Santa’s elves took centre stage at Golden Ears Elementary this week during a pair of crowd-pleasing performances of the holiday musical Elflandia.
All primary students at the school took part in the production – around 250 children in kindergarten to Grade 3 in total, plus another 60 intermediate students who sang in the choir and helped with the technical side of staging the shows.
Students started rehearsing the musical in October, working with Jenny Hansen for music and Devika Chudy or Whitney Masters for dance.
“It’s part of our fine arts curriculum,” explained Chudy, a teacher-librarian. “We try to find interesting musicals that have catchy songs that we’ll enjoy singing and dancing to for three months. Elflandia is a perfect fit for our primary students. They make adorable little elves.”
Chudy says participating in the school’s annual Christmas production is a holiday highlight for students.
“The students are always excited to learn what the new musical is for this year. They work very hard most of the first term and are very proud to present to our school and parents. It’s a great opportunity for students to shine in a variety of ways whether it’s acting, singing, dancing or helping behind the scenes with the staging, lighting and sound.”
Students performed Elflandia on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19 and received spirited applause from the large audiences.
“All those months of encouragement and training pay off, and you can see that they know they’ve done a fantastic job. We couldn’t be more proud,” said Chudy.
