Rumor has it this is going to be an AMAZING competition again this year.
Kennedy Happinesss Inc
Buffalo Grove Expressions
Totino Grace Company of Singers
Mt Zion Swingsations
Sioux City East Headliners
Sullivan Singers
Papillion La Vista
and its only MAY?!!? Come on who else!!?? LEts get Burbank, and North Central, and Clinton, and Ankeny and Urbandale, and Burroughs and Franklin Central and EEE and Troy and ...
Rumor has it this is going to be an AMAZING competition again this year.
Kennedy Happinesss Inc
Buffalo Grove Expressions
Totino Grace Company of Singers
Mt Zion Swingsations
Sioux City East Headliners
Sullivan Singers
Papillion La Vista
and its only MAY?!!? Come on who else!!?? LEts get Burbank, and North Central, and Clinton, and Ankeny and Urbandale, and Burroughs and Franklin Central and EEE and Troy and ...
Thanks for your post, Mr. Jennings. It's so nice to see a director being proactive here and willing to put their hat in the ring to help better our community and art form; that's precisely what SCC is all about. I will absolutely assist in any way I can to help any kind of progress in the show choir world become a reality.
I am a faithful member of ACDA (attending conferences and workshops and such), but I don't think they are the organization to produce a coherent show choir championship. For one, they are not big on competition (especially not in CA). Also, show choir will always be a small subcategory in that organization as opposed to the central idea.
I'm not sure if an official organization is even necessary, but if it came from the directors (as opposed to a tour company like the afore mentioned example) I think it would have a decent shot at success. This website is already a unifying element and I'm sure Haakon would assist in any way he could. It could happen, but it is going to take some time and effort.
The beauty of show choir programs is that they ARE built on volunteerism and teamwork. So many directors, parents and students work extremely hard (for free!) to build their programs to provide a great opportunity for education and fun...its astounding really. That is what needs to be tapped into to create a national level event.
I think its a great discussion to have and I am definitely willing to put time into the concept. The question is whether or not everyone will buy into it.
September is around the time of our school musical rehearsals, after that comes the time for our Christmas show and special performances for local organizations during the Holiday season. Also, you must remember that Counterpoints is 50% concert choir. As one judge commented last Sunday, we must NEVER forget our concert choir and solely do the show choir, as we'd forget our true roots and reputation.
I'd imagine plenty of other schools running into the same kind of problems; competing with other school groups including the band, orchestra, speech team, theater, sports, etc. for the students they share and times on the school calendar.
OMG Yes... We usually slack off on rehearsals from September-November because of All-State auditions and festival, our Musical, fall play, etc. Unfortunately that usually means Momentum is not ready for their first/second (third ) competition
There are some strong show choir directors serving as divisional ACDA show choir R&S chairs (Pat Wiehe, Doran Johnson, Jim Kimmel). It seems to me that if we are serious about a national movement, they may be a good place to start.
Jordan Johnson- tell your dad to get off his lazy butt and get to work on this.
There have been a number of attempts to form a national organization to serve as a governing body/clearing house for all show choir issues. There was a movement to form what was called the National Association of Show Choirs around 2000, but that fizzled after a couple of years. In recent years there have been regional meetings (dubbed "summits") to try to come up with commonality in various competition issues (scoring, judge criteria, etc...). This could eventually lead to something...who knows?
In my mind, the natural organization to do this would be ACDA. There are definitely two camps when bringing up ACDA and show choir in the same sentence. For a long time, ACDA was pretty dismissive of show choir as a genre and developed a lot of ill will in the show choir community. That image has improved somewhat in recent years. I believe most states, if not all, have a show choir repertoire and standards chair through ACDA. I also believe there is a national R&S chair for show choir. (It used to be linked with jazz choirs but I believe they have been separated now.) My point is, with the right people in the right places, there is an established, national organization that could serve as the national unifying body for show choir that we all seek. I wonder if anyone has made a serious effort to use the infrastructure that is in place through ACDA to accomplish some of these goals.
One caveat to those (myself included) who want a unifying national body...be careful what you wish for. While we all get frustrated by the lack of consistency on various show choir issues from contest to contest, the freedom of each contest to distinguish itself in certain ways is also a positive. Many contests grew out of a desire to create an event that, in the minds of its founders, was "the way" a show choir event should be run. I think we all believe pretty strongly in the way we do things and are happy to have had the flexibility to do it our own way. National standards (while they could never make them mandatory) have a way creating expectations to do things a certain way. That may or may not be a good thing.
I, for one, welcome the discussion. There are some strong show choir directors serving as divisional ACDA show choir R&S chairs (Pat Wiehe, Doran Johnson, Jim Kimmel). It seems to me that if we are serious about a national movement, they may be a good place to start.
maybe we could get all the choirs that want to send in a video and apply, and if they get in they can all fly to a central location and not have a competition?
Then it could actually be a festival of show choirs and not about a cup or winning.
maybe ?
or are you all too fired up about beating other schools to just want to have great performances?
I like this idea, it would be cool!!
If they were going to charge to get in + sell food
The choirs involved could vote on a charity or cause to send the profits
After paying for the venue and staff (of course)
It would let people know about show choir and it would get more people interested or involved
and it would even educate the students on the cause they are raising money for
Not too early to talk this one up....
Let's all convince Ankeny, Brea, Buffalo Grove, Burbank, Carmel, Center Grove, Clinton, Dekalb, Eisenhower, Fairfield, Findlay, Franklin Central, Hart, Huntington North, John Burroughs, LaCrosse Central, Lafayette Jeff, Los Alamitos, Marysville, Mt Zion, North Central, Pike, Totino-Grace, Urbandale, Waubonsie Valley, Wheaton Warrenville to make this one. (Who have I left out??) Let's force FAME to have to get a bigger venue and make it a two-day event!
maybe we could get all the choirs that want to send in a video and apply, and if they get in they can all fly to a central location and not have a competition?
Then it could actually be a festival of show choirs and not about a cup or winning.
maybe ?
or are you all too fired up about beating other schools to just want to have great performances?
Millikin did that at least one time. It was not a video auditioon but groups that had excellent results during the season came together for a festival at Millikin in April. It was not so national but they did have at least 12 very good choirs in attendance. It was a good day and a rewarding concept. I think after 12 weeks or so of "We're better than that", simply appreciating everyone's incredibly hard work to achieve excellence is a good release of tension.
maybe we could get all the choirs that want to send in a video and apply, and if they get in they can all fly to a central location and not have a competition?
Then it could actually be a festival of show choirs and not about a cup or winning.
maybe ?
or are you all too fired up about beating other schools to just want to have great performances?
wow people don't take everything he says so damn seriously!!! This is a fun topic/thread, just accept that everyone has their own opinions! People are so closed minded sometimes, sorry that so many people don't get it tscott.