Rosebud musicians, Strathmore students to perform original dance show

Times Contributor   

 

Strathmore High School (SHS) dance students will perform Ghosts of What Became, Jan. 16-18. This original dance show is based on the music album by the same title, produced by Rosebud folk duo, Me and the Mrs.

Paul Zacharias, who comprises Me and the Mrs. with his wife Heather Pattengale, composed the music on Ghosts of What Became. He describes their music as folk in style, very melodic and acoustic, with an emphasis on vocal harmony. The songs are “all very story-based,” he says. “They’re all about this fight to live a life that is worthwhile and is rich, full of meaning.”

For the show, Me and the Mrs. will perform with a full band, including SHS students and staff members. 

“In some ways we’re outdoing the album,” Zacharias says. “We’re doing a lot of it the same but we’re actually adding some stuff that isn’t even on the album version.”

Zacharias says Deanne Bertsch, SHS dance and drama teacher, and Paul Sonsteby, SHS English literature teacher, have supported the students in “extrapolating things from my song lyrics and the themes of the stories … in the songs,” Zacharias says. But the students are the ones imagining and creating the story.

“The groups (of students) get assigned a song and they get to choreograph a dance,” Zacharias says. “They’ve taken the album as sort of a story or a story arc, and from that, they each individually come up with their concert and their choreography.”

Zacharias says Bertsch and Sonsteby are skilled at nurturing students’ courage and creativity. For example, “instead of (Bertsch) saying, ‘Okay kids, this is the choreography. This is the story,’ she’ll ask, ‘what inspires you about these songs or about these lyrics? And what story do you want to tell from this?’ ”

And Zacharias is awed by what the students have done with his own music. 

“There’s just so much talent, so much raw, natural talent (in SHS students),” he says. “I sometimes sit back and just want to have the kids do it. I want to go and hide in the shadows because they’re just so talented.

“There are some really gorgeous moments in the show that kind of sneak up on me. All of a sudden, it just chokes me right up, and I won’t be able to sing a few words in a line, because these kids, they just come up with such beautiful storytelling.”

Ghosts of What Became will be performed at 7 p.m., Jan. 16-18, in the Strathmore High School Theatre. Tickets are $10 and available at the door. To hear the music of Me and the Mrs., and to keep up with  upcoming performances, go to www.meandthemrs.ca.