As they walked onto the stage, the Ladies First show choir members took their opening positions while the crowd fell silent. The music began for their first song, “I Will Survive/Survivor,” and the girls’ voices filled the Ben Davis auditorium.

Ladies First competed at the Ben Davis Giant Spectacular show choir competition held on Feb. 15. The day was filled with excitement and team bonding as well as some disappointment after placing fourth in the unisex division. Twelve members of the choir performed a total of three songs: “I Will Survive/Survivor,” “The Voice Within” and “Wings.” This is junior Angel Rice’s first year with Ladies First, and she was optimistic for the team and how they would perform.

“There’s always that chance of not doing good, but you can’t be afraid of that,” Rice said.

The day began at 10 a.m. when the girls arrived at SHS to begin their long process of getting ready for the competition together. Starting the day off with hair and makeup, the room started to bustle with anticipation as the girls crowded around the choir room mirrors with curling irons and makeup brushes. As they prepared, they filled the room with breakfast foods and lots of upbeat music. According to junior Destanie Hargraves, show choir has been a good opportunity for the girls because it gives them a chance to become friends with people they normally wouldn’t have.

“My favorite part has been bonding with everybody,” Hargraves said. “When I first started the school year, I had two friends, and now I have a whole classroom.”

The energy in Room 408 was optimistic as the team was finishing makeup and hair. Since they had already had some experience that year competing after participating in the Twin Lakes Show Choir Invitational at Twin Lakes High School, the girls were confident in their abilities. Sophomore Princess Kioni was hopeful for her and her team.

“I think we’ll do pretty well today considering we’ve worked hard, and our energy has been up since our last competition,” Kioni said.

Once they were ready, the members did a walk-through rehearsal to brush up on some aspects of their routine. After that, it was time to take the bus to Ben Davis.

The team arrived at Ben Davis around 12 p.m. and headed to their home room, where they continued to finish getting everything in order. As it grew closer to their performance time, the energy in the room shifted to reflect their nerves. Although they were nervous, senior dance captain Katie Berry was confident in the choir’s ability to perform.

“I think we will do well with a lot of the obstacles we’ve had to endure this year,” Berry said.
After transitioning to their warm-up room around 1 p.m., the girls started fine tuning their voices using vocal techniques, and then they began running through their show. The next 30 minutes consisted of polishing up their choreography, rehearsing voice parts and giving each other pep talks in the minutes before stepping on stage. At 1:40 p.m., the group lined up two by two as they prepared to move to the performance space.

At 1:45 p.m., Ladies First stepped out into the bright lights of the Ben Davis auditorium stage, and as the music began, began to perform their fast-paced opening number, “I Will Survive/Survivor,” a mixture of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” and “Survivor” by Destiny’s Child. This was followed up by their ballad “The Voice Within” by Christina Aguilera and their closing song “Wings” by Little Mix. A few bows later, the girls rushed off stage and back to their homeroom to watch the video of their performance.
According to junior Baylee Watson, a three-year member of the show choir, it was more difficult to push through the performance due to some members not being able to attend, but she says she tried her hardest.

“I had to give it my all,” Watson said.

In between their performance and the awards ceremony, the members of Ladies First spent their time eating together in the cafeteria or walking around the main hallway visiting booths selling commemorative t-shirts. At 3:45 p.m., the girls headed to the auditorium to hear the results of the competition. Ladies First placed fourth in their division, meaning they were unable to move forward into the final round of the competition known as the “night show.”

Despite their results, many girls were proud of their performance and felt they did their best. Junior Jennifer Sahagun felt as if she had done the most she could considering the position and situations they had to go through that day.

“I did the most that I could, an 11 out of 10,” Sahagun said.