As I was standing on the stage, I imagined how Ella Smith ‘20 feels up on the stage, with the bright yellow lights hitting her face and bringing it warmth. How vulnerable one could feel up on the stage overlooking which seems like millions, watching Ella, patiently. But, for performers it doesn’t faze them.

“At first, I’ll feel nervous, just like really stressing out,” Ella Smith said. “But when I start, like the first dance move, I realize that I have everything under control and I can just lose myself in it and just enjoy it. So I feel like really comfortable on stage and just feel like I’m suppose to be there.”

As I was standing on the stage, I imagined how Ella Smith ‘20 feels up on the stage, with the bright yellow lights hitting her face and bringing it warmth. How vulnerable one could feel up on the stage overlooking which seems like millions, watching Ella, patiently. But, for performers it doesn’t faze them.
“At first, I’ll feel nervous, just like really stressing out,” Ella Smith said. “But when I start, like the first dance move, I realize that I have everything under control and I can just lose myself in it and just enjoy it. So I feel like really comfortable on stage and just feel like I’m suppose to be there.”
Ella Smith is a performer on stage in show choir.
Ella decided to quit band, before her 8th grade year started, but her mother, Dana Smith, still wanted her to pursue a musical extra curricular. One day, Ella’s brother, Avery Smith ’16, encouraged her to start choir at Northwest Junior High, so she decided to join choir. “Ella had always been pretty musical growing up! In elementary school and 7th grade she was in both orchestra and band and had been playing piano since childhood. In junior high she had lost interest in band and orchestra, so I convinced her to give choir a shot so she would still have a musical outlet in her day to day life,” Avery Smith said. Over her 8th grade year she wasn’t involved in Northwest Junior High show choir, but only choir. “Ella seems like a pretty motivated student of music, looking in from the outside. I would venture to guess she really loves it,” Avery Smith said.
Her experiences in junior high wasn’t the best. Ella was diagnosed with depression her 7th grade year and it lasted throughout her 8th grade year, but she still decided to try out for show choir at the end of her 8th grade year. She found out later that same week that she got into Prime Time, her freshmen year. Her sophomore year, she got into show choir again, but this time she got into Showtime. Showtime is a show choir group were members perform modern, popular, rock, jazz, and musical theater music. Singing and dancing is required and rehearsals are from 2 to 3 hours after school every week. Members of Showtime travel to competitions and festivals to perform. “I’ve loved singing since I started making sounds,” Ella Smith said.
She has always loved singing and that was the journey she took to get there. Her journey was hard, but she continued with it and has made many friends and has gotten many opportunities, through her art.
“It makes me forget about all my problems and it’s just really fun, because I love singing,” Ella Smith said.

Ella decided to quit band, before her 8th grade year started, but her mother, Dana Smith, still wanted her to pursue a musical extra curricular. One day, Ella’s brother, Avery Smith ’16, encouraged her to start choir at Northwest Junior High, so she decided to join choir. “Ella had always been pretty musical growing up! In elementary school and 7th grade she was in both orchestra and band and had been playing piano since childhood. In junior high she had lost interest in band and orchestra, so I convinced her to give choir a shot so she would still have a musical outlet in her day to day life,” Avery Smith said. Over her 8th grade year she wasn’t involved in Northwest Junior High show choir, but only choir. “Ella seems like a pretty motivated student of music, looking in from the outside. I would venture to guess she really loves it,” Avery Smith said.

Her experiences in junior high wasn’t the best. Ella was diagnosed with depression her 7th grade year and it lasted throughout her 8th grade year, but she still decided to try out for show choir at the end of her 8th grade year. She found out later that same week that she got into Prime Time, her freshmen year. Her sophomore year, she got into show choir again, but this time she got into Showtime. Showtime is a show choir group were members perform modern, popular, rock, jazz, and musical theater music. Singing and dancing is required and rehearsals are from 2 to 3 hours after school every week. Members of Showtime travel to competitions and festivals to perform. “I’ve loved singing since I started making sounds,” Ella Smith said.

She has always loved singing and that was the journey she took to get there. Her journey was hard, but she continued with it and has made many friends and has gotten many opportunities, through her art.

“It makes me forget about all my problems and it’s just really fun, because I love singing,” Ella Smith said.