Choir Presents Spring Show

The Van High School Choir presented their annual Spring Show Thursday and Saturday night. The theme this year was "Timeless Classics". Choral Director, Kelly Lockwood welcomed the choir and choreographer, Claudette Anderson gave a background of the show.

Each song was chosen as a timeless classic because it had been re-recorded by each generation. The dance movements and clothes were true to the era. The evening was very entertaining. On Saturday evening, the senior choir students were recognized.

The show opened with an eight minute "On Stage with the Temptations" medley performed by all of the boys in the choir. Soloists were Eric Reynolds, Bradley Brown, Jared White and Rivers Shotwell.

Next up was Tim Calnan and Matthew Pool singing "Down on the Corner". They were accompanied by the dancers of the 70’s comprised of Jessica Lewis, Hope Meadows, Jessica Illiff, Regan Moore, Courtney Robinson, Leslie Chastain, Ali Smith, Haley Verner and Lauren Dutton.

"Midnight Train to Georgia" was performed by Brittney Tunnell and backups, Justin Hobbs, Jared White and David Richmond.

The audience was then wowed with Matthew Pool and Peyton Neill performing the Bee Gee’s hit song, "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart". Accompanied by Ali Smith and Julia Flores, Haley Verner brought the house down on "I am a Woman in Love".

The entire choir combined for "Wonderful Merciful Savior" with solos Justin Hobbs, Courtney Robinson and Peyton Neill. Peyton Neill then sang "Precious Lord Take My Hand". The last song of the first act was "Put Your Hand in the Hand" with the entire chorus accompanying soloists, Jessica Lewis, Eleazar Salazar and Joseph Coon.

To open the second act, all 100 girls marched into the auditorium and gave a special performance of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", with soloist, Tory Gossett.

The audience then took out their flashlights (provided by the choir) and their cell phones and sang with Tim Calnan on the Neal Diamond classic, "Song Sung Blue".

After this song, soloists Peyton Neill, Chris Lewis and Jermie Calhoun were accompanied by all of the guys on The Spinners hit, "Games People Play". One of the crowd’s favorites, "Natural Woman" was performed by soloist Courtney Robinson, and back-ups, Ty’isha Tatum, Traci Love and Jessica Lewis. All girls then combined together on "One Fine Day" then the entire choir ended the concert with a high energy performance of the 80’s hit, "Footloose".

Both nights were very well attended with the auditorium near capacity on Saturday night. Lighting was provided by Rebekah Scott, Larry and Sue Wisdom. Sound engineer was Ryan Brackenridge. Karen Price provided the props and David Richmond designed the programs.

Choral Director, Kelly Lockwood said that she was very pleased with the performance and how each student rose to the occasion. A lot of these students are new to choir and have never performed in front of an audience. Senior Peyton Neill, who has been in choir for four years, said that he would not go out any other way. Every single person put their heart into the performance and it was quite evident each evening.