Thursday, July 02, 2009

Back on the risers

The morning rehearsal is at once great and tiring.

We go from 9:00 to 11:30, with one five-minute break. Choreographer Cindy Hansen is back, but the changes that are being suggested are minor, minor – a chest lift here, a slightly brighter smile there...

Cindy explains it this way: “What we’re going for here is those extra points: 101, 102, 103… Wouldn’t it be great if a judge looked down at his score sheet at the end of the set and he’d actually given you 107 points, and he had to cross that out and change it to 100?” We laugh.

The confidence and assurance we’re getting from our leaders is amazing. These are not people who praise lightly. We know that because for months we’ve been getting encouragement of a far different sort – exhortation to get better, to put in the work to polish this set to the level it needs to be. Now that has changed – we’re consistently performing where we want to, and it’s refreshing and encouraging to hear that from the performance team.

Not that we relax – the contest isn’t until tomorrow! As Jeff Oxley reminds us, “You haven’t won anything yet!”

Still, Jim Clancy has an amazing word for us, after again telling us that he’s never seen a Vocal Majority perform at this level: “There may be another chorus that can out-perform you. But if there is, I want to be there to see it. That would be one amazing performance.”

Every time we run the contest songs, the performance soars to a higher level. On our last run-through before lunch, it is awesome, awesome, awesome. Our actual score is in the hands of the judges, but I am confident we are doing everything we possibly can to get that gold medal.

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