Airbands offer sneak peek

By Hannah Stumpf | Echo

It has been under wraps for months. Nothing is more jealously guarded than an Airband's theme. Luckily, three Airbands decided to indulge Taylor with a sneak peek:

Gerig:

Practice Frequency: Twice a week starting the second week of the semester

Descriptors: Epic, knee-slapper, energetic

Pre-Show Ritual: group chant in a huddle before every performance

Swallow Robin and Friends:

Practice Frequency: two to three times a week for one and a half to two hours each

Descriptors: Meaningful, technical, creative

Pre-Show Ritual: "Usually I make a dumb joke and act like an idiot so they laugh at me instead of feeling nervous," junior Grayson Brown said. "Then I tell them how proud I am of them and their hard work and we end in an encouraging prayer, thanking God for the opportunity that has been given to us."

First West Olson:

Practice Frequency: started the second week of February, four times a week

Descriptors: fun, cute, different

Pre-Show Ritual: remember to have fun

Each Airband is unique, and with that comes specific sets of challenges. For senior Cameron Eckmann from Gerig, the hurdle was in finding a place for everyone's creative touch.

"We have so many people giving input and so many creative ideas that it was sometimes difficult to make decisions and get momentum," Eckmann said. "So we probably ended up taking a lot longer making decisions than we should've. But again, we're really happy with the final product, so I don't know that we would've done it any differently."

With so many people participating in each Airband, there are always teammates there to ensure practices run smoothly. Homework, sudden flu and other extracurricular activities can make juggling the demands of Airband challenging.

One positive outcome from the hours of rehearsal is getting to know peers in a new setting. Someone may be a great dancer, and their friends did not realize this until Airband.

"There are some other people who definitely helped me a lot with choreography, too," said sophomore Lily Bjorlin from First West Olson . "Finding dance moves that weren't complicated and looked well and finding something we could learn fast (was a challenge)."