THAT'S the phrase I was looking for. You can tell that you are trying to be a theatrical show choir. And it works. Just, like I said, it's not extreme and still a bit safe. WHICH you need to do when making the switch. Really, I liked Valley's show A LOT.
YES! Im glad you enjoyed it! i think our director is trying to transition us also into a theatrical show choir. i dont think he would want to jump right into it in the midwest were theatrical dark shows are hard to pull off, he probably wants to ease his way into it. Im interested to see how our shows will turn out the next few years. but again... im glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!!
I really think you are one of the few people who see it that way. At basically all of our competitions, we were the "weird show choir" basically because of our closer and it was more dark than happy. Our director is trying to get us to be more of a theatrical show choir which can be somewhat difficult in the midwest. But i agree that we did chose some safetys while we were trying to be "out of the box"
THAT'S the phrase I was looking for. You can tell that you are trying to be a theatrical show choir. And it works. Just, like I said, it's not extreme and still a bit safe. WHICH you need to do when making the switch. Really, I liked Valley's show A LOT.
Valley's show is definitely not cookie cutter. Though it's not extremely out of the box, either. It has more of a Mitchell feel than a Urbandale feel. With the jazz numbers, the closing costumes, and some of the choreography, I can see how it leans more toward out of the box than cookie cutter. I think the show conflicts within itself. It kind of wants to lean toward out of the box, but it does it safely. Wicked medley for the ballad = cookie cutter. But the choices from Wicked they use (Good news, etc) and the vocal style they perform it in = out of the box. Rockin the Paradise and Eye of the Tiger = cookie cutter. The arrangements of each of these songs = Out of the box. Honestly I feel it falls in the middle somewhere. Either way, I really enjoy Valley's show.
I really think you are one of the few people who see it that way. At basically all of our competitions, we were the "weird show choir" basically because of our closer and it was more dark than happy. Our director is trying to get us to be more of a theatrical show choir which can be somewhat difficult in the midwest. But i agree that we did chose some safetys while we were trying to be "out of the box"
our closer has literally never been done by another school. we have an entirely jazz interlude as our 4th number, a swing version of eye of the tiger. for iowa how is that not out of the box? our song choices are all "out of the box" at least in the iowa definition of "out of the box". we also bought four intelligent lights, which is "out of the box" for iowa.
Valley's show is definitely not cookie cutter. Though it's not extremely out of the box, either. It has more of a Mitchell feel than a Urbandale feel. With the jazz numbers, the closing costumes, and some of the choreography, I can see how it leans more toward out of the box than cookie cutter. I think the show conflicts within itself. It kind of wants to lean toward out of the box, but it does it safely. Wicked medley for the ballad = cookie cutter. But the choices from Wicked they use (Good news, etc) and the vocal style they perform it in = out of the box. Rockin the Paradise and Eye of the Tiger = cookie cutter. The arrangements of each of these songs = Out of the box. Honestly I feel it falls in the middle somewhere. Either way, I really enjoy Valley's show.
Please explain to me how your show is "out of the box"?
our closer has literally never been done by another school. we have an entirely jazz interlude as our 4th number, a swing version of eye of the tiger. for iowa how is that not out of the box? our song choices are all "out of the box" at least in the iowa definition of "out of the box". we also bought four intelligent lights, which is "out of the box" for iowa.
his school tag says Omaha Westside so I just want to clear things up
Whoever he is he really loves Hastings because he was in another forum the day after altoona bashing waconia...left a very vulgar comment that had to be deleted! idk where they are from but i do not believe they are from Omaha Westside...im sorry they picked your group as a tag!
for the discussion that came out of "idareyou's" post please disregard that he/she is from westside and that his one comment does not express the ideas of the whole program. Thanks I just don't want a bad light shown on westside
I don't think anybody believes he is from Westside.
for the discussion that came out of "idareyou's" post please disregard that he/she is from westside and that his one comment does not express the ideas of the whole program. Thanks I just don't want a bad light shown on westside
Agreed. Hastings sings so much better this year than I have EVER heard them. Bemidji is just as good as they always are. And Totino was never #2 in the nation back when I was in school and they always competed WELL here in Iowa. I forgot another GC at Johnston for Totino back in 2006, narrowly beating out Urbandale and Iowa City High (i think all 3 of them were separated by a single point)
Now I haven't seen Urbandale yet this year, but Xavier improved a TON from Viterbo to Muscatine (like LIGHTYEARS improved) and from the videos I saw from Waukee I can tell they worked hard from Viterbo to Waukee as well, so it really doesn't surprise me they beat Urbandale (in fact I predicted it). I just think it is really really unfair to say that Iowa competitions inherently judge Minnesota groups worse because they are from Minnesota. More likely it is just that Minnesota groups are attracted to the larger Iowa competitions and therefore face stiffer competition- groups they may have a harder time beating. Especially since most Iowa competitions try to find judges from all around the country, I just have a really hard time believing there is some sort of underlying scandal.
Yeah he said we cheated at Altoona too when we got grand champion over hastings...i dont think anybody cheated i dont know if thats even possible? haha but you never know the way things will play out in competitions to come! i mean im in power company and last night at rehearsal we watched our tape from our first competition and our most recent one...theres already so much improvement like every group keeps improving as the season continues and one group may beat somebody one week, and lose to them the next all depending who worked harder at practices that week! its hard to tell, definitely no cheating though!
I think a lot of groups that you mention are on totally different levels this year than past. I don't know who you have seen. Except I'm guessing you saw Waconia and Bemidiji at Eau Claire and Hastings at Johnston. But IMO this is the best I've ever seen Waconia, and their placements are proving that. I also love Hastings' sound this year. Even BK stepped it up big time from Linn-Mar to Eau Claire.
