Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Discovery Junction in Marlinton, was the place to be last Friday evening as students of all ages performed for the first First Friday celebration of the summer.
Adrienne Cedarleaf’s dance classes and music students from Marlinton Elementary, Hillsboro Elementary and Pocahontas County High School took the stage during the event.
The evening kicked off with the younger group of dancers, who enchanted the crowd with their fairy wands and dance moves.
They were followed by the kindergarten and first grade singers who performed “What’s in My Lunchbox,” jumping jacks and “Head, shoulders, knees and toes.”
Cedarleaf’s next group, wearing colorful butterfly wings, fluttered onto the stage and performed a dance with acrobatic elements.
The second-grade music students then took the crowd into outer space with “The Planets Song” and “I’m an Alien.” They were even joined on stage by two green aliens who were friendly and talented.
The next group of dancers were clad in green and danced in two groups. They had green scarves tied to their wrist which added an extra flourish to their dance moves.
Switching things up, the third-grade music students showed off their recorder playing skills with the tune “C Jam Blues” also known as “Duke’s Place.”
The final dance group performed presented a moving performance with the addition of rainbow dance ribbons.
They were followed by Eliott Seldomridge who read her Young Writer’s Contest entry, “The Marvelous Unicorn.”
Morgan’s final group – the fourth and fifth grade students – took time to set up their “instruments,” known as boomwhackers. Morgan demonstrated the instruments by whacking himself on the head with two of them.
He explained that the sizes indicated the note the whacker made. The shorter the whacker, the higher the note. In total, the students made up a two-octave group.
They used the boom-whackers by hitting a long tube on stands in front of them.
The students played along to two songs with the colorful boomwhackers, including a song from the movie “Interstellar.”
Morgan introduced the first song as “Wednesday’s Dance,” from the popular Netflix show, “Wednesday,” about the daughter in “The Addams Family.” But the group instead played “Never Gonna Give You Up,” by Rick Astley, Rickrolling the crowd.
Rickrolling is an internet meme made popular in the early 2000s in which someone does a bait and switch with a link in an email or text message. When the recipient clicks the link, instead of finding what was promised in the message, they would instead see a clip from the Rick Astley music video.
The final performance of the evening was by members of the PCHS band, led by director Alex Hummel. The entire band could not be present, but three members joined Hummel in playing the songs they performed for ratings season.
Hummel said the band received an excellent score for their performance.
The evening was a great way to kick off the summer season, with a celebration of all the students have learned this year.
The next First Friday will be June 6, at 5 p.m. Mark your calendars and be ready for a good time.