by Shelby Donnow

As the year comes to a close, the Cavaliers are preparing for their annual end of the year Spring Show. With this year’s theme as “Can You Feel It?” the Cavaliers will put on a show filled with all emotions. Falling on May 3 and 4, the team will perform three different shows on Friday at seven pm and Saturday at one pm and seven pm in the Clear Creek Auditorium for ten dollars a ticket. There will also be a snack stand and a place to purchase flowers for the dancers. The team is working day and night to perfect their end of the year show for their audience.

Starting the week before Spring Break, the Cavaliers began preparing for their long-awaited show. Working tirelessly throughout their day, the Cavaliers practice for about 20 hours a week to make sure their show is as perfect as they can make it. During their class period and on their own time, the officers choreograph almost every dance in the show. Their dances include their opener, class dance, tap company, jazz company, mom’s dance, three competition dances, officer dances, the social committee dance, officer/director dance, senior guy/girl, senior hip hop, senior lyrical, finale and more.

Throughout these practices, the Cavaliers got to relocate from the dance room to the auditorium for the two weeks before the show. The dancers get to practice on the spacing of the stage with the lights, wings, curtains and props. Along with all of the on and offs of the stage, the officers have to set up an area back stage to use as a dressing room due to them being in almost every dance in the show. The girls absolutely love their time practicing on the stage because they can feel the excitement and anticipation of the show. Though having an immense amount of fun, these girls will be very busy.

“Even though this season is always very stressful and exhausting, it is my favorite time of the year. I am so excited to continue practicing on the stage and then to debut our show.” Braelie Sawyer, sophomore, said.

Along with all the diligent practices, Spring Show for the Cavaliers is always filled with fun and laughter. The team gets the chance to continue bonding and making life-long memories. Most dancers feel as though their Spring Show season is their favorite season of the year. During show week, the team stays in the auditorium until 11 pm every night of the week, providing more time for the team to have fun. Since all these extremely long practices fall on the week days, you can always find worksheets and texts books throughout the seats of the auditorium, backstage, and sometimes even on the stage so the dancers can fit in doing their homework whenever they have time. While it may sound like all this practice would make the team dread the season, almost every Cavalier would not want to spend their time any other way. The Cavaliers love Spring Show season all the memories and good times that accompanies it.

“Spring show season is a great time to bond backstage throughout all the practices and shows. Some of my favorite memories are at Spring Show or the practices,” Olivia Translavina, Senior Lieutenant, said.

The Cavalier director, Marka Wood; assistant, Megan Tallo; and officers, Sophie Bivens, Captain; Translavina, Shelby Donnow and Chloe Martin, Junior Lieutenants; choreograph and clean dances each day to get them to their highest potential. While cutting music, choreographing, teaching, cleaning and perfecting dances, they are working as hard as they can to perfect the show.

Though the dancing is the main attraction of the show, that is not all that needs to be prepared. The extravagant lobby is decorated to the theme of the show, this year’s “Can You Feel It,” by the Social Committee, Kit Matthews, President; Sydney Lococo, Vice President; Lauren Ryan, New New Liaison; Ashley Leistad, Secretary; Melina Marquez, Chaplain; Emily McTaggart, Historian and Daisy Huerta, Photographer. Parent volunteers also take hours out of their busy weeks to decorate the entrance, sell tickets, set up and run the concession stands, organize the flowers available for purchase and more. Not only do the moms help out behind the scenes this year, they also get to show off their dancing skills in the show due to the mother-daughter dance. While some moms would rather hide in the back, others cannot wait to get to dance with their daughters.

Though Spring Show is special to each person on the team, this is the last performance the seniors get to experience with the team. With all of their senior dances including senior hip hop, senior guy/girl, senior lyrical and special sections of many other dances dedicated to them, the dancers get to soak in their last moments on the stage as a Cavalier. They also get to play a slideshow made for them that tells about each senior and their plans for the future. While very sad for the seniors and their team to see them go, the team knows each senior is about to experience the time of their lives and are happy to have gotten to share their last show with them.

“I am so sad that it is my last time dancing with my best friends and I will miss all the Cavalier traditions,” Matthews said.

The Cavaliers are in high anticipation to debut their show. They have worked extremely hard to perfect their show the best way they can. With the amount of dedication and practice the Cavaliers put into their last show of the season, they strive for it to be their best one yet.