On Tuesday and Wednesday nights October 25 and 26th, the Department of Music and Dance put on their final end of the semester program which was called The Story of Christmas. We have been working on it all semester long. And when I say we, I really mean they. But somehow I got recruited to be a co-director early in the semester, along with two other professors, who really took on the role. I didn’t do much except for try to be there and be a presence. To be honest, I felt like I didn’t really know enough about what was going on to be able to give effective leadership or input, so I mostly just provided emotional support and my presence at the rehearsals. But it has been really cool to see from the dress rehearsal which was about a week and a half before the performance, to the final performance. There may have been prior dress rehearsals but I wasn’t aware of them.
The performance took place in the main auditorium on campus. And it consisted of all of the students who are music majors. The primary group was the choir, but pretty much all of the music majors are in the choir because it’s a requirement for the major. Some of those students are also in the drumming ensemble and the dance ensemble. Those were the main groups who put this performance together. It really was a full departmental effort and I was amazed at what they were able to accomplish! The Story of Christmas is a pre-written musical performance-type of thing. It is of course a telling of Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, the three wise men, the shepherds, the animals, the angel, and all of that. But they put their own African spin on it. They sang some traditional Western choral songs that I think were the bulk of what was written for the musical. But it was really cool to see how they interspersed the different Ghanaian dances into it. They had a different dance and song from several different Ghanaian regions to signify each of the three wise men who came to see Jesus. So with each wise man, there was a traditional African dance number, complete with drumming, dancing, and singing. That was my favorite part of the performance. It was clear to me that the students were most excited about that part too. It was a very lively performance with lots of colorful costumes and wonderful musical numbers of all different styles. An amazing final performance for them! And apparently this is not something that they do every semester, so this was extra special that I got to be here to watch it come together and see the final performance. I am humbled to be part of this Music and Dance Department!
I didn't get too much on camera because I wasn't supposed to be recording. But they will put the full performance on Youtube and I'll have that eventually to share with anyone who is interested.
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