It was a breezy night in November of 1994 at the Center of Performing Arts in San Jose. Inside as the curtain came up we all started to smile with excitement and hope of doing well filled our hearts. All I can remember is thinking back to elementary school and how I felt the first time I sang in front of an audience and how that it dwindled in comparison to this. Although I knew exactly what I was doing down to the last breath, I still feared that I did not know enough to perform that night. This performance was the first major and professional concert that I had preformed in, all at the young age of 11. .
We had been learning music and dance routines since August, and had been going to after school and weekend rehearsals for the past four weeks. As a group we had the show down but being one of the youngest in the group of mainly seventh and eighth graders I felt like I had to be better then the average person in the group. At that, time singing was my first love; all my time went into learning my music and the right steps to the dances. That concert's theme was "On Broadway" so that meant a lot of show tunes that many people knew so if a word was fumbled then people would notice it. It was not as if we were singing in a foreign language where we could get away with not getting all the words correctly. No it was in English with very popular songs from Broadway shows that many people knew by heart.
Every one who meant anything to our music department was there. From the districts heads to the individuals that gave the department large amounts of money to put on shows, I was told that even the mayor of San Jose was there to watch us sing and dance! There was a tremendous weight on us all to do the best that we could do.
"To give the audience what they came to see and leave them wanting more" is what the teachers said all night. Therefore, that is what I did. I danced like I never danced before and sang like I never sang before.