The Awaited Show Choir Season

Waukee’s long-awaited and biggest event of the year is finally among us. Starstruck, the annual show choir competition, invites various schools from the surrounding areas to compete in front of a panel of astounding judges and to potentially bring home a first-place trophy. Starstruck is a series of three days starting Thursday night with the Parade of Show Choirs. Groups from grades 7 to 12 both from WHS and NWHS performed before a lively crowd full of families and friends. The competition portion of the weekend was originally planned to start Friday with the middle school groups but unfortunately, like almost every other year, it was canceled due to inclement weather. (It truly wouldn’t be Starstruck without a winter storm). Saturday’s portion of the competition however is still scheduled to happen for the varsity and prep groups. 

While the performances start Thursday night, the preparation starts long before. Wednesday night with the help of student and parent volunteers, the WHS Field House is completely renovated to fit hundreds of audience members and to build the stage each group performs on. The following day more volunteers continue to set up for the big event as well as Friday morning for finishing touches. 

This year’s competition was highly anticipated because of the pandemic limiting last year’s show choir season. Not only were limitations like masks and social distancing difficult, but not being able to fully perform and compete was extremely disappointing to the devoted singers and dancers. When asked how this season is different from the last, junior Hallie Harkness in Spirit mentioned costumes and blocking. She went on to say, “I am so glad we are able to put on a full show this year with costumes and with moving blocking spots, unlike last year where you stayed in one spot most of the show”.

Other factors make this year’s show choir season unique and exciting like the high school split. While Millenium remains at WHS under the direction of Jeff Knutson, Spirit has welcomed Tony Dam as their new director. As for NWHS, Jackson Daubitz and Katherine Murray debuted their brand new ensembles, Eos and Aurora. The split has impacted members of the show choir tremendously. Junior Jackson Minton in Millennium stated, “The split obviously resulted in some common faces moving away, but Millennium and Spirit are still as strong as they were, and now we have two new groups just a few miles away we can cheer on and celebrate”.