ICCA and Lessons Learned
This weekend, the Melodores traveled to the University of South Carolina to compete in the Semifinal round of ICCA. Fellow Melodore Seth Johnson wrote an article about the previous quarterfinal round at UGA, but I thought I’d beat him to the punch by posting tonight. The weeks (and months) prior to these rounds of competition were filled with dance and vocal rehearsals – It is still amazing to me how much work can go into less than 12 minutes of finished performance product. At the end of the day, the Melodores placed second in the round out of eight groups, winning Best Choreography along the way for the entire set, and losing valiantly to the FSU Acabelles. Unfortunately, only the first-place group advances to the final round in New York City, so our ICCA journey for this year (probably*) ends here. The car ride up was fun, the preparation was intense, and the performance was a 200 degree 12-minute whirlwind of Melo-Awesome. I had a great time getting to watch some of the best groups from the South region sing, I got a weekend to hang out with my Melo-brothers, and I got to see a few very good friends from high school that go to USC! I even made a few new friends – pretty successful Saturday.
As far as lessons learned goes… As a group, we were proud to go so far in ICCA so soon after our formation, but we were all (understandably) disappointed to be so close to the victory we all wanted so badly. It’s easy to get caught up in negativity towards other groups or the judges, but when I step back and appreciate that I get to be part of a performance group that has gone farther in a shorter time than any other a cappella group in the nation, go on a great trip with some great friends, and come back to a world-class school, it’s hard to complain!
*There is a wild-card round for the 2nd and 3rd place finishers in each semifinal, but it’s better to not count on winning a round against some of the best groups in the nation!