Darrah Billings, Aliyah Petronski, Angela Xu, Alexa Janes and Jasmine Smith were representing ladies all across the world with their high energy dance performance to Salute by British group, Little Mix.

Hub Staff

There was more than one star shining brightly at Northport Elementary School’s Night of the Stars concert. Under the direction of Learning Resource Teacher Jackie Ewing, the school’s Glee Club performed varied and talented numbers to a full house Thursday evening, March 30.

Students Cassidy Rayner and Darcy Howe, who co-hosted the event, explained that their school’s Glee Club, run by Ewing, is comprised of 24 students and that this was the first time the Club had put on their own vocal night.

Ewing said that the Club was made up of students from Grades 7 and 8. “We've been meeting all year long and they practice in the mornings and recesses and after school,” Ewing added that the Glee Club has now been running for approximately six years. “We've normally just gone into the instrumental Spring concert and done a couple of numbers, gone to the Christmas show and performed a number but the kids wanted to do more.”

The evening's opening performance saw the entire Glee Club performing Best Day of My Life by American Authors, which was followed by over a dozen other songs and dances, including line dancing, rapping, piano playing and even a cup song medley.

Former Northport student, and former member of the school’s first ever Glee Club, Hannah Lynch, who is now in Grade 12 at Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS), came back to Northport for the show with her ukulele to accompany a solo performance by Aliyah Petronski, who sang I Don't Know My Name by Grace Vanderwaal.

A special piece that was performed mid-show was Colbie Caillat’s Try, sung by students Aliyah Petronski and Darragh Billings. As a lead-in, co-hosts Rayner and Howe explained that the school’s Girls’ Club, which is led by Ewing and is made up of 20 girls from Grades 7 and 8 exploring issues such as body image, self esteem and conflict resolution, wanted to portray an important message via a slide show which created the backdrop for the song.

In a photo shoot with local photographer Jill Schildroth, the first set of photos portrayed what the girls feel when they’re trying to be something they’re not and live up to societal expectations; while the second set embodied empowerment, authenticity and the feeling of being enough just as you are.

Five boys in the club had been fortunate enough to experience a professional recording session. Ewing explained that Jake Lawrence, Finn Noel, Wilton Kahgee-Miller, Rishab Roychowdhury and Ryan Morley, who together performed Tom Jones' It's Not Unusual as well as the more modern Stressed Out by Twenty One Pilots, did the recording at Blackboard Sound in Port Elgin. “It was very cool to see the five of them,” said Ewing. “They had the headphones on them, they got their mics, they got to go in the sound booth.”

Not to be outdone by their students, Northport teachers, backed by the Glee Club, also came together to showcase their own talents performing Ontario band, Walk Off the Earth's Gang of Rhythm.

A fitting end to the evening saw the entire Glee Club back on stage as they sang ABBA's Thank You for the Music, led by Alexa Janes and Hannah Kent.

After the show, Ms. Ewing said she was very proud and astounded with her students’ talent and courage. “They choreographed every single number up here, I did not have anything to do with any of those dance numbers you saw, they would show them to me, I would maybe tweak them a little bit but that was all them.” Ewing added that she couldn’t get over their fearlessness. “We saw solos, we saw duets, and that's a very frightening thing to do sometimes and they just pull it off with panache. Very, very brave and a lot of them have come a long way. We saw people get up to do things tonight that they've never done before so hopefully they'll take that with them for the rest of their life.”

Glee Club dancers perform a line dance routine to Miley Cyrus' Hoedown Throwdown, sung by Glee Club's Teagan Gottschalk and Hannah Kent.

Evrim Dereli, Emily Russett, Lauren Gilbert, Darragh Billings and Hannah Meyer show off their dance routine as Rishab Rowchowdhury sang OneRepublic's Love Runs Out.

Tom Jones' It's Not Unusual was the first of the Glee Club boys’ performances, which saw them throwing their hats into the audience.

Not to be outdone by their students, Northport teachers also showed they had talent at the School’s Night of Stars concert.

Jasmine Smith and Alexa Janes performed a unique dance routine as Kayla Clark and Rishab Rowchowdhury, backed by the Glee Club, sang Ruth B's Lost Boy.

A slideshow put together by Northport's Girls’ Club, with photos taken by Jill Schildroth, accompanied Aliyah Petronski and Darragh Billings as they sang Try by Colbie Caillat.

On the left, Aliyah Petronski (left) sings a solo number accompanied by former Glee Club member, SDSS’s Hannah Lynch on her ukulele. On the right, Glee Club's Michelle Wang was one of the evening's pianists.

Glee Club members held candles as they perform Imagine by John Lennon with the audience being asked to join in on the final chorus.