By Brecklyn Carey and Turner Russell

On Saturday, Feb. 20, the Atlantic Premiere show choir traveled to Indianola, IA to compete against other schools and earn a placing. Atlantic scored second place out of three. The varsity choir earned 464 points, improving their score by 50 points in less than a month. Atlantic Choir Director Jennifer Gasser says she is “very happy with their results as well as the judges comments”, adding, “There is always room for improvement for any show choir.”

Students enjoyed many different things about the Indianola show choir competition. One of the choir members, Junior Halee Glenn, says she especially “enjoyed being with friends” and thinks the competition went “pretty good.” Senior Logan Welter says that “although it was a challenge for the first place spot, and Spirit Lake rose to beat us and place higher.” Atlantic Premiere Choir had the second highest score in Atlantic High School history, according to Gaesser. Welter finished, saying, “Overall we reached some milestones. If we continue to improve and finish strong then I think we have a chance at being in the finals at Westwood next weekend.” Waukee Choir director Brent Peterson says he thinks that Atlantic “improved significantly” since the last time he saw them perform. Peterson also says that he can “Tell a lot of changes were made when I saw them at state contest: I thought they looked good, but needed improvement in their vocals.” Interestingly enough, Peterson says that he “had Atlantic as my top score.”

While the next show choir competition is not scheduled until March 15, the choir members are already hard at work improving their singing and dancing during class time in school, using many of the judge’s critiques as a basis for improvement needs. Some of the suggested methods for improving include performing choreography at a fast pace as well as practicing vocals in a circle in order to hear separate parts. During transitions between songs, several students have also been working on doing things like short dance moves in order to keep the audience engaged. Glenn says she thinks the choir could improve by having “more energy” in their next performance, while Welter thinks it will help if the choir members all made sure to “finish strong” at the end of each song. Peterson says that “If I would see them (Atlantic) again I would like to see consistency in every person. There are kids that are always strong, and kids who are inconsistent in their effort level, and you can see that.” Premiere is aiming to place high at the Westwood Jubilation contest, and is making great strides to make it a possibility.