This year’s Tiger Tunes hostesses and hosts have been working on a show that they believe will be very intense and different from past years’ performances.
While each of the hostesses and hosts have a musical background of some kind, few of them have any experience in dancing.
“I am the whitest man in all of Tiger land,” said junior Alex Ray, one of the Tiger Tunes hosts. “I can speak to my own personal experience that my greatest challenge has been dancing. I grew up on stage. I grew up performing, dancing and singing, but never to this extensive depth. It is some serious choreography involved.”
he hostesses and hosts decided not to elect a student director this year and instead senior Grace Whitaker has been choreographing all of their sets.
“The choreography is very different than what it has been in the past,” said senior Leslyn Ichter, one of the Tiger Tunes hostesses. “It’s a lot more complex and that’s all because of Grace who has just gone above and beyond and she’s been so patient with all of us.”
They have been practicing for two months but they expect that their rehearsals are going to get longer in these last two weeks leading up to opening night.
“It’s important to keep your priorities straight throughout the entire thing,” Ichter said. “It definitely can be a challenge. Some days but you just have to push yourself. It’s been a very emotionally, physically, spiritually, socially challenging thing, but it’s all worth it in the end.”
However, they have bonded together as a family and are for the most part enjoying rehearsals.
“I love getting to know these people,” said junior Maggie Taylor. “I couldn’t pick a better group to be a hostess with. They’re just awesome people and we have so much fun. We get to work and we do a really good job together.”
Junior host D.J. Jacks explained that he heard that in some of the past years there has been drama between the hostesses and hosts but that no such “fall out” has happened yet to them.
They went shopping together a few weeks ago and received $250 each to pick out their costumes.
“It took us quite awhile to finally figure out the looks that we wanted,” said junior Jacob Watson. “We’re going with a much more contemporary look compared to past years.”
Ichter said one of her favorite parts about being a hostess was the shopping experience.
“It was just so much fun because we all picked out stuff and and we’d find stuff for each other even,” she said. “We’d throw clothes over the dressing room door and say, ‘You try this. I think it’d look better on you.’ We get to keep the clothes in the end, so that’s so nice.”
The hostesses and hosts are also optimistic that the song choices this year will be unique and engaging.
“There’s a lot of different styles and time periods [represented in the music,] said junior Emily Morgan. “There’s a lot of new stuff but there’s still a lot of old music that I think parents will enjoy.”
Sophomore Nikki Anderson said each hostess and host has very different personalities which have been infused into their performances and they can be seen throughout the show.
Mark Bartels, a sophomore host, said while there are times they don’t get along, they’ve been able to work through their problems and come together as a group. Despite their differences and having only known each other for a short time, many of them feel that they have become great friends throughout the process
“I’m not going to do it again after this because I can’t do it with anybody else,” Ichter said.
