A not so long time ago on a campus not so far away, Taylor’s 41st Airband took over Rediger Auditorium with lively performances from dorms all across campus.
The event’s two showings on Apr. 12, at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., invited students, families and the community to enjoy Taylor’s annual highly anticipated lip-sync competition.
The theme was cereal. Senior Wade Frances and senior Thane Syswerda MC’d, keeping the night entertaining with breakfast-related transitions between performances. Performance themes including “Despicable Me,” “Shrek,” “Inside Out,” “Heist” and “Peter Pan” entertained the audience.
The 6 p.m. show winners were “Star Wars,” performed by second east Olson and third west Wengatz, “Aladdin,” performed by third center Olson and third east Wengatz and “Shrek,” performed by “Robinhood”, which combined Swallow Robin and “The Brotherhood,” the third floor of Samuel Morris.
Swallow Robin co-leader Madeline Estep, a sophomore Christian ministry major, expressed surprise at placing in the top three.
“(It) was very unexpected, considering we’re so new to this (and had) not really done it before,” Estep said. “We were kind of expecting to be like, ‘Oh, that was fun.’ But somehow we managed to place, and that was just really fun and sweet, because everyone was so excited about it.”
Estep estimated around 200 hours of preparation going into Robinhood’s Airband. It was rewarding to see the hard work pay off, she said.
At the 9 p.m. show, “Star Wars” again took the first place win. Kelsey Jacobs, freshman English education major and member of Swallow Robin’s “Shrek” Airband performance, enjoyed their act.
“I love ‘Star Wars’ because I love ‘Star Wars’ itself,” Jacobs said. “They had little lightsaber things, and Darth Vader was flipping around in the air.”
A good Airband performance is one with a good theme everyone knows and people who look like they are having fun on stage, Jacobs said. “Star Wars” delivered that.
“Despicable Me,” performed by third east Olson and third center Wengatz, followed behind “Star Wars,” taking second place. “Dune,” performed by Breu and Gerig, took third place at the second show.
Emma Reichanadter, Inter-Class Council’s (ICC) freshman class president who majors in Christian ministry, said her favorite part was watching the auditions and seeing everyone's hard work come to life. During the 9 p.m. performance, she sat in the second row with the judges.
“That was really fun, to hear all the students cheering so loudly for each group,” Emma Reichanadter, ICC’s freshman class president and Christian ministry major, said. “Everyone had parts where the audience just loved it.”
Jacobs also enjoyed watching the audience members enjoy the show as she performed “Shrek” with Swallow Robin.
Estep enjoyed watching all of the other performances, as well. Each one was impressive, she said. Different aspects stood out from each act.
“I loved them all,” Estep said. “Dune was really impressive. I love that they were also sort of like us in being smaller, but they were so clean and so well put together, and they were very dramatic. They had definitely a fun dramatic plot line. And I also really enjoyed Star Wars…They were very clean, very precise. They had a very large group, so it's very impressive that they were so together with so many people.”
While “Star Wars” took the top spots, all the Airband performances shared the spotlight, delivering a night of lively fun and entertainment to the Taylor community.
