For 7 years now, the Alliance choirs have traveled 8 hours to Fremont, Nebraska for the Festival of the Arts at Midland University. Both of the choirs have competed on the last day of the festival and participated in all three of the available workshops.

During the 2016 Midland Festival of the Arts, both Harmonics and Velocity competed in the morning portion of the day and received gold. After lunch, the Alliance choirs traveled around campus and attended three workshops throughout the afternoon. The first workshop that Alliance attended was the dance workshop. Anna Hundtoft, from the children’s show, “Yo Gabba Gabba,” where she played the pink flower bubble, Foofa, lead all five choirs in learning a dance to Meghan Trainor’s song, “Better When I’m Dancing.” Anna was one of the three arts professionals teaching workshops that day. Another arts professional was Joel Johnson, who worked with the choirs on their show and fixing some things that the judges critiqued on. The last arts professional was Dan Hayes. Hayes is the Director of Theater Activities in the department of Performing Arts. Hayes taught all five choirs a musical theatre piece from “Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride”.

After all workshops were done, everyone reconvened in the Kimmel Auditorium where the students and directors had a question and answer session with all three arts professionals and two college students. When the time had run out for all of the questions, all choirs chose one song from their set and performed again for the audience. After that, all five choirs, consisting of over 100 students all together, got on stage and performed the musical theatre number taught by Hayes.

With Alliance being the only school traveling 8 hours the Midland University to attend, the university is always happy to have them attend. Alliance has 7 years under their belts for attending this festival, and will continue to go in years to come. Not only do the students enjoy their time, but they also learn something new to bring home and incorporate into their present or future shows.