Random notes -
This was the best competition lineup I've ever seen hands down. I was simply amazed at the level of truly great groups. Illinois does show choir right.
EEE - I thought your choreo was absolutely great, although it was better during the day. Your male soloist was my favorite from the day, and you have some simply phenomenal dancers.
MTZ - Besides being a little biased (being part of the show) getting a name from the audience was something I'd never seen and really awesome. For me show choir is about entertaining, and you guys DEFINITLY did. I wish you and Hastings would go to more competitions together. (Come to Swingin On The River...)
Sioux City East - You guys do Weaver right. Really entertaining - I know a lot of choirs did 60's, but I thought you did best.
WW - Boy, you're the best vocal choir I've ever seen. Period. By a good amount. For finals, you guys were having SO MUCH FUN, and it really showed. I enjoyed watching you so much because you were enjoying it yourself.
ATSC - You guys are just so clean, and your vocals are so strong. Scott and Brenna - I met your moms. Jealous?
Totino - I love you guys. You had my favorite dance break of the show. That was awesome. Here's the caveat - I was in the third row for the performance in front of the moniters (just getting raw sound) and there were points that weren't piano that I just couldn't hear. BUT, Congrats to the band, you guys kick ass, and I love how classy you are. Walking around in nice clothes just adds a nice touch to every competition.
Sauk Prairie - I thought you were the most underranked choir of the day. I'm usually not into your "style" but this was really great. Lots of fun, and I thought the choreo was really good. If I made finals judging by the 6 choirs I want to see again, you would definitly be in it.
Onalaska - Man, I stayed around hoping for the "Allelulia Circle." Two years ago at Swingin on the River you did that around us, and I was simply amazed. That's still one of my very best memories of show choir, the memory is just vivid.
Sidenote - From the level of competition, don't you think the trophies were a little lacking . I mean I know it's not about the trophies but...
OVERALL - I'm really glad I went, that competition was simply great entertainment. I wouldn't be surprised if ten groups at that competition end up getting a GC this year.
First, yes, everyone is okay- someone took an extra riser to the head, but he is completely fine (though probably a little sore). Thanks for the concern.
And, yes, we had a time penalty. It was mostly caused by our major prop malfunction lol. So everyone knows, Onalaska states in the rules that for every minute or fraction thereof that a group goes over the 25 minute time limit, you will be deducted 25 minutes. We were quite concerned going into the weekend because our show is clocking in right around 20 minutes- leaving about 5 minutes to get everything on and off- with the staging and props designed into our show- we knew we'd be cutting it super close. This may have caused some panic, which led to the downfall of our puppets. I think we ended up clocking in around 27 minutes. (According the the scoresheet handed out, everyone who went over was assessed a 10 point penalty- rather than multiples of 25. I'm not sure how that worked out, but whatever)
We have six puppet backdrops that were created by our parents- they are about fifteen feet tall, and placed on PVC pipe. As we were coming on and setting up, one of the puppets' PVC pipe broke, and started falling. The puppet next to it either got bumped by people trying to save the first puppet, or the falling puppet wanted to take someone else down with her, and both fell. It was all quite dramatic. I think our recovery could have been a bit better, but I mean, two gigantic puppets fell from the sky.
Thankfully, the puppets have been rushed to the puppet hospital, and we're expecting a full recovery.
I thought that wheaton was amazing! i only saw them during the day -- but you could tell they were having so much fun! their soloists were all really good (the girl in the ballad was fantastic!), i loved sign sealed delivered and the costumes! its really fun to watch a show choir that loves what they are doing, it makes me love show choir a million times more to see a group do so well! congrats on the win
could someone give me a summary of Totino and Buffalo Grove's shows? any reasons they weren't in finals? I was only at finalsl, and rather shocked to not see either there.
Ah! I love Wheaton Warenville! I saw them last year live @ Marysville, and I couldn't shut up about their vocal sound all year long, I had never heard anything like them. I still to this day thought that they should have won that competition (they got 1st Runner Up) because their vocals were so unreal. They were honestly my favorite group from last year. It's great to hear they've matched and even bettered (so it seems) themselves this year. I can't wait to see them! Someone PLEASE get their show from last year and this year up on YouTube sometime soon. What songs did they do by the way?