By Brian M. Rafferty
A gathering mass of people in Queens is in the final stages of rehearsal for a talent show of massive — perhaps even biblical — proportion.
With songs and beats in their ears, graceful moves in their feet and dreams of scholarship money for college in their hearts, hundreds of teenage performers will swoop down on Westbury Music Fair in a few weeks to praise their creator, win some money, dance, sing and get down.
McDonald’s Gospelfest 2003, the 20th anniversary edition, will be held Saturday and Sunday, May 10 and 11 at Westbury. There will also be competitions held in Newark, N.J., Stamford, Conn., and at Madison Square Garden.
Though the hopeful teenagers will be joined by adults from all walks of life in their praise, Gospelfest has been about the kids ever since it was started in Los Angeles more than 20 years ago. In 1984, the Tri-State McDonald’s Corporation began to sponsor the festival in New York, with performances at the Apollo Theater. In 1986 the final gala moved to Carnegie Hall, and this year the event has taken another leap forward, giving teenagers (and some adults) the opportunity to perform for championships in choir, soloists, step dance and a host of other categories at all four locations, including the stage at Madison Square Garden.
“They are really excited about this — to get the chance to perform at Madison Square Garden,” said Claudia Johnson, director of St. Albans DPD, about the girls who recently found out their team had been selected to perform June 7 at Gospelfest at the Paramount Theater.
“They were waiting to hear, just sitting there on pins and needles,” Johnson said of the girls in her step group. “The letter from Gospelfest came to the school and (the girls) couldn’t even open because they needed to wait for me. There were such screams that came out of their mouths when I opened it — it was unbelievable.”
Johnson serves not just as director for the group, which is based out of the St. Albans Deliverance Temple on Hollis Avenue, but as a spiritual leader as well.
“I am basically their personal manager — I get the spiritual side. I talk to them, tell them what they need to do to stay focused spiritually. When they’re good or bad, I’m there. I’m a youth leader at the church, and they need the older guidance to help them get through.
She added, modestly, “They think I‘m their age, but I’m not.”
“I have been there from the very beginning, and I have seen every last one of them grow up. I’ve been in all of their lives and seen every one of them from the very outset since they were all little kids.”
Johnson said the kids in St. Albans DPD put out a very different performance than many other step dance troupes.
“The way they dance seems to captivate you in a way – they like to take music and bring music to their moves. The listen very closely to the words, too. You can actually feel the words when you see them dance. Then when you hear the words you say “Oh my God, that’s what they were doing”
“That’s what is so inspirational – people get blessed when they watch them,” Johnson added. “There is always a message they have when they dance.
Though many step groups create a dance choreographed around a heavy beat, it is the song that drives St. Albans DPD to move.
“Their moves are not choreographed naturally,” Johnson said. “You would think they would have an ‘uptown’ beat, but they’re more focused.”
Afiah Mathison, of St. Albans, at the ripe old age of 16, heads Feet at Motion, a group of nine girls together for the last four years working on step routines three minutes at a time.
“I make them up,” Mathison said of the step moves. “I think of what I need to get done — how the rhythm should be together. Once I have that down pat then I make the steps up on my own.”
Of course once the steps are in place, it’s simply a matter of getting nine teenage girls to keep in touch with each other to keep in time during rehearsals — which for Feet at Motion last about two hours a week working on the routine.
“When the time gets closer we’re going to start having more time,” Mathison said.
Time to work out a routine is important, but so is making sure that none of the other contestants get wind of what your routine will look or sound like.
“We don’t want to show our cards, but it should definitely be an eye-opening experience,” Oronde Smith said. “We will capture peoples’ hearts with not just the singing, but the dancing. We get into it. We mean what we sing.”
Smith, of St. Albans, is an emergency room physician at Bronx Lebanon Hospital who has been a member of Gethsemane Baptist Church in West New York, NJ, since he was a young child.
Despite a hectic schedule with work, he still finds the time to rehearse with the 21-member choir and six-piece band he directs for the church every Friday night — usually from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m.
Smith has been playing music at the church since he was 12, and had been the assistant pianist for years before being promoted to church pianist. He has been heading the Gethsemane Baptist Church Inspirational Choir since 1996.
“It is a big thing,” he said of the group’s invitation to participate in Gospelfest. “I have known about it for years, but I never thought we would go into it. Last year was the first year I had the audacity to have us audition. We did, and it was atrocious. The music wasn’t right, the voices were off, the choir was moving the wrong way.
“But I said, ‘Don’t worry, next year we’ll enter.’ We practiced every Friday for a month to get ready for the audition, and did a great job.”
Smith said he thinks the group sold themselves to the judges not just for individual aspects, such as music, singing or dancing, but the whole package
“Myself and the choir director write our own music and original songs. Judges were impressed by originality, the moves. I think they were surprised. Now we’re pretty excited.”
Call Ticketmaster for tickets to Gospelfest 2003, 212-307-7171.
