Shows choirs practice to win at competitions. There are several show choir competitions in the United States. The ones closer to where your school is called a local event. The ones farther away are called out of state competitions. The ones you want to go to are the national ones. They are mostly 2 day events. Middle school starting on Friday night. Mixed and unisex going on Saturday. The biggest competitions are FAME or Show Choir Nationals held at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. FAME competitions are held in all over like in California, Florida, and Indiana. You compete at FAME to go to the National FAME. Show Choir Nationals is one day events were mixed show choirs compete to get the national mixed title. Same goes for the unisex only unisex only preforms once. The mixed groups preform twice once to make it to finals then again to place. Aj Johnson senior at Fairfield said “I love competing at nationals. You get to see so many different show choirs you wouldn’t get to see at local events. Winning that title is amazing. It’s a thrilling moment in time. I will always remember losing and winning. It’s how you improve.”  Winning a national title is the cherry on top of all the blood, sweat and tears. We practice to win and we win because we practice like we do. We do it to perform. To help people escape reality for 20 minutes. We do it to see people cheering and crying for us. Show choir will be in my heart forever. All the practices, all the injuries, all the money meant nothing. Show choir was my home away from home. It still is my home away from home. I did show choir because I love to sing and dance.

Fairfield show choir sweeps all the trophy's.  

Seeing that in show choir you dance you have to practice regularly. Fairfield Choraliers is a class in school they do practice in that period but they also have after school practices and run-throughs. The after school practices you have about 2 and a half hours to clean but in school you have 50 minutes. Pure elegance only practices after school we used to have Tuesday and Thursdays practices but we got cut down to only one practice on Thursdays lasting 3:30 to 5. Somehow with one practice we still beat mixed show choirs at competitions. 

Choreographer Randy Sage cleaning Pure Elegance

It’s because we practiced as if we were performing. We gave it 110 percent. Even if we were sick we still preformed. Auditions were scary. At least for me we had to sing the national anthem accapella then we had to sight-read. You had to do this in front of 5 people. Waiting for the list was the worst feeling in the world. One list deciding your future. 5 judges choosing over 100 students fates. Once you made it a show choir you had to get fitted and fill out a ton of paper work. We got to a picnic to find out the theme for the year. Then hell week started in august. We started practicing in august with choreography camp and vocal camp. We started at 9am took a break at 12 to eat then at 1:30 started again going till 5pm. During camp you got familiar with people, the choreography and your vocal part. Kayla Kreiner Fairfield alumni talked to me about her reaction to the auditions “When I first tried out I was scared to death but as soon I walked into the chorus room I knew I’d do well”. Once you get over auditions its easy its just getting to the group.

Show choirs perform their shows. It would be pretty weird if one song would be about love, then the next song about space then one about jazz. So show choirs have a theme. One of the most common themes is love related. Show choir themes can be as crazy as harry potter, black magic, Southern belles. One of the craziest themes I’ve seen was a bird theme. The soloist came down in a bird cage dressed in a yellow feather dress. She looked like big bird. I was 7 when I saw that show. I was literally scarred for life. Along with the theme you need choreography to match it. Most show choirs have costumes. Some show choirs can’t afford nice costumes so they use hammy down ones. Fairfield’s costumes were handmade, personally fitted and sized for us. We had to do this. I'm 5’10 and in the heels I was over 6 feet tall. So my clothes had to be longer than most girls. Personally I think the theme and costumes are very important to winning and having a successful group. Dress to impress as we used to say. PE’s dresses use to cost about 800 dollars, tights and spankys cost 30 dollars, shoes ran from 80 to 100 dollars, jewelry cost about 50 and so did the makeup. Show choir isn’t cheap. Linda Fishback head stage mom who takes care of the costumes of PE said: “We get the best costumes we can because we want to see our children succeed.  Yes people may think it’s dumb to spend over a thousand dollars on a show choir but the parents of kids in sports do the same thing. We spend the money because we love our children and we want them to win. You wouldn’t send your child out on the field without the right gear, would you?” I agree with Linda full heartedly.

