Bobby pins, shakos, and trophies

Often with the performing arts the immediate thought isn’t that it is a rigorous activity requiring hundreds of hours of physical labor, but students involved in both marching band and show choir face literal blood, sweat, and tears while striving to maintain champion level performances.

     For those not involved in marching band, “side 1, 2 steps behind front hash, 3.25 steps from 35 yard line” may sound like a different language. Or, there might be confusion with why the mention of getting tarps out causes an audible sigh to be heard throughout the band.

     Perhaps those not in choir are confused with the saying “you’re such a choir kid” or how to follow a blocking chart.

     This is just an example of performing arts jargon. Past the phrases and terms of these activities, there is commitment and dedication. Both marching band and show choir are activities where countless hours of practice and hard work are required for success.

     “Marching band is a unique activity where it’s very physical and it’s very mentally difficult,” assistant band director Graham Leavell said.

     “You have to be able to basically sprint for eight minutes straight, while also memorizing eight minutes of music, while also being able to maintain your breath for eight minutes so you can play effectively. It’s a very uniquely challenging activity because of that.”

      As for something most people wouldn’t understand about show choir, director Scott Dugdale, said “We’ve got kids who will lose 20 pounds during the season. It really gets them into shape, they are up there doing aerobic dancing, and then they are singing on top of it, which is getting their heart rate up.”

     Students involved in both show choir and marching band face other challenges beyond those that would come from involvement in just one or the other.

     Logan Doorlag, junior, plays tuba in marching band and has been in Titan Express for three years.

     “There were some issues because there’s show choir choreography days, which is where you learn your choreography, and I missed all but one of them for either football game [performances] or competitions. Which has caused me to be slightly behind, but I’ve been working to catch up.”

     Sophomore Savannah Schmitt, a two year color guard veteran and member of Radiance, said apart from the physical demands one of the biggest challenges of being in both groups was: “Definitely what they expect out of you. You’re expected to do really well in one, but also do really well in the other. It’s not 50/50; it’s 100/100.”

     Anika Roddy, a sophomore involved in theater, marching band, and Titanium, said conflicts included: “keeping everything organized and having time for everything, as well as doing other classes and having time to do homework.”

     Weekday marching band practices took place from 7 a.m. through 1st period. On top of that were 6-9 p.m. full band practices on Mondays, 5-7 p.m. Wednesday sectionals, and 6-9 p.m. Thursday practices for guard and percussion.

     Show choir consists of a different morning practice depending on the group, a once a week 6-9 p.m. practice, and a choreography camp with sessions lasting about five hours.

     Rourke Nebel, sophomore, is a member of Radiance and marching band, and is also on both the school’s soccer team and club.

     “Show choir season, band season and [club] soccer season, they all overlap in the fall,” Nebel said. “So it’s making sure you get to go to all of those things, but you also have fun doing it and you don’t miss it because it is a commitment.”

     “It’s really exhausting, because going from one physical activity to another, it’s a lot. But it’s both things I like, so it’s not a chore; it just is exhausting,” Nebel said.

       With long schedules, students involved in both activities have to be able to maintain a sense of time management.

  Assistant band director Leavell said, “From the marching perspective, a lot of people don’t realize we are out on the field in the summer, and we’re running laps and doing PT and all of that stuff.”

   Gavin Mielke is a senior who has been involved in performing arts from being a freshman in band to this year a senior in musical, Titanium and marching band.

“I’m trying to schedule literally down to the minute of what I’m doing every day, weeks in advance, just to make sure that I can do everything,” Mielke said. “But just being able to experience the things I love, and all the activities I do, to see the faces of people that impact on and off the stage, and the field, how I can help myself at work and school, it makes it all worth it.”

      Time management comes into play in the mind of a band director as for what a missed day of practice costs the band.

“If someone misses a three- hour rehearsal, you miss three hours of instructions, you’re three hours behind the rest of the group,” Leavell explained. “It’s one of those things where, different from team sports, one person has this ripple effect for everybody in the ensemble. So it’s really important everybody is at everything, which is difficult, because people have lives outside of marching band. It affects really everything when one person is gone, which is kind of crazy.”

     This year, Titan marching band and Titanium varsity show choir both carry the extra weight of following up on championships and record-breaking performances the previous school year. Titanium was named grand champs at four of six contests attended last year. Titan Marching band was named state champs at the 2021 NSBA State Marching Contest.

     Dugdale said that pressure isn’t all bad.

“There’s a little bit of good stress, making you live up to expectations is kind of a positive,” Dugdale said. “But once you let that kind of consume you, and you are in that mindset, ‘We’re not as good as last year; we have to be as good next year’ – We’re not last year’s group. That group is already gone through the halls of Papio South. We can only be as good as who we are today.”

   It’s not all about winning, Dugdale said: “Trophies don’t determine how successful we are, but I think you know, down deep inside, coming out with grand champion is pretty darn cool.”

   Titanium’s achievement of being awarded Grand Champions at the Elkhorn South Crystal Cup show choir invitational last year was the first time the group beat Omaha Westside.

“The kids were just out there having fun and just putting out on the stage who they are as people,” Dugdale said. “They’re authentic, they’re believable, they’re not robots. They might have a mistake, but they just play it off, and it adds to the performance. They put their heart and soul out there.”

Assistant band director Leavell said the marching band’s runner-up season, with the highest score in school history, would be remembered for other reasons.   

“That pressure does exist,” he said. “Even though if we didn’t rise to the occasion, we didn’t hit that new benchmark, it would have been fine either way. Numbers are arbitrary. It’s more about giving you guys the experience that you want and getting to go to cool places, play in a dome, all that cool stuff. The pressure, the numbers and the trophies, three years from now no one’s going to remember the trophies. They are going to remember standing on the field and feeling awesome.”

The successes and pressures of being in multiple performing arts have kept some students going.

“It was state and also my friends and my section leaders,” Nebel said. “They keep me on the track of ‘Eyes on the prize’ sorta thing. Show choir, its competitions, we always want to win and beat people.”

     Being in activities that are so time consuming with both mental and physical pressure, the rigors are evident. Yet the dedication continues.

“There is all the added stress of competition season and being somewhere all the time,” Mielke said, “but at the same time, those things kind of fuel me. They’re what I love. They give me the energy to do the things I need to do at school.”