Show Choir- a fantastical singing and dancing group of teenagers. A show choir tends to have 30-60 performers and a performance lasts around 20 minutes, consisting of several fast, heavily choreographed songs and one slower-paced, unchoreographed ballad.
At Millard South, there are two show choirs: South On Stage, the mixed group, and Stage One, the treble choir. I am a second-year member of South On Stage. Getting into South on Stage my freshman year felt like the answer to a prayer I didn’t know I was making. Their show my eighth-grade year (21-22), titled Fly Again, literally changed my life. The way their sound surrounded me and reverberated in my bones was enough to bring me to tears. Watching this group take to the sky again reminded me that there was more to life than homework and lounging around my friends’ kitchens.
Our show choir is a family. A hierarchical, sometimes dysfunctional family, but a family still. Last year, we won grand champs- first place- at one competition and I felt like I was flying. We stormed the stage, stood in a giant circle, and sang our ballad all together. A cheesy show of supremacy over the other groups, and still I cried. My show choir teammates have a special place in my heart. They are people who I may not have otherwise known, and I will probably never see outside of show choir-related circumstances. They are people who understand the struggle, the blood, sweat, and tears that go into perfecting 20 minutes of singing and dancing, and they are unforgettable.
Show choir has its downfalls; you sacrifice almost every Saturday from mid-January to early March for competitions, and you spend precious summer days going through the grueling motions of learning choreography. Sometimes the sequins on your dress cut open your arms and you smile through the pain. Awards at competitions are excruciating, the anxiety of wondering whether your group made finals and gets to compete against a narrowed-down group of competitors, or if you are being sent home. Finals go deep into the nighttime hours. Sometimes final awards aren’t until nearly midnight! But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
