A night of celebration and fun is organized by the Spanish VI class as they dance and lip-sync their way across the stage of the theater for their annual production, Noche de las Estrellas. Performing popular songs from artists such as the Beatles and Nicky Jam, their performance celebrates all aspects of Spanish Culture as the performers present it to the audience through songs, dances and costumes.

The one-night performance on April 17 showcased the culmination a semester’s effort to prepare for the performance. Each student works under the advice of Spanish VI teacher Angie Browne, who organized much of Noche de las Estrellas. She said it took a lot of work to create a unique performance.

“It takes a lot of time to perfect one song,” Browne said. “I would say some of them take months. We started in January and we still have some songs that are not ready.”

With 22 songs being performed this year, Noche de las Estrellas is not an easy production for anyone involved. Spanish VI students have consistently worked on each song since January.

Browne served as a director and choreographer for each dance being done by the students. Perfecting the dances for each song is another aspect of putting together Noche de las Estrellas.

“The hardest part is being completely honest and telling them that they are not doing well,” Browne said. “Even though they think they are doing it well they do not look well. They look uncomfortable or they look like they are not up to the part. It is hard for me to relay that information because nobody wants to hear that they are not doing it correctly.”

Senior and Spanish VI student Ian Mcintosh believes choreographing each dance can be hard to perfect with various styles of songs and dances being done throughout Noche de las Estrellas such as salsa or reggaeton. These showcase the diverse Spanish culture that is shared with the audience. The choreography was perfected with time, making Noche de las Estrellas a significant time commitment. McIntosh said that mastering a song is a difficult process.

“The hardest part is perfecting all of the choreography,” McIntosh said. “This is especially hard for me because I am a very terrible dancer. We need to be able to give up our lunches and other free time such as FIT to come practice.”

The time it takes for Spanish VI students to learn the songs and their movements is a very time-consuming ordeal that takes up many of these students lives, according to Senior and Spanish VI student Sarida Morejon.

“As a class, we spend every class period working on Noche in some aspect, whether it’s rehearsing, or translating or costuming,” Morejon said. “Personally, I try and go to Senora Browne’s room every morning, lunch, FIT and after school too. Spanish VI has also gotten together more than a couple times outside of school to do a multi-hour long practice session to choreograph and fine tune performances. Pretty much every waking moment of my life has been consumed by Noche at this point.”

Morejon explained that while Noche de las Estrellas is no easy production to create, many of the students involved enjoy spending time on this production.

“My favorite thing about Noche is being able to wake up in the morning and come to school and listen to great music for an hour and a half,” McIntosh said.

Morejon believes the large amount of time and effort Spanish VI students put into Noche de las Estrellas is filled with fun moments and immense gratification.

“My favorite thing has been getting closer to my classmates through the process,” Morejon said. “You get to watch people you might not talk to outside of class normally grow out of any shells they might have, and really embrace certain onstage personalities.”