Bright Lights, Sparkling Sequins! This Year’s Show Choir Overview
This year the Franklin Energizers, FHS’ own show choir, entered its second year of competing around the midwest, with competitions ranging from a University setting to fellow high schools alike.
Their show this year, “Around the World,” included many different musical selections with a wide range of musical styles, from a bollywood number to pop smash hits to a traditional Irish ballad. The show began with the pentatonix cover of Who’s Gonna Save the World?, and went from there into Jai Ho, made famous from the movie Slumdog Millionaire and by the cover by the Pussycat Dolls. they then went into the girls’ number, The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B, and then transitioned into the guys’ number, Land Down Under. The two groups then come together for Sway, a tango-tastic latin number. They then brought things to a more serious note with Red is the Rose, a traditional Irish Ballad. For the big finish, they brought the energy up to 11 with Waka Waka (This is Africa) by Shakira.
The Energizers went to three competitions, two of which they returned to from last year and one was a first for this year. I had the opportunity to speak with the two directors of the show choir, Ms. Schlecht and Mrs. Adams, to ask them for their thoughts on the competition process as a whole.
Ms. Schlecht, the vocal director of the show choir, told me her thoughts on this year’s performances and season overall.
What was the overall theme of this year’s show?
Our theme was “Around the World,” so it incorporated music from all different countries.
What were the competitions like?
Competitions were pretty intense. We did three competitions, one at Viterbo University in La Cross in January. The second one we did was at Naperville North High School, which was a very elite competition, we were up against some really tough groups for that one. The third and final competition was the Chicagoland Showcase in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and for that we were in a prep division. All three of them had some pretty intense glee-style competition.
What were the results of these competitions?
At Viterbo we got second place in our prep division, at Naperville we did not end up placing, and then at Chicagoland we got third place out of six teams.
How do you think the season went as a whole?
I think looking back from the end of July when we had our show choir camp to the final performance it’s a huge night and day difference between how much we’ve grown as we went through the season.
I also had the opportunity to speak to Mrs. Adams, the choreography director of the show choir, to ask for her thoughts on the season and what her thoughts are for next year.
What musical selections did you use for your “Around the World” theme?
We started with Who’s Gonna Save the World, and then we went through different genres and styles and countries around the world.
How do you think the season went?
I think it was a huge growth from where we started to the end of the season. Not only place-wise in competitions, but confidence levels for students in the group as well as overall how far we can go in the future.
What are the big plans for next year?
So some of that is undisclosed at this point, tryouts just took place over the past week, so we’re still looking at who’s going to be in the group, how many numbers that’s going to be, what the theme is going to be. It will be released at a soon date, but we’re working all of those details out.
From the work of Pentatonix to Shakira, this year’s show truly did take the audience on a trip “Around the World.”
Be sure to stick around with the Saber Slate to stay up to date on information on the FHS Energizers!