Daily Sitka Sentinel

Saturday Grind to Spotlight Sitka’s Young Talent

By ABIGAIL BLISS
Sentinel Staff Writer
    Some of Sitka’s youngest - and most talented - performers will take the stage on Saturday for a youth-oriented Monthly Grind.
    Beginning at 7 p.m., artists ranging in age from tots to teenagers will step into the spotlight at Sheet‘ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi for the Sitka Youth Grind. The seven-act show will include a Celtic dance, percussion performance, a reader’s theater piece, and a dance by students from the Sitka Studio of Dance.

Sitka Spruce Celtic Dancers rehearse on the Odess Theater stage on the SJ campus today. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    Elias Erickson, a Sitka High School senior and the event producer, says he intentionally assembled a cast varying in age and interest to celebrate Sitka’s diverse artistic scene. He said the show will include both “cute tiny kids dancing” and “high schoolers playing.”
    “Art is a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” Erickson said. “I was trying to make sure that, if there’s a student or a kid who has art to share, whatever that may be, I wanted to make sure they had the chance to share.”
    As part of his efforts to include burgeoning artists of all stripes, Erickson plans to feature visual art alongside the performance. Even the posters advertising the event around town were designed and drawn by a Sitka High senior, Zofia Danielson.

    Jeff Budd, who was instrumental in first getting the Grind off the ground, said that he, too, enjoys casting a wide net for each show. He particularly likes to give first-time performers a platform for their debut.
    “The thing that’s most exciting to me is to get people who haven’t been on stage on stage,” he said.
    Budd said he brought the concept for a monthly community talent show from Ketchikan, where he lived before coming to Sitka.
    “My story, and I’ll stick to it, is that when I lived in Ketchikan, they started a monthly grind there, and when I moved here, I said, ‘I betcha old Sitka would enjoy this,’” he said.
    Budd rounded up a small crew of comparably motivated individuals and, borrowing a few guiding principles from Ketchikan’s model, started the Grind, which is now in its 23rd season.
     The show still adheres to its original guidelines, Budd said, which have served the series well over the years: family oriented, non-political, and affordable.
    He added that a strong foundation is not enough to ensure the event’s future; for the Monthly Grind to continue, the core group has to bring the next generation into its fold.
    “In Ketchikan, some of the people who started it, their kids are now doing it, who are adults,” he said.
    The longevity of the Monthly Grind tradition is one reason Budd feels it is important to incorporate a youth show into the series’ rotation of themes, which have included fiddle music, Elvis tributes, and artists named Bob.
    A percussion ensemble headed by Sitka High junior Avery Voron is one example of the young talent that will be showcased at the Grind on Saturday.
    “I’m super excited,” she said. “I think it’s really great for the Sitka community to see what kids are doing, what kids are learning through music.”
    Using bass drums, snare drums, cymbals and quad drums, the group will perform a drum cadence that local music educator Ed Littlefield composed years ago and taught to the student percussionists.
     “It’s not recorded anywhere, so we couldn’t really listen to it,” Voron said. “We’ll do a couple other little cadences, as well.”
     Erickson said Sitka’s robust art scene is centered on young people like Voron, and credited the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, in particular, for cultivating kids’ interest in visual, performance, and musical media.
    “The youth is really just the core of the Sitka arts community,” he said. “I think the Sitka Fine Arts Camp is a really big piece of that …They bring a lot of artists to this community that other towns don’t have. They get kids excited about arts.”
     Budd echoed Erickson’s comments, saying that Sitka’s flourishing art scene sets it apart from its peers statewide.
    “I say that Sitka is the Paris of Alaska, and at one time it was the Paris of the Pacific,” he said. “It’s just good magic here.”
     Tickets are $5 for adults and $1 for kids aged 12 and under, and are available at Old Harbor Books.