Christmas Concert (2013)

December 16th was a day of anticipation; Santa was coming to town.  Every December, the jolly man in red visits northern communities across Nunavut, bringing toys, food, and Christmas cheer to Inuit children.  Unfortunately, due to a tight schedule, Santa can only spend an hour or two at the towns' airports.  It's quite an intensive and potentially exhausting flying schedule.  As well, don't expect to see a large red sleigh being pulled by reindeer.  In the north, Santa travels by plane and visits about 5 to 6 communities per day.

            

The Santa flights have been a tradition in the north for many decades.  They happen in all three territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut).  I'm not sure how many Santas fly up north but I know it has to be a few.  What is intriguing is that the flights originate from southern Canada, not from the North Pole.  In the Arctic, Santa lives down south.  I believe the Santa flight that came to Arctic Bay was organized by Keewatin Air.

            

I managed to catch a glimpse of Santa's plane flying into town in the afternoon as it descended from the clouds.  The turboprop was covered with colourful Christmas lights.  Since I wasn't expecting the plane to arrive early in the afternoon, I didn't have my camera out to take a picture.  A short time would pass until a line of cars & trucks, filled with excited kids and parents, would drive towards the airport. 

            

High school student Pauloosie takes a
break from decorating.

As Santa's plane flew above me, I was escorting several high school students to the town's Community Hall.  The place needed to be decorated and set up for the Christmas concert the following evening.  That was the other reason behind the anticipation; the concert was just 24 hours away!  It was dark outside even though the time was just after 3pm.  Once inside the Community Hall, the high school students immediately went to work, setting up rows of chairs.  A large box of Christmas decorations arrived when all the chairs were in place.  While the girls sorted the decorations, all the guys moved the large & heavy pool table off the main stage.  We then placed it in a nearby corner.  The students spent another two hours pasting decorations all over the Community Hall.  There were colourful ribbons, Christmas trees, and loud singing reindeer.  The students were well behaved; I didn't need to delegate or keep students on task.

            

A dress rehearsal was held at the Community Hall in the afternoon the next day (December 17).  Naturally, all afternoon classes were cancelled and the entire student body, (230), occupied the building.  After seeing so many kids inside the hall, I wondered if there would be any seating space left for families, friends, and invited guests.  I've been told that roughly one third of Arctic Bay's population are children.

            

The dress rehearsal gave students and teachers an opportunity to practice their acts, get rid of feelings of stage fright, and enjoy a sneak peek at what each group was presenting.  There would be twelve acts in total, starting with pre-school, then kindergarten, followed by the grade classes & the high school drum line, ending with the adult staff.  There would be music, dancing, square dancing, and skits.  Since the adult staff were keeping their act a secret, my drummers & I had the honour of finishing the dress rehearsal with a bang (pun intended).  The preschoolers, kindergarteners, and younger grades all crowded at the front of the stage to hear the drums.  When the curtains were pulled open, it appeared everyone was watching us.  We played through our routine to the cheers of the student body.  After the drummers and I took our bows, I hoped we would receive the same reception later that night (more details coming up). 

            

MCs Geela & Caroline.

That evening, the doors to the Community Hall were opened at 6:30pm.  Steadily, the hall became filled with excited locals, holding cameras and camcorders.  It looked like the entire town was in attendance.  The concert began a little after 7pm.  Geela, a student support teacher, and Caroline, a high school student, were the Inuktitut & English MCs.  The program followed a simple routine: each class was formally introduced, the curtains would part, the class would perform their routine, receive an applause and cheers from the audience, and then leave the stage.  Oddly, the concert's pace felt a little slow to me.  Maybe it was because I was anxious about my drummers' act and wanted to get it over with.  Although, I did enjoy watching all the performances and the two that stood out for me were the Grade 6s lip-syncing & dancing to Bob Dylan's "Must Be Santa", and the Grade 8/9s rapping "That's Christmas" a song they arranged with original lyrics.

            

Kindergarten performance.

Grade 3 performance.

After much anticipation, the time had finally come; my drum line was next.  Before going on stage, I instructed one of my students to film the performance with my digital camera.  Just as we had rehearsed earlier that afternoon, when the curtains parted, my drummers immediately launched into 'the opening number': a paradiddle warmup routine.  After the drummers received their first applause of the night, I walked out on stage and introduced myself to the audience.  With the help of Geela, I explained the warm up was one of the many short musical passages we play to get ourselves warmed up or 'in the groove'.  The drum line next played a piece called "Accent Tap for Christmas" with a guest Inuit drum dancer.  The dancer was one of my guitar students from last semester.  His playing kept the drum line in tempo as well as adding an Inuit blend to the southern style of drumming.

            

Grade 6 performance.

I conducted the third and last piece of our act called, "Christmas Compilation," a set of intermediate exercises my drummers learned over the semester.  Much of the piece contained intricate and funky rhythms, but the last part had my drummers clicking their sticks together in a specific pattern.  Because of all this, the drummers wanted me to keep them in time to which I happily obliged.  I conducted my students at the front of the stage, but stood at the same level as the audience.  Despite a slip up here and there, the performance turned out alright and after the final notes were struck, the audience applauded for the third time.  As one final act, I turned around and threw one of my sticks to the floor.  Unfortunately, it didn't bounce back up like it did during the dress rehearsal.  Thankfully, the second one did.  My drummers on stage did a few stick tosses before the curtains closed.  I breathed a sigh of relief.

            

Grades 7 & 8 performance.

The final act of the concert was the staff of Inuujaq School.  Last Christmas, they danced to the song "Gangnam Style" by Psy, but this year we played a game.  Basically, someone would say a phrase in a language of their choice and then another person had to translate it into Inuktitut or English.  Of course, you didn't know what they were saying so you had to guess based on their tone of voice and body language.  After the funny translations, the real translation would follow.

            

A sign indicating that grade 7 & 8
students were needed near the front
of the stage because they were the
next act. Similar signs were
used for all other grades.

I was the first to speak.  I had prepared three facts about Ukrainian Christmas but only had time to say one.  To be honest, it felt a little weird speaking Ukrainian in front of a large Inuit audience for the first time.  The two Inuit teachers who translated my phrase received plenty of laughs from the audience . . . so did my English explanation of the phrase.  Perhaps that was a sign that they liked the true meaning?  The other teachers and staff spoke in Korean, Japanese, Pig Latin, Newfoundland English, and Inuktitut.  It was quite interesting to hear such a variety of spoken languages.    

            

At the conclusion of the game, we all thanked everyone for attending the concert and wished them all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  While the school staff and several high school students cleaned up the hall, a few elementary students came up to me, wanting to know how to bounce the drum sticks off the floor.  I gave them a quick impromptu lesson and let them give it a try before helping my drummers load all the drums and equipment onto a pickup truck I borrowed from Frank, the town's mayor.  We drove back to the school and carried all the instruments back into my classroom.  I called it a night after dropping off my drummers at their homes.

            

At school the following day, several Inuit teachers came up to me to say they really enjoyed listening to the drum line at the Christmas concert.  They also added that many local elders had called the local radio station to voice their approvals as well.  I thanked them for the good news.