Lip Dub hosted again after many years

Yael Behar | Co-Editor

After many months of preparation, both before and after filming, the audio visual (AV) and animation team will release the final cut of this year’s Lip Dub. Sporting a much lengthier song catalog, extensive post production, and animation, this Lip Dub is the most ambitious in the school’s history.

“Our plans for this year’s Lip Dub was to take it to another level not yet seen or done by other schools,” AV teacher Ashley Sullivan said. “[Post production] this year is not really a lot of editing, but without giving away too much, I guess we can say that there will be some special effects involved.”

Lip Dubs were a popular trend for bigger schools in the early 2010s, where staff and students alike would gather together for a choreographed walk through school with music to lip sync to. The trend generally faded, but the AV team is hoping that this year’s higher production value will rejuvenate school spirit.

“[The Lip Dub] is basically a school collaboration where we showcase school spirit,” AV student senior Lorelei Winnek said. “This year, we’ve gotten more organized. We have so many more organizations this year - everyone’s included, and we have more choreography for each song.”

The Lip Dub has always been a relatively involved project, with hundreds of students participating in the 2016 Lip Dub - this year, however, record amounts of students have participated. Clubs and organizations have their own choreographed sections. Marching band, several sport teams, Hawk

Journalism, National Honor Society, and Unified Champions compose just a fraction of the participating groups

“Since the last Lip Dub, we’ve almost doubled the amount of songs involved, and way more groups are able to be represented,” Sullivan said. “A lot of planning has gone into this Lip Dub. Post production is especially long; three weeks at least. Honestly, the real reason it’s going to take this long is because we only meet every other day, and it’s a collective effort to keep putting together the rest of the pieces.”

This year is the first year that animation has a substantial part in the dub, with multiple scenes containing animation alongside the singers. This addition is the longest part of post production, as animators have to draw and color each frame.

“Due to time constraints, [the animation team] is rotoscoping as much of our animation as possible to save on timing,” animation teacher Brian Westerfield said. “Each scene takes a long time to make, but we’ve started early to speed up the process. After that, it’s a lot of clean up work.”

Both the AV and animation teams hope that this year’s Lip Dub will outdo previous ones in terms of quality, and that it will inspire future involvement as a result.

“I think there are a lot of people who like to see it come back every year, which I am okay with as long as school involvement keeps up,” Sullivan said. “It takes more than just us to make a lip dub. With the right planning and the right school involvement, the Lip Dub can happen every year.”

Silver Dancers prepare for Spring Show

Kamryn Mack | Reporter

The annual Dance Spring Show is taking place this April, from the 28 to the 29. The event will be held in the Performing Arts Center after school, and participating dance students will be performing their routines. Each ticket costs $10 to attend the performance.

“There are Silver Dancers [performing], and [the show] also includes our surrounding middle schools and our dance department as well,” dance teacher Baleigh Simmons said. “Our theme for the show is the 1920s, to honor the 20th anniversary of the Silver Dancers.”

The preparation process for this show varies between the different dance classes. The Silver Dancers have been learning their choreography for months, yet other dance classes may be in the early stages of their performances. Regardless, the dance teachers are committed to teaching the routines and adequately preparing their classes for the Spring Show.

“Some dance classes start after spring break, but each dance class will learn a routine that’s a minute and a half long,” Simmons said. “We’ll clean up [the routine], and polish it, and then we’ll set it on the stage. Same thing for the Silver Dancers, they’ve just known their dances a little bit longer. And we’ve spent more time with them [learning the dances] since the beginning of the year.” Simmon hopes that the show can run smoothly.

“I hope that lighting and all the extra things we put into our shows can go seamlessly well,” Simmons said. “And, of course, all of our dancers and participants have fun.”

UIL Choir team takes home Sweepstakes

Rachel Calabuig | Reporter

With bated breath, the Junior Varsity Treble and Tenor-Bass choirs wait in the bus for their results after their choral competition at another high school. Brandon Baker, the choir director, waits in the school to hear how they did. When he announces that JV Treble had earned the highest award and that TenorBass had earned the second highest award, they erupt in excitement.

Over the course of two days spanning March 7-8, the choir program went to the University Interscholastic League (UIL) high school choir competition held at Georgetown High School. On the first day, the Tenor-Bass and Junior Varsity (JV) Treble choirs performed their concert music and sight-read new music for the judges and on the second day, it was Varsity Treble and Varsity Mixed choirs’ turns to compete. Varsity Mixed, JV and Varsity Treble choirs earned Sweepstake and Tenor-Bass earned a Superior.

“Since I’m not just speaking for myself but for everyone that was in JV [treble choir), it was kind of a shock because I guess JV [treble] doesn’t [usually get the highest choral award that UIL offers],” JV Treble choir member and senior Mackenzie McCollister said. “So it’s a huge thing [for us] to earn Sweepstakes.”

The requirements for performing in UIL was that each choir in a school’s choral program had to learn and memorize three songs each selected by the choir director from the UILapproved list of songs and sight-read a new song in front of three judges. “It’s a lot of hard work and constantly doing the same thing [preparing for it],” McCollister said. “You have to be very focused, [be] in the moment [by not letting distractions mess you up, and] just always being ready to work.”

In order to earn Sweepstakes, Varsity Mixed, JV and Varsity Treble had to earn ones across the board for their UIL concert performances and Sightreading portions.

“Performing in UIL was definitely nerve racking, but also a lot of fun,” Stiba said. “Mr. Baker and Mr. Taylor worked really hard to get us there. It was hard work and tiring, but definitely worth it.”

Traugott and Yeidel both agreed with Stiba that preparing for the UIL competition was stressful but paid off in the end.

“When we were given our scores, the entire bus erupted into excited screaming,” Traugott said. “We were all ecstatic because we’d worked so hard.”