Agreed. Hastings sings so much better this year than I have EVER heard them. Bemidji is just as good as they always are. And Totino was never #2 in the nation back when I was in school and they always competed WELL here in Iowa. I forgot another GC at Johnston for Totino back in 2006, narrowly beating out Urbandale and Iowa City High (i think all 3 of them were separated by a single point)
Now I haven't seen Urbandale yet this year, but Xavier improved a TON from Viterbo to Muscatine (like LIGHTYEARS improved) and from the videos I saw from Waukee I can tell they worked hard from Viterbo to Waukee as well, so it really doesn't surprise me they beat Urbandale (in fact I predicted it). I just think it is really really unfair to say that Iowa competitions inherently judge Minnesota groups worse because they are from Minnesota. More likely it is just that Minnesota groups are attracted to the larger Iowa competitions and therefore face stiffer competition- groups they may have a harder time beating. Especially since most Iowa competitions try to find judges from all around the country, I just have a really hard time believing there is some sort of underlying scandal.
I think a lot of groups that you mention are on totally different levels this year than past. I don't know who you have seen. Except I'm guessing you saw Waconia and Bemidiji at Eau Claire and Hastings at Johnston. But IMO this is the best I've ever seen Waconia, and their placements are proving that. I also love Hastings' sound this year. Even BK stepped it up big time from Linn-Mar to Eau Claire.
I have heard nothing but amazing things about either Urbandale or Xavier...that comment from poster "idareyou" he was posting some very hateful comments in another topic too. Completely disregard what he says...awards are awards. Judges arent always necessarily experts...they're simply people with opinions. And i really don't think there's anyway to possibly "cheat". Anybody who won...deserved to win that day!
You have to remember that Totino Grace is (I think) number 2 in the country and last I checked, Bemidji wasn't far behind them. I'm talking about schools like Hastings, Bloomington Jefferson and Kennedy, and even Waconia that are at different levels that Bemidji and Totino.
I think a lot of groups that you mention are on totally different levels this year than past. I don't know who you have seen. Except I'm guessing you saw Waconia and Bemidiji at Eau Claire and Hastings at Johnston. But IMO this is the best I've ever seen Waconia, and their placements are proving that. I also love Hastings' sound this year. Even BK stepped it up big time from Linn-Mar to Eau Claire.
Well yah the groups from Minnesota that are really really good do well in Iowa, but those that are not as good don't do as well. I mean that makes no sense at ALL.
(btw it is not my opinion at all that those groups aren't as good, that was the opinion of JESS2011)
You have to remember that Totino Grace is (I think) number 2 in the country and last I checked, Bemidji wasn't far behind them. I'm talking about schools like Hastings, Bloomington Jefferson and Kennedy, and even Waconia that are at different levels that Bemidji and Totino.
I thought the tie breaker was total night round scores, since they used a ranking system. I could be totally wrong though?
Nope. The judges at Waukee didn't use a score sheet in finals. They just ranked. We both wound up with a total of 17.
Wheaton-Warrenville had:
1 1 1 1 1 1 = Total 6 (pretty definitive)
You guys had the following placements:
2 2 2 3 4 4 = Total 17
We had:
2 2 3 3 3 4 = Total 17
It said right on the results sheet we received after finals that they used the daytime vocal scores to break the tie. I'm not arguing that Xavier didn't deserve to place ahead of Urbandale there because even if they had reverted to something like the "Fehr fair" system you would have been 1st runner up because you had 3 seconds and we only had 2. I was just refuting the argument that we were "demolished" by Xavier at Waukee. We have absolutely no issue with our placing or the outcome at Waukee's competition.
Urbandale and Xavier tied in finals at Waukee. The tie was broken using daytime vocal scores.
I thought the tie breaker was total night round scores, since they used a ranking system. I could be totally wrong though?
Also, since you mentioned Hastings I just remembered.... Last year they WON here at Johnston, totally upsetting a few groups. They have competed at Mo-Show twice, placing 4th both times behind amazing Onalaska, La Crosse Central, Linn-Mar, and Davenport North shows. Those would be considered GREAT placings.... I know many groups would have loved to place 4th at those great competitions. There were GC caliber groups that did not make finals there. Again no Minnesota bias.
Where would i be without you and Adam to back me up haha
You have to remember that Totino Grace is (I think) number 2 in the country and last I checked, Bemidji wasn't far behind them. I'm talking about schools like Hastings, Bloomington Jefferson and Kennedy, and even Waconia that are at different levels that Bemidji and Totino.
Also, since you mentioned Hastings I just remembered.... Last year they WON here at Johnston, totally upsetting a few groups. They have competed at Mo-Show twice, placing 4th both times behind amazing Onalaska, La Crosse Central, Linn-Mar, and Davenport North shows. Those would be considered GREAT placings.... I know many groups would have loved to place 4th at those great competitions. There were GC caliber groups that did not make finals there. Again no Minnesota bias.
this is defimitely not about my group. we were extrememly unprepared and changed huge parts of our set the day before. .y emtire group would agree that there is no way we could've won. we are proud of how we did there because there was tough competition. i'm not sayimg that all iowa competitioms are like that but, riverside did mot get 1t runner up because urbandale cheated. there is a bias at some,but not necessarily all competitions. and in my observaance and experience,it does happen a lot in iowa towards minnesota groups. now i'm going to move om amd learn from this experience
Johnston Showzam 2011
