By: Aida Lashinsky, Reporter

On November 22, the Seminole High School Dazzlers and choir groups will be performing at the Westin in the 18th annual Arts Alive. The theater will be full of a well-dressed audience that paid pricey tickets, up to $10,000, to see the show.

The thrill and pizazz of the show may be enthralling, but it has a larger message. Arts Alive is essentially a fundraiser for the arts programs. The shows are held nationwide so that children from elementary to high school can showcase and raise money for their various arts programs.

This year Seminole will have choir groups, First Take and Destiny, perform, as well as the Dazzlers. There will also be some solo performances.

“I just love the show. I just love seeing the kids get out there and perform and to see the audience’s reaction because people [are] aware that there’s music performances in school but it doesn’t mean anything until they see the kids live,” says chorus teacher Lesa Boettcher. “It’s just a great way to showcase what we do with the school. So we’re always excited to be part of it because we get to show off our amazing performing art’s program here. And that’s everything: band, orchestra, chorus, dance. [E]verything is so strong and we have the privilege to be able to show it off.”

For the performers, it is always exciting to hear that they made it in the show. Seminole has been a part of Arts Alive since the program began, well over a decade ago.

Sophomore Jaclyn Holliday made it into Arts Alive as a soloist with the choir program. “I had a piano player, Ms. Langs, play with me and so I went up on stage and I performed and then afterwards there was a woman and she took a picture of us,” says Holliday. “[T]he piano player, she helps me a lot and she told me to just let out everything and just go way over the top because the song is funny and the judges actually told me you need more, just give more.”

The performers have been working and preparing for months and although this is an exciting event to be involved in, they want to acknowledge that the main privilege comes with helping support the arts programs.

“[W]e’re certainly pleased that we’ve been chosen but we see it as making sure the Arts stay alive here in Seminole County. Making sure that people have a chance to whether it’s painting or drawing or dramas, music, band, chorus, whatever it is. These funds from elementary through high school are raised through this Arts Alive,” says Dazzler teacher Maureen Maguire.

Students are passionate about the arts programs, and don’t want to see them threatened by budget cuts.

“I just like being able to support my school system since I’ve been a part of it for so many years. I’ve grown up dancing. I want people to continue knowing how to dance and I just want to keep continuing the knowledge of it,” says senior Kirsten Miller, a Dazzler performing in Arts Alive. “I think [the arts are] great because you get to express yourself in a way that it’s not really possible through words. Like some people are really good at expressing through words, some people are better drawing, some people are better painting, I like dancing.”

Seminole’s arts programs are working hard preparing for all of the shows coming up this winter, and Arts Alive is definitely a tradition that they are looking forward to. It is not just the thrill of being on stage that excites them, but the opportunities to come and the continuation of the arts programs through the fundraiser.