Like I said in the last blog show choir is mostly seen I high school. Most show choirs are considered mixed show choir meaning they have girl and guys in them. Mixed show choirs range from 20 Singer/dancers to 60 singer/dancers. Unisex meaning all female or all male range from 20 singer/dancers to 50 singer/dancers. Mixed show choirs do the SATB chords while unisex usually do first soprano, second soprano, alto one and second alto. Mixed and unisex can compete against each other but it’s very rare for a unisex group to win grand champion over a mixed group. Mixed groups have such a different sound then a unisex group. My brother and I use to fight about this all the time. He was in a mixed show choir and I was in a unisex group. Tension is always high when you compare mixed and unisex together. Both have such different sounds and harmonies.  Most unisex can only do 4 part harmony while mixed can do 8 part harmony. Also mixed groups can do partner dancing like swing, tango and the waltz. It would just be awkward if unisex did that. Tj Rice senior at Fairfield high school said “I enjoy being in a mixed show choir. The harmonies we make can make people cry. In the ballad I get a little choked up listening to the people around me. Don’t get me wrong I love the PE girls their shows amazing but you need to have the tenors and basses to fill a cord.” I talked to Jenna Pfaff junior at Fairfield high school and asked her what she thought “I love being in PE, yes choraliers can make better harmony then us but we strut the stage like no other show choir out there” I'm bias and I think Unisex groups are awesome. They can rock a 4 part harmony.  

Show choir, also known as swing choir is a group of people who combine vocal singing with dancing. Sometimes the songs are connected together to create a theme. Show choir was created in late 1980’s. Show choir is primarily a high school based thing in the United States. Show choir is mostly found in a public high school. Some schools have a middle school show choir. Most show choirs do a 4 part harmony or SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass). 

Jeff clark teaching the choraliers

I’ve been involved show choir with 15 years. When my brother was in show choir in late 1990’s and early 2000’s it was completely different then what it is today. Back in his middle school days they wore nice polo’s and jeans then his high school years they wore a nice suit and the girl wore nice dresses and one dress change. Dress change is where you change into a different costume. When I was involved in show choir we had several dress changes and harder choreography. My old show choir director Jeff Clark said this to us daily “Augustus, sveetheart, save some room for latah.” Meaning you can’t show them all you’ve got save it for the finals but still give it your all. Show choir is family once you go off to college you can always come back to it. Most people who direct show choirs were in show choirs themselves. Jeff Clark was in a show choir before directing Fairfield choirs. He was in Kettering Fairmont high school Ohio show choir. Before Clark there was Dan Prior who was my brothers director I wanted Dan to be my director but he retired.  Once you’re in show choir your stuck forever. I want my children to do it and my grandchildren to do it. Music sticks with you no matter what you do.

Show Choir . What comes to your mind when you think about it? do you imagine gay guys dancing and singing around the stage. Maybe you think it’s like glee. Well that’s not show choir. We don’t change our show every week. We keep the same show all year practicing it every week while we compete at different competitions. Most show choirs start in august and don’t stop till may  In the next few blogs I’ll talk about the history of show choir, Mixed / Unisex groups, Themes / Concepts / costuming, Practices/ Auditions, and Outcome / Competitions. I was involved in the Fairfield Show Choir program for most of my life. I'm 3 time national champion thanks to show choir.  It’s changed my life in so many ways.

Fairfield Choir logo

Collabro isn’t like the boy bands you think of normally. They have many similarities i.e. 5 guys, all very attractive, all love to sing and they’re on a TV show to win a record deal. Sounds like your typical boy band but Collabro has something up there sleeve. Collabro auditioned on week one of Britain’s got talent. They came out and introduced themselves as a boy group who just got together a month ago.  The judges were not expecting much, especially Simon Cowell, a well-known record producer.  They stunned the judges by singing Stars from Les Mis, this is not your obvious choice for a boy band.  Collabro got a standing ovation from the audience as well as all four judges, which is very rare.




Collabro in front of the Britain’s Got Talent Theater. From left to right Jamie, Michael, Matt, Richard, and Thomas



Collabro is made out of 5 guys. Jamie works in a hospital, Richard is a laborer, Thomas works in a Japanese Restaurant, Michael works at a petrol garage and Matt is a kitchen salesmen. The guys met in a pub just recently and they had only a month to prepare before they auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent.

