Families and friends packed Sippican Elementary School’s auditorium on Tuesday night for the fourth Sippican’s Got Talent show. The evening featured over 30 performances by about 60 students, including dancing, singing, and piano playing.
Stacey Soucy, the school’s enrichment teacher, has helped to organize the talent show since it first began four years ago. Despite the energy it takes to keep the attention of five dozen students, she loves offering the chance for parents and friends to see their talented children on stage, under the spotlights.
“I love seeing them with their costumes. You can tell how much time they have put into their routines. That’s my favorite part,” said Soucy before the show.
She put together the talent show with the assistance of the Sippican School Student Council, who opened the show with a dance in the pitch dark, each member wearing a black body suit with neon green glow sticks attached to the front, in the form of a stick figure. They danced to a medley of modern pop and rock tunes, before two members of the Student Council took over the mic to act as Emcees for the evening.
As each student dared to dance, joke, and sing in front of an audience of their eager peers and families, their smiles got bigger and the cheers got louder. It seemed that the performers knew that, no matter what happened during their acts, everything was going to be great and their friends and parents were there to support them.
Third grader Emma Williamson was in the follow-up act to the Student Council’s neon stick figure dance. She and her friend Grace Magee danced to a song from one of their favorite websites, Moshi Monsters. It was her first talent show, and her father, Roger, and step-mother Liz were in the audience.
“I’m very nervous, but I’m very excited for her,” said Roger. “We’ve seen a little bit of the routine, but not the whole thing,” Liz said.
It seemed that the majority of the performances were designed or created by the students, with very little outside help. Emma and Magee’s dance was choreographed by the girls themselves, who are also neighbors. “She got together with one of her friends down the street, and they came up with this together,” said Roger.
In addition to featuring student performers, the tickets and refreshments were also sold by enthusiastic Sippican School students.
By Eric Tripoli