Talent show ends school year in style

Meet Erick Ortiz and Alejandro Rodriguez, the two toughest boys at Wilson Elementary School.

They may be on the slender side. They may not sport tattoos or wrestle alligators. But last week, they accomplished a feat that none of their male classmates did.

They got up and performed on stage.

For the past three years, Wilson has capped the final week of school with a fourth- and fifth-grade talent show. On Tuesday, the multipurpose room rocked with singers, dancers and even a poet and a pianist. Most of the performers had something in common, however: There were 33 girls and just two boys.

“This is the first year I’ve not gotten as many boys as in the past,” said third-grade teacher Carol Redford, who organized the show. “I tried talking to them, but they kept backing out.”

So how did Erick and Alejandro, who danced with a coed troupe called the Usher Kids, feel about their first time in the limelight?

“It was awesome,” said Alejandro, 9, a Costa Mesa resident.

Redford, who started the annual show three years ago, did it in part to help shy boys and girls bring their talents out into the open. She even organized an after-school dance class for around two dozen students ? and, fittingly, nearly all of the performers on Tuesday were dance groups, with names like the Baby Girls, the Homecoming Queens, the Blue Angels and the 3 Superstars.

A few students, though, risked going solo. Fourth-grader Jessica Garcilazo, 10, recited a poem that she wrote entitled “Friendship.” A sample couplet: “Friendship is the kind of love that will not be denied/Because a friend will always be there close by your side.”

Fourth-grader Dezarey Ramirez, 10, who has sung at weddings and parties, serenaded the audience with “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” a song from the musical “Grease.”

“That’s my favorite song, so I always practice it,” she said.

Fifth-grader Frida Ramos, 10, gave the show’s only instrumental performance, rendering a short Beethoven piece on an electric piano. Before the show, she had crammed in practices, running through the song as many as 10 times a day.

“The hardest part was making it go fast,” she said.