Last Saturday, the halls of Millard West High School became the hunting grounds of the great show choir beast.
It staked its territory with great swathes of glitter and streamers.
Its ringing cry echoed in the auditorium with the mingled sounds of stomping feet, voices raised in song. The winds of January had arrived and with it, the start of the competition season for show choirs.
Millard West's Singsation last weekend marked the second competition of the year for Ralston Rush, Ralston High School's varsity show choir ensemble.
Yet, judging by the enthusiasm of the Rush singers, this could have easily been their first.
"Our show may not always be the wildest," senior Jonathan Berger said. "But I feel like the crowd really likes us and they want to be our friend after seeing the shows that we do."
Berger makes an interesting point.
In the age of television shows like the Fox hit "Glee," people tend to imagine show choir as a feel-good club for the rebels and the outcasts.
But it's hard to imagine any member of Rush being bullied.
Far from being on the margins of that delicate but entrenched high-school pecking order, every member of Ralston Rush is involved in another sport or activity besides show choir.
Berger is a football and soccer player, a diver and the president of RHS's National Honor Society chapter.
Or take sophomore Isaac Wallace, who took home top honors as outstanding male soloist for Rush and also did some rushing of a different sort on the football field as a running back for the Rams this fall.
Even senior Mia McAleer, who has recently adopted a cast and a pair of crutches due to a torn ligament, is still every bit as active as her fellow singers.
"I obviously can't dance right now because I'm hurt, so I've been sitting watching them perform for the past three weeks," McAleer said. "I'm in student council and I also play soccer and club soccer."
As Rush director Ryan Pivonka points out: "All Glee does is perpetuate horrible stereotypes, the biggest one being that it's not cool to do it."
In fact, just the opposite seems to be true.
Out of all their activities, students in Rush seem to find that show choir has the most draw because it makes them feel much more like a part of their school.
"Being involved in numerous teams and groups at the high school, you really start to bond with people," Berger said. "But with show choir, you get even closer to everyone else because you're spending so much time with them for such a big part of the year. I just feel like I get not only group unity but school unity."
A single football player may make or break a football team, but as McAleer points out, "In show choir everyone matters. Everyone is a huge part."
Show choir also has the added benefit of being an activity with very strong corporeal and emotional components.
Unsurprisingly, Rush's name comes from the sheer rush of adrenaline the ensemble gets from performing.
"It's different than other sport-competing teams and similar as well," Pivonka said. "They're learning things physically, it's a very physical show. Emotionally, they learn how to win gracefully, how to lose gracefully, how to work as a team with so many different personalities, some stronger than others, and work towards a common goal."
For Mia McAleer, there is an even simpler way to put it: "Being in show choir, it's like nothing else."
Social benefits aside, many people would probably be surprised to learn how much hard work goes into prepping for a show choir show.
Unlike the cast of Glee, which comes up with a new show every week — presenting complex vocals and choreography as the result of a few hours or days of labor — real show choirs put months of hard work into a single show.
"We start preparing for our show in August," Pivonka said.
"We meet every Monday after school from 6 to 8:30 p.m., sometimes 9 p.m. Then, we meet every Tuesday and Thursday morning, 7 to 7:40 a.m. and we've had about six Saturdays that we've had rehearsals."
The week before competitions can get even more intense.
"Last week, the week before our first competition we rehearsed Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, just to make sure they're ready," said Pivonka.
And that's just the practice schedule for the student-singers.
For show choir directors to come up with a show takes months, sometimes years of planning before the practice schedule can even be set.
"The show is a formula and you have to cover so many styles and each of those styles has to have audience appeal," Pivonka said. "So they can't just be my favorite songs. They have to be crowd-pleasing songs that I know will match the personality of my kids. The baseball medley that you're going to see, I've had that created for four years but I was waiting for the right group of boys to do it."
In essence, every song that goes into a show must be carefully balanced to achieve maximum emotional connection with the kids while providing maximum emotional appeal to the audience and the judges.
Having claimed two championships during the season last year — one of which was at Millard West's Singsation — Ralston Rush has been under pressure to provide a show that matches and hopefully even succeeds that of the previous year.
Said Berger: "All throughout the year we've been dealing with comparing ourselves to last year and with losing as many seniors as we did, at the beginning of the year that was really hard to get over."
Still, like any stalwart soldier pacing the risers in the choir room, Berger ended on an optimistic note: "I think everyone's really mellowed out a lot more and they realize, 'You know? We are good. We don't need to compare ourselves. We're a whole different group this year and we can do well.'"
Given Ralston's near effortless slide into finals at Singsation last week and a third-runner-up finish there, it seems that Berger's prediction is right on track.
Perhaps the crucial difference between the kids on "Glee" and the real life members of Rush is the amount of support they have received and continue to receive from their peers, their administrators, and their school.
It seems that every episode of "Glee" is a struggle for the stars to prove their worth by winning a competition or scoring a musical spot in a commercial.
All the while, the school that hosts the club in the show is constantly taking away more of the choir's funding.
Rush, on the other hand, is very lucky, its singers and director said.
Despite a tough economy making for an even tougher arts program budget, director Pivonka makes do.
"It's expensive as all get out," he said. "Students buy their own outfits, we fundraise any chance we can get. Still, it's become a flagship for the school. We're known and the administration and parents are very supportive. I believe it's worth it."
Berger agreed.
"Usually at the end of the year on our tour we sing at (Ralston Public Schools) central office and they just absolutely love it," he said. "I think that every year they hear us makes them more convinced about supporting us."
That support is likely the reason for Rush's positive attitude and determination, both on and off the stage.
They are a team that is hard not to like, and even harder not to cheer for.
Pivonka joked that show choir should be like a ride at Disney World.
"The show choir experience: Coming soon in IMAX and 3D," he intoned.
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