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Schools

Middle School Students Dance the Night Away

Goddard Show Choir hosts Spring Concert as program builds life skills.

Under the current fiscal hardships that schools find themselves under, when a class or program is forced closed, arts programs are usually the first to be cut. In that sense, Saturday night’s Spring Concert for ’s show choir is one such programs that has been able to survive in Glendora Unified School District.

The show choir is an elective class offered to students at Goddard Middle School, but certainly involves a far greater commitment than most other courses. The advanced class, known as Allegro, enters in competitions around Southern California, and has been extremely successful at it. During this school year, the choir took first place in the only two competitions it entered—the California Classic at Brea Olinda High School, and Star Reflections at Duarte High School.

Sandberg Middle School has had a similar program, the Golden Notes, on its campus for 21 years, while Goddard’s is a relative youngster at nine years in—though recently more prolific. Both programs are taught by Patty Trevor, whose husband also teaches music at Glendora High School. In fact, Trevor cites Glendora’s reputation for placing an importance on arts programs as a reason the two decided to move to the community in the first place.

“(Glendora Unified) has a reputation for maintaining music programs and putting money in when other districts don’t,” says Trevor.

Trevor notes that while a goal of hers is certainly to transfer students to Glendora High’s vocal, dance, and performance programs, she realizes that the majority won’t. In that respect, her greater goal is impressing life skills upon them that they can take through the rest of their lives.

“I hope we’re building a sense of confidence, poise,” says Trevor. “Not all of the girls will contribute to the world of the arts, but basic presentations skills, having a gameface, energy, will help them in whatever they pursue.”

On Saturday, the group took advantage of its Spring Concert to give a warm reception to parents and the individuals who support the program. In a contrast, the evening largely featured individually-flavored solo performances, with the entire Allegro squad closing the show with a selection from The Sound of Music. The bill was largely the culmination of a year’s work, but also represented much more time than that for those who had come up through three years of music at Goddard.

For Choreographer Angela Vamos, the evening represented far more time than that. While some in the show choir do go on to music and performance programs at the high school level, Vamos impressively came up through Sandberg’s Golden Notes program, continued show choir at Glendora High where she graduated in 2005, and has been working with the Goddard program ever since.

After six years, she is leaving to pursue her own dance career full-time, and the Allegro group let Vamos know their appreciation with a number towards the end of the bill. Much like Trevor, Vamos touts the very fact that Glendora offers such a program, giving performers a route in to the performance world that might otherwise only be available to students from more affluent backgrounds.

“Growing up through the Glendora programs and not a dance studio, it’s so great for families who can’t afford competition fees, studios, costumes,” says Vamos. “There are so many venues the show choir offers, it can be applied to almost any kind of art.”

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