Playin’ at the talent show: IES students showcase art, performance skills

Published 2:19 pm Wednesday, March 20, 2019

They say that public speaking is the number one fear most people have, but that wasn’t evident in the main gymnasium of Ironton Elementary School on Tuesday morning.

Dozens of IES students showed off their skills as part of a talent show. Some sang, others did dance routines or gymnastics, there was a piano player, there were puppets, there were skits and there were more than a few terrible/good jokes. And for those that weren’t performers, there was also an art show. The students even acted as the masters of ceremony.

Fifth grader Sarah Murdock was one of the 11 emcees who introduced the performers and kept the show running.

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She said they had put a lot of work into the talent show and she was both nervous and excited at the same time.

“I’m excited to be able to do something with my friends for the last year that we are in elementary school,” she said. “But, I’m also nervous because I might mess up. See, I am also singing in the talent contest. I’m going to sing ‘Meant to Be,’ by Florida Georgia Line.”

When asked if she was more nervous about the morning show in front of her school or the evening show at Ironton High School, which was open to the public, she said the night show made her the most nervous.

“Because all of Ironton is going to be there,” Murdock said.

IES assistant principal David Ashworth said this was the fourth year for the talent show. He said when he came to the school five years ago there wasn’t an active talent show and he decided to change that.

“It was one thing that I felt that our students needed in order for us to educate the student as whole, for them to express the different talents that they have,” Ashworth said. “Then we expanded it to a visual arts show and a performance show.”

He said the students love doing and seeing the show.

“It is one of their favorite days of the year,” he said. “One thing is that they get the morning out of class and the other is that they get good entertainment out of their classmates. It gives talented students a way to express themselves.”