numbers from 1st to 6th grades. His costume has been picked up, his white shoes purchased and my camera is charging as I type!
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