Youth ArtsFest: Something for the kids

In celebration of National Youth Art Month, the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina is hosting a children's version of the classic American variety show -- with a little something extra.

Youth ArtsFest, being presented from 12 to 4 p.m. Saturday, will showcase the talents of local singers, dancers, actors and musicians, plus young visual artists from all over Beaufort County. The entertainment lineup will run the gamut from opera to hip-hop to classical ballet.

Opening the show at noon is the preschool choral group from Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church Achievement School, led by Lowcountry musician and singer Lavon Stevens. "We always ask to go on first because preschoolers tend to get fidgety if they have to wait around too long to perform," said Stevens, who has served as the group's music director since the school opened 10 years ago. "Once they get going, they really get into the spirit of things. The music really inspires them."

Standing before microphones, the tiny troubadours will present a pre-naptime mini-concert featuring "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," "This Little Light of Mine," "Kumbaya" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

"You've never seen anything cuter in your life," said Arts Center President and CEO Kathleen Bateson.

Elsewhere, students from Sea Pines Montessori Academy will reprise scenes from "The Burning Rice Fields," a children's opera based on a Japanese folk tale. The 6- to 11-year-olds performed a fully staged production of the opera last fall at the Arts Center.

The classics segment of the performing arts program will include a selection of pieces from the ballet "Don Quixote" presented by dancers from Hilton Head Dance School. At the other end of the entertainment spectrum, the dance school's hip-hop group, "5, 6, 7, 8," will perform Tiffany Evans' "Promise Ring." And the Bluffton School of Dance will contribute several jazz numbers.

Other groups taking the stage during the afternoon event include the Hilton Head Island Middle School Stingray Chorus, the Hilton Head Choral Society Youth Choir, Hilton Head Island High School's "Out of the Blue" show choir and the Hilton Head Island Middle School Honors Orchestra.

Throughout the afternoon, puppeteer Yostie Ashley and her "Do Tell" storytelling troupe from the School for the Creative Arts will perform on the front lawn.

Children also will be invited to venture upstairs to the Disney Art Studio to participate in three different workshops. They will have the opportunity to create expressive self-portraits and paper bag hand puppets with speech bubbles -- project ideas from this year's Crayola Dream-Makers program -- as well as a large mural made from a variety of materials.

The Dream-Makers exhibit, featuring the art work of area students who participated in the program, will be open in the Walter Greer Gallery. In addition, resource tables will be set up in the theater lobby offering information on the Sandbox, Coastal Discovery Museum, Hilton Head Dance School, the Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities and Heritage Academy.