Following a successful season, MIM performed on Fox 8 on April 11. Dancer Maggie Coggin said that the students in MIM have been hoping to go to Fox all year and that she was excited for it.
“This year especially, we get to take our competition show on the road one last time which is really exciting since [after] having an undefeated season in a show, we all miss doing [it] since [it was] so successful, and we all have such great memories attached to it,” Coggin said.
MIM Director Gary Lewis said that MIM made changes to their show due to the format of the Fox performance.
“When [Fox] has a show choir come in, we have to make changes to our show since their studio’s really small,” Lewis said. “We won’t do a costume change, we won’t change the set, and we won’t have everyone singing and dancing. But everyone will be on camera, and a smaller number of people will dance. Everyone will sing. We’ll just make minor adjustments to it, and we’ll perform minor clips of our songs.”
Competing in five tournaments throughout the season in Beavercreek, Hurricane, Twinsburg, Medina and Homestead, Solon won first place in all of the tournaments. The Twinsburg competition ended early due to a weather warning, and everyone had to leave early, but awards were awarded to the participants nonetheless. This season marks the first time that Solon went undefeated since 2012. They won all of the awards that they are eligible for including: Best Vocals, Best Choreography, Best Crew, Best Soloist and Best Band. This season, around 111 students took part in MIM where they could be dancers and singers, crew or band.
Crew Member Craig Carlson said he believes that there are several reasons why MIM was so successful in their competition season this year.
“First, most of the kids from last year were one win short of reigning grand champs and, as a result, were hungry for victory,” Carlson said. “Second, there was a lot of camaraderie and friendship between them, and they were always looking out for one another. Third, they practiced all the time constantly trying to one up themselves, always trying to do better than the day prior.”
Carlson said that a lot of work and preparation goes into MIM’s performances.
“It’s fairly stressful since if you screw it up, it’s in front of a live audience,” Carlson said. “You also have to go to all the rehearsals to practice, and we practice a fair amount of times to make sure we do it right.”
Carlson said that he enjoyed going to the competitions this season as the hosts and the other members are all kind and friendly. As a senior about to graduate, he said that he will miss the bonds that he formed throughout the season, competing alongside his friends and peers, and the food at the competitions.
“I feel honored to be part of such a successful team, and I hope that my buddies in the future of MIM can carry on said legacy,” Carlson said.
As a senior, Coggin will also be leaving MIM this year and said that she will miss the bonds and connections that she formed throughout her time at MIM.
“In such an intensive performing arts group, even though I love dancing and singing and being on stage, it is so important to have a good foundation and support system,” Coggin said. “I really feel that I found that in some of my castmates here in Music in Motion.”
Unlike Carlson, she did not find MIM to be that demanding overall.
“Being in MIM has a low level of general stress at all times, because you know that you are working in a competitive group,” said Coggin. “So, you are just constantly trying to better the group and yourself as an individual to be the best Music in Motion that you can be. The knowledge that you have to take what you’ve been working on to a competition and be judged for it is very stressful. All of the moves have to be clean and you have to [perfect your] vocals. But since we’re all a team and working for the same thing, that decreases our overall stress.”
Lewis said that he enjoys advising MIM every year, but this year was especially wonderful partially due to hardworking students and directors. He also that that he is very thankful for the student leaders who pushed for the MIM assembly earlier this year where students left class to watch MIM perform.
“I think [the assembly] really opened a lot of people’s minds and was able to answer questions like ‘What is Music in Motion?’” Lewis said. “And I feel if you don’t know an answer in this world, you create your own answer which is almost always off in some way or another. Because of that assembly, we were able to show the whole school what we do, and I just want to thank the student leaders for allowing that assembly to take place.”
