Every spring the advanced choirs of MHS, Bella Voce and Cantabile, spend a weekend working hard on their intense spring show, Spring Gala. For those who have never been to MHS Spring Gala, its quite different from a normal chorus concert. Instead of singing choral songs, the performers sing popular numbers. Instead of wearing those restrictive black dresses, they wear costumes. Instead of standing on risers, they have complicated choreography. The Spring Gala is a time consuming production, and each year Director Hannah Beth Potter challenges her choirs to work even harder than the year before.

Since the advanced choirs generally have the most numbers and the hardest choreography, it can be hard to find the time to learn all of the songs, so the choirs have a Spring Retreat to learn the choreography to some of the harder songs.

Cantabile learned two songs “Come on Eileen” and “Fame,” which will be the closing number. Bella Voce learned two songs, as well: “Valerie” and “Say My Name.” Graduate Taylor Smith accompanied the choirs and choreographed “Come on Eileen” and “Say My Name.”

Junior Naomi Sobel said, “I’m kind of jealous of the girls in Bella Voce. Not only do they get to sing a Destiny’s Child song, but Taylor’s choreography for that number is amazing.”

Ms. Potter said, ” I do this retreat for a few reasons. One is obviously to learn the choreography for the harder numbers. I also want to get the students in the zone for a good competition, as LGPE follows. A major reason though is so the choirs can bond. Students always say ‘ I wish we had done this earlier. I like everyone so much now.”’

This year the choirs traveled to the FFA Camp in Covington. They spent many hours rehearsing but also spent a lot of time playing games or enjoying free time together. They also painted shoe box lids with their names to be used in the show set.

Senior Lauren Wilson says, “This is my third retreat and I probably liked it the best. I’ve gotten really close with my choir and with Bella Voce.”  Ms. Potter agrees that this is a great group of students and they’ve all gotten along very well and branched out from the usual friend groups.

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