The lights dim. A sudden hush comes over the audience. Suddenly, a white spotlight shines onto the stage. Groups of performers in bright, bold red dresses appear poised in confident poses — soon to evolve into an extravaganza of glitz and glamor.
Nationals: the moment they’ve been training for. “They” being the characters from the Emmy-award-winning television series, “Glee.”
Yet the scene depicts only a portion of a far more intense reality for young performers across the United States. The real-life “Glee” is a show with a choir of 40 to 60 performers fervently dancing and singing simultaneously, for 18 minutes nonstop — and takes on the name of both: show choir.
According to Sweat, Tears and Jazz Hands by Mike Weaver, a critically acclaimed show choir choreographer and designer, show choir is “a mash-up between a standard choir, a dance team, and a drama club, which competes with similar groups throughout the country.” And it’s cool, he said.
“It’s an art sport,” said Weaver. “The kids are like athletes. They can dance and they have the stamina, and they can sing.”
Breaking into the “art sport” typically requires an audition process that tests the skills of singing, dancing and stamina. Hosted in schools or local neighborhoods, show choir and its competitions have many moving parts, from the artistic side of music arrangements to volunteers like stage crew and passionate parents.
Over the past decade, show choir has grown incredibly popular in high schools across the United States, with the help of shows like “Glee.” But show choir was around long before that — with roots tracing to the Midwest.
The idea of simultaneous singing and dancing began as swing choirs. The word “swing” originated from the ‘40s “big band era,” which at the time, was a popular musical style. Swing choirs emerged in the vocal jazz period, when more and more groups started incorporating movement into their pop music repertoire.
“It wasn’t heavy choreography, but just some little moves, like you would see on a ‘60s television variety show,” Weaver said.
A few years later, Bishop Luers High School introduced competition to swing choirs, with the very first swing choir competition held in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1975.
While touring show choirs popped up as early as the 1960s, the popularity of the competitions grew when, in 1976, a television station in Bowling Green, Ohio, began filming the Bishop Luers show choir competition — and broadcast it throughout the Midwest.
“That’s why the Midwest to this day is so full of show choirs,” Weaver said.
Soon, Bishops Luers competitions became some of the most prestigious; Carmel High School’s co-ed show choir, the Carmel Ambassadors, ended up winning the championship six times. They were one of the earliest show choirs to make their mark.
In the mid-’80s, another swing choir-esque competition began in Chicago. But this time, the transition from swing to show was even more stark; the little moves that characterized swing choir grew into grand ones — pushed forward by a creative choreographer named Dwight Jordan.
“It was just involving more choreography, costume changes,” said Weaver, who was in the same university jazz band as Jordan, 10 years apart. “Dwight found a formula that worked and he was doing it. That pushed the notion that it was no longer just swing choir, it was a show. It was show choir.”
Over the following decades, show choir grew across the nation — and so did its level of production, complete with costumes, risers, custom arrangements and live bands. Midwestern directors trickled out to the West Coast, where a new kind of showstopping business — Hollywood — intersected with show choir.
As show choir geographically evolved, so did its purpose. “Story shows,” the concept of tying music and dance into a narrative, skyrocketed — primarily because of “Glee.”
“‘Glee’ was taking all the moldy songs that everyone forgot, and throwing them into these weekly television show plots,” Weaver said. “The characters would have to sing a song for the plot point.”
Today, over 300 show choir competitions occur annually in America. Show choir camps — most of them held in the Midwest, like Show Choir Camps of America — happen nearly every summer. The role of popular culture and television, factors that greatly impacted the beginnings of show choir, continue to unveil the different stages that show choir is undergoing — with the Midwest still taking the lead.
“In the Midwest, it’s a whole different level of professionalism,” Kathrine Kouns, the Director of Choirs at Carmel High School, said.
For over a decade, Kouns carried on the legacy the Carmel Ambassadors and Accents held since the start of the show choir genre.
Throughout the history of show choir, the zeal of its participants has remained unwavering — both on stage and off. Behind the stage of the glitter-full show, the design of each performance can take a year to plan, an endeavor where the story of the show takes the limelight.
“I’m just really intentional about what we as teenage, young women are needing to say in this world,” Kouns said. “Put some positivity out into the world or a message of hope. It can be incredibly impactful not only to the performers, but also to the audience.”
Kouns recalls the Accents’ performance at the Bulldog Spectacular Finals in 2022 — the story theme of their show being “Hands,” a resonant topic on the heels of COVID.
“It was taking the concept of something extremely simple, like a hand, and turning it into this exploration of the power within your hands,” Kouns said. “Some of you might become a surgeon, and you are saving someone’s life with your hands. We took it to this new level.”
Leah Tan, the Carmel Accents’ former president, recalled a moment in that performance when they sang, “My hands are small, I know, but they’re not yours, they’re mine.”
“It was a really big, important moment for all of us,” Tan said. “Because it was a very strong group of just solidarity amongst a lot of amazing, talented young women.”
For former show choir performer Jenna Wang, show choir gave her a lot of pride in being Midwestern, and growing up in Iowa. She said she remembers waking up at five in the morning every Saturday for competitions that can last over nine hours — during which, behind the stage, there’s a frenzy of hair curlers, hairspray and suspense in waiting for scores.
“There’s nothing quite like it,” Wang said. “Everyone has an equal part to play. The win or loss of a group is everyone’s responsibility, and that’s what makes everyone more connected to each other.”
Yet show choir comes with its challenges, too. Reflecting on her experience as an Asian American in the Midwest, Wang said it’s not all “sunshine and rainbows.” Show choir beauty standards, for example, have certain requirements for how hair is styled — something Wang said can create inequities for participants of color. Funding too, remains a barrier.
“Show choir is expensive,” said Kouns. “You have to have a lot of financial support either from your administration in your district, or you’ve got to have a wonderful parent group that’s ready to fundraise like mad. That doesn’t exist everywhere.”
Even with the challenges, the torch of vigor is carried forth by real-life characters in the world of show choir. The future of show choir, particularly in the Midwest, maintains its historical precedence, but also is seeing change — from the implementation of technology in shows to the perception of show choir as a “real” art.
Kouns said she hopes there are fewer misconceptions about show choir in the future — especially seeing how much history the unique art form has, and how her students are truly “athletes” in musicality, performance and storytelling.
“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of people that hear show choir, and they think that it’s a silly, goofy thing. And in some ways it is,” Kouns said. “We’re singing and dancing in crazy costumes on stage: but so is Broadway, and so are lots of shows out there.”
Weaver said that show choir continues to remain important and valuable for communities beyond the Midwest, and that it will keep growing. Ultimately, he said, it’s the performers — the young participants who “come out as lions” after undergoing show choir — who inspire him.
“The kids feel like they’re part of something that they can be proud of,” Weaver said. “They grow from it. And they become stronger, better, more confident young adults because they were in show choir.”
While show choir for most people starts and ends with a few seasons of Glee, for those who participate in it in real life, it can be life-changing. Although Wang said that, at the end of the day, the television series’ own show choir wouldn’t place too well in a real Midwestern competition, it carries a main theme that rings true: growing together through performance.
“It’s something I know I wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else,” Wang said.
