One last thing…If you have never seen a show choreographed by Dwight Jordan, it’s a Show you sadly missed! If you are new to show choir or just never had the chance to see his shows produced for Mt. Zion, IL, Wheaton Warrenville South, IL, Waubonsie Valley, IL, DeKalb, IL, Onalaska, WI or Clinton, MS among other national powers for 30+ years, you should make plans. (There might be a converging event soon, stay posted on showchoir.com).
There are many great choreographers, and I don’t know if there is yet a Hall of Fame for them, but it would be hard to find a more deserving candidate. He’s a ‘lifer’ in the show choir community and runs the Show Choir Camps of America to facilitate the arts. He’s got a profile here…look him up.
I am unaware of any choreographer Hall of Fame, but Dwight Jordan was the recipient of the first-ever FAME Aspire Lifetime Achievement Award, which is as close as it gets to being the first inductee in the HoF!
We hope everyone had a good time! It was very important to us to offer a live performance in front of a live audience. There’s nothing that compares to the energy of a live audience! Imagine going to a basketball tournament and having all of your competition cheering your high points, but that’s what you get in Show Choir! That’s what we love, and what the Swingsations are all about. This was the 40th edition of the Mt. Zion Midwest Invitational. It’s a school of of 700+ students in a downstate Illinois community with a long history in show choir, and an auditorium that bests most larger schools. (No sitting on bleachers.) If you haven’t been here yet, you should come.
There were a lot of challenges with our plans as we all punch through this pandemic. Lots of pivots as the date approached, but I think it was a ‘return to normalcy’ for us. Thanks to all that attended.
Regarding the lack of ‘live feed’, that’s tough. If you host a successful event, it’s a fund raiser for the host. You have to sell a ton of subscriptions to offset the production overhead expenses. You really have more faith in the gate admissions. With that said, we didn’t prohibit private photography or videography (Facebook Live, etc). If you saw it great; if you didn’t, come see us in 2023!
Single-Gender Division:
3rd Runner-up: Mundelein Lights
2nd Runner-up: Springfield Scarlet Harmony
1st Runner-up: Mundelein Sound FX
Grand Champion, best vocal best choreography: Wheaton Warrenville South Esprit
Prep Division
5th Runner-Up: PBL Ulimited
4th Runner-up: Kankakee Take Note
3rd Runner-up: Springfield IN Session
2nd Runner-up, Best Choreography: Alan B Shepard Nova
1st Runner-up: Herscher Class Act
Grand Champion best vocals: TBHS Soundwave
I think placing Classics as 4th with no placement after a year off, with potentially a larger budget, and at an in-person comp is an EXTREMELY hot take.
It's not outside the realm of possibility, but I think its a disservice to act like it's a common line of thinking at this comp. People are placing 1st as Express/Classics at about 66% of predictions and I would be willing to bet a sizable portion of people have the opposite as their runner up.
Inclined to agree with Joe here, most would call this a very hot take, that being said, everyone is completely entitled to their own opinions. Very excited to see this competition play out!
Mt. Zion Midwest Invitational 2022
