After its first year being completely on Zoom, the show choir is finally able to perform on stage with the bright lights and audience they were waiting for.

At their first concert of the year on Oct. 7, they performed a Beatles medley. But the preparation was no easy feat for the choir as a whole and even more so for the officers. Freshman and choreographer Saralyn Herrera explains how they pushed through all tribulations to create a successful performance.

“It went really well, the people were learning the dances really well,” Herrera said. “I made sure that they got the dances down and had the choreography and everything. When we went up and performed, we had great lighting and everyone was singing. Making sure everyone was doing the right stuff was really fun.”

Herrera has 10 years of dancing experience, so she works alongside her assistant choreographer, sophomore Ava Smith. As choreographers, they get the music before the rest of the class so they have time to create the dances and prepare to teach it to everyone else. During the Winter concert, which will be held on Tuesday, Dec.14, the show choir will be performing “White Winter Hymnal.” It takes a lot of planning and groundwork from the show choir as a whole, but it’s especially taxing for the choreographers, according to Herrera.

“There’s five parts [to White Winter Hymnal] so I have to learn all five parts and then teach it, then they get to choose which part they get,” Herrera said. “I help them with that, [and] then I make sure that the dances we do are on their level, since I’m more advanced than [the singers], I make sure to tone it down just a little bit.”

There weren’t many struggles while rehearsing for the first concert, according to Herrera. The only main problem was getting everyone in the groove of the show choir. Since most people’s first year was over zoom, or it was their first year being involved at all. Social Officer and sophomore Mia Gleinser describes how hectic her first year of show choir over Zoom felt.

“It was stressful, [but] very fun though, there were complications about learning the choreography over Zoom, but a lot of it was posted on Google Classroom,” Gleinser said. “Google Classroom was a huge resource to learn the choreography. Because if we just learned it over Zoom, not many people would participate since they knew they could catch up through the videos that were on Google Classroom.”

The choir started rehearsing the actual dance, with Herrera and Smith working on the choreography. There have been less complications while prepping for the Winter concert. The group has become more tight-knit, where respect is shared equally and people are more comfortable compared to the beginning of the school year. Aidan Johnson, sophomore and show choir member explains how rehearsals have been progressing.

“The biggest thing right now is we are doing White Winter Hymnal, for our Christmas concert that’s coming up.” Johnson said.  “That has a lot of percussion with your hands, and that’s a lot of rhythm which takes a lot of getting used to. It’s been very difficult to get, but we’re finally at a point where we’re getting it.”

Even though the Show Choir wasn’t created this year, it still feels new since their first year was online, according to Herrera. She said having this year be in person pushed the show choir members together while also creating a better performing choir.

“I think it’s interesting that there’s only 20 people in the choir, which is a lot, but kind of small for a choir class,” Herrera said. “Or maybe we just have a huge choir class, but it’s just a good thing to have since it’s kind of like musical theatre, you have dancing and singing and you’re able to perform which makes it really fun. It adds the concert, instead of just having people standing there and singing, at least we have one group being all fun. I think it’s an awesome experience.”