Silver Wings host last performance of second annual spring show on May 1
April 30, 2016
Sweat drips. Hair flips. No one trips.
The Silver Wings is holding its annual spring show called “Highlights” on May 1 at 3 p.m. in the auditorium. It was also performed on April 28 and 29. Tickets are $10.
“We have an awesome group of young ladies,” assistant director Anne Bowling said. “They’ve been dedicated and have been working really hard. They exceed our expectations, which are already so high.”
The girls began practicing the routines for the show in December after football season. They arrived at school at 6:45 a.m. every morning to rehearse.
“Getting up early sucks,” sophomore Silver Wing Alex Cammarota said. “But it’s really fun. The girls and I are like family. We spend more time with each other than our own families.”
Practice usually happens in the gym. In order to create a “stage,” the directors use tape to box off an area about the same size as the real stage. This week was the first time the team was able to be on the auditorium stage and rehearse.
“Getting stage time has been a struggle,” Bowling said. “We need to be on stage to see if we need to fix our spacing. The gym can only do so much for us.”
Each year, the spring show has a different theme. This year it is “Art of Survival”. In order to create a theme, the directors are inspired by music.
“We never copy other school’s routines,” Bowling said. “They want to copy ours.”
The Silver Wings have a total of 14 dances in the show: opening, small hip-hop, big hip-hop, big novelty, tap, ballet, elite, contemporary, small jazz, daddy daughter, officers, captain solo, and finale. Each one has a story expressed through the music and the movements. Bowling’s original routine is about surviving cancer.
“The supporting dancers that are dressed in white represent healing and the ones in black are the cancer,” Bowling said. “It really shows the juxtaposition between the two. In the end, the good wins.”
In between the different types of dances — and while other teams like DFC, Men’s Acapella, and the candidates of Mr. Hebron perform — the Silver Wings make a mad dash for the dressing room. They keep the same makeup throughout the presentation, but bring suitcases full of their costumes.
“We flip through catalogs to see what costumes we want,” Bowling said. “We look for the best quality and the best deal. If you buy something cheap, you’re going to get something that’s cheap quality.”
In total, the show costs over $33,000, $9000 of which was simply for the lighting. Silver Wings director Jen Morrow has been working with the lighting manager, Clark Richter, since before she worked at Hebron.
“Richter and I work so well together,” Morrow said. “I can be very honest about my ideas and we always bounce ideas around. He’s very supportive of public schools and always give us a discount.”
The directors are already in the process of working on next year’s spring show routines.
“How long it takes to come up with a routine really depends,” Morrow said. “It depends on how long the dance is, how creative we’re feeling, how good the music is. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it. For big pieces, I’d say it takes a month, and for smaller it could be a few hours to a few days.”
Next year, Morrow said she would like to create more elaborate stage props with more fundraising and have more time practice the fluidity of their transitions while on the auditorium stage.
“This show is the ‘highlight’ of my year,” Morrow said. “I love making this happen and I hope that everyone loves it.”