With homecoming’s quick approach,that means the yearly tradition of school pep rallies and spirit week. One of the homecoming traditions is the DGS variety show, which was supposed to take place on Oct 19., but was canceled due to lack of student involvement.
English teacher and sponsor Nicole Proimos is in charge of the variety show at DGS. She also helped judge auditions Monday, Sept. 26. and shares how there were not enough acts to do a full show with only seven students auditioning. She shared how the committee weighed a lot of options and possible solutions, but made the final decision to come together and cancel the variety show due to how busy the week will be.
“We had a lot of talented students, the issue was that we did not have enough auditions to round up an entire line up. It’s not that we did not have talent, it’s just in order to put on a production in a space that size you want to have a certain amount of acts because it brings in a bigger community and also provides a better atmosphere for the performances,” Proimos said.
Senior Grace Rerucha shares how she was excited to show her school spirit and talents for homecoming week’s variety show for the school to see. Her dance team, DLD Dance, is a dance organization focused on hip hop outside of school and is taking part in the talent show.
“I was really excited for the show because I can show my talent and school pride by performing in the show. I was going to do the show with my dance team DLD, which is in Downers [Grove], and I think it was cool how the variety show would bring the community together. It can be any student that wants to put themselves out there,” Rerucha said.
Proimos shared how old the tradition of the variety show is and how popular it was at DGS. She talked about how the variety show was one of the many things that students would do to show their pride to DGS and the community.
“The variety show was here before I was here. But when I started here at DGS it was so popular with so many people interested it was a two night event. The kids loved showing their different talents and just putting themselves out there,” Proimos said.
Rerucha shared how she was excited to perform in the huge auditorium that was pretty new to DGS. She said was upset when she found out the news that the show was canceled and can imagine how everyone else felt about not being able to perform anymore but she said she understood why it was.
“I was super excited to do the show even though it was my first year and my friends talked me into it. I thought it would be cool to perform in the big auditorium in front of many people in the community. I was bummed to hear that they were not doing it this year anymore, but I understand that it would be hard to do a production that size with such a small group,” Rerucha said.
Proimos thinks that school pride and spirit and expressing yourself as a whole is shifting in a different way than anybody has seen before. She shares how this will be a new obstacle the committee and anybody in charge of a school related event will have to overcome.
“I feel as if school spirit as a whole is a national shift that we’ve never seen before. I went to a conference last year about how to get students involved, and we came to the conclusion that we just have access to things and other forms of not only entertainment but anything that schools back then did not. So the challenge is to find new and unique ways to tap into that interest of those talents but maybe in a new generational way,” Proimos said.
