Dancing to the rhythm of the music, Junior Leo Masevo practices at show choir boot camp the week before school.
“My favorite thing about boot camp was learning the choreography and putting it all together song by song,” Masevo said. “Right now my favorite song from the show has to be “I lived” by OneRepublic. That song for me is like the sunshine after the rain. All the sadness is gone, and that song in our show is all about acceptance and being able to move on.”
Silver Elite’s boot camp started the week before school started, and throughout those five days, the show choir learned four dances. The show for this year is about the five stages of grief starting with denial and ending with acceptance.
“I joined show choir because a couple of my friends who are already in choir convinced me to join,” Masevo said. “I also joined because I was curious about what the community in show choir was like, and it’s been nothing but great vibes since I’ve joined.”
Isabella Clark, 11, met Leo in second grade at Alice Ponder Elementary.
“He has really come out of his shell, and when I first met Leo he was shy and would only talk to certain people. As we have gotten older he has opened up to people,” Clark said. “He has bonded with the group, and it feels like he has been with us for more than a couple of weeks.”
Masevo began show choir and chamber, a varsity mixed choir, this year after being in track for three years.
“I feel like this would be the first time being a part of something that I would genuinely look forward to,” Masevo said. “With the show choir, I feel like the energy has been less stressful and sure we do have to compete, but I still find the process of getting there to be enjoyable.”
Show choir is a place to make new friends from different grades and to get to know yourself better.
“Leo has impacted show choir by being open to our choreographer’s ideas. He would throw into it completely but rose to the challenge and has succeeded,” Clark said.
When learning the dances for show choir choreographer, Ashley Kimbrough, goes step-by-step to help the students learn and memorize the dance. When they finished choreography for a song they moved to getting spots. At the end of the week students danced for the choir directors, so they could see what they worked on.
“The vibes, meeting everyone for the first time, going through that entire process for the first time was an enjoyable experience for me. I can’t wait to do it again next year,” Masevo said.
