Do you ever feel like you were born in the wrong decade? Do you like to shake your groove thang to Earth, Wind and Fire or disco down to your favorite ABBA song? Or maybe you’re more into Kansas and some good old classic rock.
The University of Alabama’s Resonance Show Choir spring performance is exactly the right place for fans of the 1960s and ‘70s to hear some of their favorite music, compliments of UA students.
The show will be held Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Bama Theatre downtown. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students and may be purchased in advance at the Ferguson Center or Tuesday night at the Bama Theatre box office prior to the performance.
Resonance Show Choir is in its third year at the University and is an entirely student-led organization.
“We consist of a little over 40 male and female students from many different majors and classes,” said Resonance member Rebecca Howard, a sophomore majoring in public relations and art history. “That’s part of the reason Resonance has become a family to most of us. We are all there and work countless hours each semester because we love it.
“None of us get paid or get scholarships, we just show up to each rehearsal because we can’t wait to see all of our closest friends and to create an unbelievable show together.”
When choosing the music to feature in this spring’s performance, the choir members picked some of the great classic hits and brought them all together to create one phenomenal, funkadelic lineup.
“Our show consists of our favorite songs that span the decades, from ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ [by Whitney Houston] to ‘September’ by Earth, Wind, and Fire,” Howard said. “Each semester we strive for a show that engages the audience in a way that no other group on campus can. We want our audience to jump up and dance with us, and then we also invite them to cry with us.”
In order to showcase the different strengths of every member in their show choir family, Howard said they try to feature different students as soloists and choreographers in each number so everyone gets the chance to show what he or she can do.
Freshman Garrett Lindsay had never had the opportunity to perform with a show choir group before coming to the University. He said he knew he had to audition as soon as he found out about Resonance, and he said it is one of the best things he could have done.
“It’s nice to be able to sing more current music and be able to utilize two forms of expression at once by singing and dancing,” said Lindsay, who is majoring in choral music education. “The numbers I’m looking forward to the most in the upcoming show would have to be ‘Carry on My Wayward Son,’ ‘Dream On’ and ‘Have a Nice Day.’ The choreography for those three is sick.”
Howard and Lindsay agreed that one of the best things about joining Resonance was the feeling of family among all the members, and being able to rock the stage in front of their friends, family and people who just love music.
“When each semester we rehearse hundreds of hours, it’s easy to want to give up,” Howard said, “but the second that curtain opens and you see your parents, a girl from your English class and your best friend from high school all sitting together in the audience, it all becomes worth it.”
