Pace High School’s Fine Arts Academies for Visual & Performing Arts and classes for dance, drama, music, and art brought Tinseltown to South Florida with “A Hollywood Christmas” on December 9 inside the Spartan Center. Pace students from each of these four subjects performed in the Pace Fine Arts department’s annual Christmas production for Pace family, friends, and alumni.
The show was presented as a classic Hollywood production, with dance, singing, pantomime, and musical performances framed with acted scenes written and performed by Pace drama students. Pace Drama thespians portrayed the cast and crew of the production, with senior Pablo Pernia playing the show’s director who gave out orders, dealt with famed stars of old like Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe, and tried to keep the show on track.
Dancers from the Pace Starlettes danceline, dance academy, and classes performed on stage to Christmas music. On the side of the stage, students from the Pace music academy and classes played classic Christmas songs conducted by Ross Goldman, the lead teacher for the Academy of Visual & Performing Arts Music Program.
The production culminated with set pieces about the birth of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas, with the final performance featuring Pace dancers dressed as angels and dancing in the aisle and on stage to Mariah Carey’s “Jesus Born on this Day.”
Valarie Lloyd, Pace Dean of Students and Fine Arts department chair, went on stage following the curtain call and commended the hard work and excellence of the Pace Fine Arts department and its students.