Fri | Jun 5, 2026

Ashe Academy premieres Christmas video

Published:Sunday | January 6, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Pause
The young performers of Ashe Academy pose for a group photo at the request of the audience in attendance after the premiere of their 'Let's talk about Christmas' video at the group's headquarters.- Sheldon Williams
From left: Shanice Baker and Sundari Lynch in performance during a skit ahead of the premiere of Ashe Academy's first Christmas music video, 'Let's Talk about Christmas'. - Sheldon Williams
From left: Marley Richards, Shanice Baker and Sundari Lynch in performance during a skit ahead of the premiere of Ashe Academy's first Christmas music video, 'Let's Talk about Christmas'. - Sheldon Williams
1
2
3

Sheldon Williams, Contributor

The Ashe Academy premiered its inaugural Christmas video titled, 'Let's talk about Christmas' last Saturday at the performing arts school's headquarters on Cargill Avenue.

The video was created and directed by the students who have been a part of a 12-week programme in the performing arts at Ashe and as their final product in the year of Jamaica 50.

They decided to do a music video instead of their usual full-scale musical production, that would be produced at the end of a term.

Ifidel Williams, academy principal and social and behaviour- change consultant at Ashe explained the rationale for producing the video.

"Normally, the Ashe Academy would host a full-scale theatre production at the end of every term, but we decided to change up things a bit. A lot of people did things differently for the Jamaica 50 celebrations, and we were no less. We wanted the December in our 50th year to be memorable, hence the video," Williams said.

The video, which is three-minutes long, features the vocal talent of the 12 participating children who are between the ages of four and 12.

CINEMATIC MOVES

Well-choreographed dance moves were also displayed in the video with one scene showing the children mimicking the slow-motion movement that was made popular in the movie The Matrix.

The song was written under the leadership of Williams with the assistance of other Ashe Academy members.

Williams explained: "The entire process became a reality after a long three-weeks of writing, recording, filming and editing. The studio session took only half of an evening. Like the actual video for the recording, the longest part was probably coming up with the concept and putting lyrics to paper.

Williams also explained that the sale of copies for the video has been increasing gradually.

"So far, 10 copies of the music video have been sold and that's just in-house as we haven't opened it up to the larger population just yet. We will go viral on the social-media networks and encourage people to pick up a copy as a gift for a friend, family member or loved one. It's a great gift for a child too to see what other children are doing," he explained.

Children who want to be a part of the Ashe Academy go through a simple audition process, where they are asked to come prepared to sing, act and dance. Students can schedule their auditions by calling the Ashe office lines 960-2985.

The next programme will begin on January 13, 2013.