By Audrey Posten

Clayton Ridge’s Cloud 9 show choir kicked off its competition season on Feb. 9, at the IHSMA State Show Choir Festival. 

The entertaining combination of music, dancing and costumes—what director Adam Radcliffe described as a “mini musical”—was set to a crime theme this year. Students performed to the songs “Money, Money, Money,” “One Way or Another,” “What I’ve Done,” “Bad Romance” and “Jailhouse Rock” while sporting black and white striped robber costumes early in the show and bright orange prison jumpsuits for the later numbers. The boys resembled Inspector Gadget with their trench coats, collared shirts and fedora hats. 

“We got police chains too. It put it all together,” quipped senior and soloist Chris Gebhardt.

The performance lasts a little over 10 minutes, but is months in the making. In the summer, Radcliffe and the students start listening to potential songs. A minimum of three are required, including one ballad or slower tempo selection.

“I want the kids to be a big part of the decisions because it’s their show, and if they don’t buy in, they’re not going to perform it well,” Radcliffe said. “So we think about ‘Oh, that would be cool or that would sound good in a choral setting.’ Because some songs just will not sound good by a choir. Then certain songs lend themselves better in a choral setting.”

By September, the group had settled on a crime theme, according to junior leader Claire Brandt, a soloist and choreographer. 

“But we knew we wanted a twist,” she explained. 

The plan for an art heist developed. It was clever, but not dark. Days later, thieves executed a heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

“When that happened, we were like, ‘Oh, this is perfect,’” Brandt recalled.

To play into the theme, Cloud 9’s performance featured a series of notable works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa,” Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” and Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring.” But there’s a catch. The painting faces were replaced with images of Cloud 9’s senior boys as well as a junior boy.

“We argued back and forth about who we wanted in the paintings. We thought maybe teachers, but I always really wanted the senior boys,” Brandt shared. “One day, we were just screwing around on this website, and we put my brother’s face in the ‘Mona Lisa.’ He is one of the senior boys. It looked so good and was hilarious, so we did it with the rest of them. It worked out really well.” 

The project was completed with a poster printer and frames from Goodwill, one of many ways Cloud 9 operates on a budget.

“We do this very budget friendly,” Radcliffe noted. “We do our own choreography. I arrange all the music for us. The costumes, we get from Amazon, although the girls reused a few things, like shoes and leggings.”

Radcliffe is thankful for a memorial fund and support from the music boosters to cover costs. With RAGBRAI in Guttenberg this past summer, he and the band director sponsored showers for riders to raise additional funds for the music department.

With the theme selected, the group began to work on choreography. That’s a flip from other years, when music came first.

“Choreography just takes hours and hours and days and days, and then you might have to review something because it’s bad or change something because it doesn’t work or we can’t do that,” Radcliffe said. “They can learn songs pretty quickly. So we did all the choreography to recordings and cut the music to how we thought the arrangement would go.”

Brandt choreographed most of the show with friend and sophomore Erika Sarazua. They wrote it over several days, then taught their fellow members, tweaking things along the way. 

It helps that the two, and several others with Cloud 9, are also members of the Clayton Ridge Drill Team and bring key dance experience. Even some of the boy members participate in the drill team’s co-ed showcase dance, giving them experience and confidence too.

One of the trickiest aspects is flowing from one song to the next, including incorporating a costume change. 

A ballad version of “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga, featuring Brandt and Gebhardt as soloists, helped with that during the middle of the show. Brandt wore a black mask and Gebhardt a black hat to differentiate themselves.

It was Gebhardt who suggested “Bad Romance.”

“I came up with a vision driving home from a basketball game. Just turned on the radio and was like, ‘Oh, I like this song,’” he recalled.

Brandt said performing popular songs in a show choir setting can be tricky.

“I think the hardest part is flipping it in your mind from a song you listen to when you’re in the car to a song you’re performing. Putting in your mind that this isn’t a song, this is a story,” she explained.

Along with their costumes and painting props, Cloud 9 felt its use of well-known songs made their performance stand out. It engages the audience, said Gebhardt, which is something the students feed off.

“If the audience is cheering for you and clapping, it gets you excited and you want to dance better for them,” he said.

Radcliffe was also excited this year to incorporate a boys feature for the first time since Cloud 9 was established over a decade ago. With 14 boys—eight of whom are experienced seniors—“I just felt like they could handle it this year,” he said. “I think they did a really good job.”

Participation is good overall. Cloud 9 boasts around 45 members, which is a quarter to one-third of the student body. Over half are underclassmen, setting the show choir program up for continued success.

That level of participation is rare in Iowa. Clayton Ridge was one of just three Class 1A show choirs across the state who performed at the IHSMA State Show Choir Festival.

Radcliffe said it helps that show choir is a class built into the school day. Participants don’t practice before or after school like many other schools’ show choirs, leaving time for other extracurriculars, school work, jobs and socializing. 

Brandt agreed. 

“I think the fact that we have it during class time makes it a lot easier for more people to do it. Otherwise, I don’t think we’d have nearly the numbers we do,” she said. “I think it’s a really good thing that we do have those numbers, because a lot of people are really talented, but might not do it if they couldn’t do it during the school day.”

Show choir is also fun. Whereas other classes throughout the day involve a lot of sitting and listening, show choir engages students’ full bodies. 

“This is 100% energy. It’s a whole different vibe and skills that you’re doing from the rest of your school day,” Radcliffe said. “100% of our students are in other extracurriculars, but I feel like this is a very different one. It’s a mixture of everything. And compared to a sport, you’re all starters. There’s no sitting on the bench. Every person is valuable.”

Brandt relishes the chance to perform. She’s been involved in theater since a young age and also enjoys drill team. Cloud 9 combines it all.

“It’s always such a rush when you get up there and show off what you can do,” she said. “I love singing and I love dancing, so I get to do both of them.”

Gebhardt enjoys singing and dancing too. He said it’s even better to do it with friends.

“My favorite part is the friendships that you make. As a freshman, you don’t really get to hang out with seniors and all the other people throughout high school, but in show choir, you can. We make a lot of friends and we have a good time,” he said.

For those who would like to see and hear Cloud 9 in action, Radcliffe said the group will perform in shows at Western Dubuque and West Delaware yet this winter. Clayton Ridge’s annual Swing Show will be in May. 

“It is the end of the entire school year for the music program. The jazz band performs and the show choir, and then there’s some solos or little music ensembles that are instrumental or vocal. It’s a fun night and a long tradition,” Radcliffe shared.