Sometimes I forget where I live, with the Entertainment Capital of the World just over the hill. This week I was asked to judge the 2nd annual talent show at our school. I have a bit of experience here, given that my beloved childhood dance teacher, Miss Jacque, also directed several regional beauty pageants. As a high school/college student she asked me to return the favor of the slow torture at the ballet barre to judge several regional/state competitions for her. And… as a young adult I was blessed to donate hours of my life in the pursuit of excellence in college choir so… as amateur as my experience may be, I was delighted to accept a judge’s chair.
Now this wasn’t your run of the mill high school talent competition. This was the sort of contest that makes you forget that some of the best contestants are frequent flyers in the discipline office in lieu of a glimmer of hope for their future. The evening began with a dramatic performance by some of our finest thespians with a snapshot of how meticulous our talented young teacher who took on this project kept the kids on track. The sponsor had been warned by administration (us) for weeks not to let the acts get out of control. As administrators we dread “the morning after the show,” filled with upset parent phone calls complaining of the lewdness of some acts. Despite the cast of shady characters, those calls never came.
This act was followed by various forms of song ranging from musicals, country, pop, latino pop, and another drama sketch. The act that stole my heart was a young man who wrote his own song, played it on the piano (Billy Joel style) while he sang and played the harmonica. I sat there in the presence of greatness and thought to myself… only in California. Until… two boys who had claimed “white power” began a krump (street) dance. I had to wonder, how did these two young men, who have made their distaste for minority culture known, learn this ethnic dance and perform it very well.
Just when I thought I had seen the best of our best, a Rockabilly band took the stage complete with big bass and pompadour hairstyles. My mouth actually fell open. One of my colleagues leaned over and told me that they were now opening for a popular LA band. These kids are in high school!!! This group lead us into intermission with a six foot tall yellow chicken dancing around stage. Although school administrators are no longer allowed to have fun, I had to fight myself from jumping on the stage and doing the chicken dance along with the big bird!
When we returned from break I thought… ok this half is destined to be a let down given the caliber of talent performed during the first half of the show. I was wrong! Suddenly one of my habitual truants came onto stage with a beautifully choreographed modern dance as he did tricks with his soccer ball. Is this what this child is doing while he is ditching school I thought to myself? Following a couple more musical numbers the stage went black… suddenly a young man was twirling lights to Techo-trance music. I glanced down at my program to realize that it was one of the biggest jerks at our school. This young man was one of the most defiant kids I have known; yet he was absolutely mesmerizing on stage. The evening ended with our favorite boy band lip sync/dance act that always brings the crowd to its feet. Surprisingly, this wasn’t the most talented act of the night.
Now I had a moral dilemma… how in the world do I judge this? We could have easily had fifteen winners! Do I factor in the discipline issues for who had performed their act perfectly? If I scored as if I didn’t know them, would it be the boost they need to stop their downward spiral? What should I do? I kept hoping that silly chicken would come whist me away from my confusion for a dance… but he never came. I had been “Judging” since my own high school talent show, but never before had I been faced with such a dilemma.
At that moment I remembered that I am not the same person I was in high school. And, had it not been for positive role models in my life that corrected me along the way, there is no telling where I might have gone. As long as there will be teenagers, there will be stupid decisions and mistakes. I put aside my need to “fix the world” and voted based on talent. Hopefully this success in these young lives will help them as well. For I guess the greatest challenge dealing with young people is seeing them not for what they are, but what they can become.
