First off, Congratulations Twinsburg and all the other finalists!!! You all gave awesome performances backed by great shows! I'd like to say thanks for the St.C Singers to The Company and Piqua HS for being such great hosts again this year! Hopefully we'll be making a trip back there next season!!
I arrived at Piqua during Albertville's daytime performance and stayed through the end of finals. Piqua is always a very well run competition, and "The Company" always gives one of their most spirited performances of the season as the host choir, but in other respects I found the competition disappointing. To me, it was obvious after daytime that there was a division between the top three groups and everyone else competing. And while I understood final results for the most part, I do think there were two faux pas that I can not come to agree with or understand.
Before commenting on the finalists, I will add that Beavercreek absolutely deserved to place in finals over either DeKalb or Northrop. Both choirs had an underwhelming daytime performance, and while Beavercreek's show lost much of its momentum in the final two numbers, their singing was much much better than that of both groups.
Twinsburg:
I felt about this year's show how I've felt about all Twinsburg shows since I started watching the group regularly - it's dense, high concept and certainly ambitious, which is admirable, but that comes at the cost of being enjoyable or particularly memorable. The group was without a doubt the most committed in finals competition. There wasn't a significant improvement from daytime competition, but that is because Twinsburg is an incredibly consistent group that always gives a hard-hitting performance.
Unfortunately, that is also one of the issues I take with the group. Regardless of song genre or the mood of the number, all of the choreography is incredibly strong and performed with an edge. This provides for some pretty dazzling moments in the trademark Twinsburg dance breaks, but during quieter moments in a show I yearn for some sensitivity and restraint from the group. To each his own, I suppose, as I'm also not a fan of the restrictive straight tone singing, but Twinsburg is a group that does what they do extremely well.
Findlay:
The first four numbers of Findlay's show are simply exquisite. The tap could of course use some cleaning as the season progresses, but at this early point I was blown away with how polished Findlay's show was. The one complaint I do have before the group reaches their closer is that the band is too restrained at points. They were times during the opener and tap number when the band was noticeably quiet compared to what I'm used to hearing from the Boingers. Once that change is made though, the only issue I foresee for this group is their dud of a closer.
It's the type of Andy Haines number I am used to seeing at the end of a Center Grove show, or perhaps in a Crandall-era Teays Valley show. The choreography is just too busy, and because of that the performers dance very uncomfortably and at no point was it clean. Also, much of the group's vocal energy is lost. While the group was noticeably tired in finals, it was only during the closer when I thought this could be a issue for securing Findlay a win. The number is a problem and I would have enjoyed the show more without it.
DeKalb:
Easily claiming the title of being the most improved group from daytime to finals, I think that factor helped bolster DeKalb into a third place finish. Unfortunately, I do not think that placement was deserved. While the energy doubled and the choreography was much cleaner in finals, I still think the level of musicianship in this group was not near that of other groups in finals. I also thought this was a fairly expected show from DeKalb and didn't find anything new to enjoy about the group.
One other issue I had with the show is that the second number hardly qualified as a tap number, in my opinion. It was clear that only four couples exited the stage to change shoes after the opener, and to not even have the entire front row of singer/dancers in tap shoes seems to be a bit of a cheat.
Marysville:
I was very proud to see the level of improvement since I last saw the group at their holiday concert. The show was more than slightly underwhelming at that point, and significant cleaning still needs to happen in the last two numbers, but the show was well done and very entertaining at Piqua. The first half is more polished than the second, and perhaps more inviting in its diversity, but I think once the second half is a bit more ironed out this has all the makings of being the best Marysville show yet. It is a more creative and choreographically-interesting show than last year's, and more balanced than the 2007 set, so with work I hope they may prove themselves to be a championship caliber group.
Oh, and it must be noted that the band was the best at Piqua. No contest. They are featured one too many times during the show, but the power of the combo was palpable at several moments in the show.
Albertville:
An odd duck in finals, I appreciated Albertville for presenting such a different and interesting show. And while the show was extremely confusing when the singer/dancers first began performing in the period costuming, it came together during the ballad to make a new and appealing statement. I do wish that the group was backed up with a stronger and better supported vocal sound though. The sound was rather hollow during several points in the show, and if not for the solid opener and closer, I could have seen the group placing sixth.
Northrop:
Unfortunately not much makes this group memorable. I thought the vocal sound in finals was solid, and definitely improved from daytime competition, but otherwise this was an unremarkable show. Unoriginal song selections, mostly unison choreography and some poor costuming decisions amounted to a blase reaction from the audience. I can see that there is talent at this school, I'd love to see this group try out some more creative material in the future, as I think they could succeed handily with it.
This was such an amazing time... I have made many new bonds, and it was a great way to close that chapter of Show Choir. Congratulations to everyone... I saw some pretty amazing things happen last night, and it is definitely something I will always remember. I hope to see you all at other competitions, and I hope that relationships that were formed with stick around.
Beavercreek, take a breath and come back strong this week. You've improved a great deal in the past several rehearsals, but we still have much to do! I appreciate how you've been applying yourselves and making the show jump higher. God Bless, Damon
Finals results will be available on the website in real time as they happen. This should be right around 11:30 - 11:45. Please check the website for results.