Their YouTube video has over 3.5 million views in less than a month and their twitter account has 12.6K followers. Collabro has stunned everyone who has watched their video. Nicholas Jones a musical theater major reacts to collabro saying: “Wow that was amazing. Seriously they’ve only been together for a month?” Collabro even impressed judge Simon Cowell. Simon said to collabro “There’s a hit record right there” Collabro is going on to the next round of BGT.  You can follow Collabro on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  If you like boy bands, Broadway Musicals, or amazing vocals you need to check them out.

Susan Sontag

Have you ever seen Star Wars, E.T, Back to the future, Indiana Jones, maybe even Ghost Busters? These are all great Cinematic masterpieces, but they have ruined cinema. They made cinema extremely profitable; Cinema started making remakes. Cinema made too many movies just to sell merchandise, clothes, toys, posters, you name it the movies had it. There was a time when cinema was just done for the love for storytelling. There were people who went to the movies just to experience being in the movie theater. Susan Sontag wrote “A Century of Cinema”, in which she talks about how cinema today isn’t the same as cinema when it first started over a hundred years ago. Sontag defines cinephilia and describes what kind of film fits the tastes/ standards for them. The main problem with cinema today is that their only desire is to make money.  

Sontag created cinephilia to keep cinema alive. Sontag’s definition is “Cinephilia—the name of the very specific kind of love that cinema inspired.” (Sontag). Cinephiles surrender to the movie; they let their minds be kidnapped by the film.  Here, they can be kidnapped while seated in the dark next to a total stranger. Cinema has changed so much over a hundred years. Standards have changed in cinema as art and for cinema as entertainment. “The love that cinema inspired , however, was special. It was born of the conviction that cinema was an art unlike any other: quintessentially modern; distinctively accessible; poetic and mysterious and erotic and mortal—all at the same time.” (Sontag). Cinema is meant for entertainment. “The weird metaphysical implication of spoilers is that moviegoers and readers who fret about them want to regain their innocence, perhaps even their infancy, and experience everything as if it were absolutely fresh. From this standpoint, we shouldn’t even know what films we’re going to see in advance, or who stars in them, or who directed them, or what they’re about, or perhaps even where they’re playing.” (Rosenbaum).

Back a hundred years people who went to the movies went because they enjoyed it, it was an event. Now-A-Days people go just to see the latest blockbuster.  In society today we have too many ways to see movies: DVDs, Netflix, HBO and 300 cable channels. We have to many choices. Sontag says “The conditions of paying attention in a domestic space are radically disrespectful of film.” (“A Century Of Cinema”). What Sontag means by this is that we have too many distractions with technology. Hagner writes “The extreme close up, wipes, pans, video, DVD, downloads, clips: modern imagery flows by in a blur of perpetual motion, nothing privileged so no sense of self-presence.” (Cinephilia: Movies, Love and Memory). There’s too much going in cinema today with all of the various remakes and sequels.

Ever since the 80’s cinema has gone downhill. They keep making remakes and not necessarily good remakes. I believe that they have no original ideas of their own. Cinema doesn’t kidnap you anymore. Sontag writes “Cinephilia itself has come under attack, as something quaint, outmoded, and snobbish.  For cinephilia implies that films are unique, unrepeatable, magic experiences.” (“A Century of Cinema”) Cinema today will never compare to cinema in the 80’s. Cinema has turned into a money making only industry. “Now the balance has tipped decisively in favor of cinema as an industry” (Sontag). Cinema is turning into an industry more than a fun thing.

Cinema will remain dead until we get cinephiles and good films back. Cinema could one day be as great as it was before the 1980’s. They just need to stop making them for the money and do it for the pure joy of making them. Then the cinephile will come back the way Susan Sontag would want. You should go to the cinema for the experience, the art, and the entertainment. People should want to be a cinephile and understand the standards of the films. Cinema needs to stop making movies for money and make it in the standards of great cinephilia. Don’t see the sequels just to say that you have seen the latest Box Office Hit. Sontag writes “If cinephilia is dead, then movies are dead too… no matter how many movies, even very good ones, go on being made. If cinema can be resurrected, it will only be through the birth of a new kind of cine-love” (“A Century of Cinema”).