This year’s rendition of the Community Christmas Concert brought the spirit of the season alive for the many talented performers and the capacity crowd at Wednesday evening’s event at the Elliot Lake Civic Centre.
The 11th annual Christmas Concert, sponsored by the city and the North Shore Parents Association of Dance, also raised money and food donations for the Elliot Lake Emergency Food Bank.
Advertised as “an evening of singing, dancing and entertainment to get you into the holiday spirit,” the concert surpassed all expectations with a mix of dance, popular music with a winter flavour, traditional Christmas carols blended in with a touch of opera as Richard Valdez started off the evening with his masterful voice.
Dancers with the Studio Dance Arts Hip Hop and Mini companies entertained the crowd with elegant and, at times, high-powered ballet moves.
Individual musicians, well known in the area, also performed, including Val Spencer of Northern Cross with her friends, Debbie French, Kim Arnold and Ayla Thurston whose rendition of Imagine closed out the evening’s entertainment.
The act that possibly captured the greatest applause of the evening was the combined choirs from Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes catholic schools. Their performance of Light A Candle for Peace, Heaven Everywhere, and a Christmas medley of songs had the crowded house clapping.
It was followed closely by Elliot the Bear and Eddie the Moose and their songs Rainbow Connection, Song for a Miner and How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
The Wednesday Afternoon Guitarists, a group of guitar enthusiasts who jam every Wednesday, stayed on cue and in tune with their Christmas songs.
In the end, Master of Ceremonies Jim Graham, who kept the performance running smoothly with Christmas carols and jokes, finished off with a carol to accompany the crowd as it left the theatre auditorium.