The singing, dancing and music-making club, LTD Combo, is preparing for their upcoming shows.

The vocalists had to go through many busy rehearsals with LTD Combo adviser Brian Fancher to bring the show together. He said, “Most of our time is spent rehearsing, that can be anything from a full vocal rehearsal to choreography rehearsals, sectionals. Then some of them are working on choreography while others are working on vocals.”

The group has put a lot of time and work into preparing for LTD Combo. Fancher said in early November, “Purely rehearsal wise, we’ve put in a good 40 hours at this point. Arranging the music we have spent probably a dozen, two dozen hours on collectively”.

There are many people who collaborate together for the production and preparation that comes with LTD Combo. He said, “There’s times I have had to meet with Larry [Braun, the choreographer] or Mrs. Sabree [vocal coach] to suggest what we are going to be focusing on for our next rehearsal. Or if I have done something in the music where I think it would be a really great thing to emphasize with the choreography, we collaborate in that way.”

Alexander Hliatzos is a sophomore who plays the keys for LTD Combo, and he’s learning a lot in preparation for the shows because of the long rehearsals. He said, “It helped me a lot because we get to learn a whole song and it’s not broken up into many rehearsals. It makes it very concise and very clear of what we were accepted by the end of the rehearsal.”

A typical combo practice is different from the choir practice. Hliatzos said, “He gives us the music then we work through the issues we have. We have a product that’s ideal to accommodate the show choir.”

Brandon Corpus is a 10th grader who sings bass-tenor for LTD Combo, and he believes the rehearsals are very productive and are a good preparation for the shows. He said, “We talk for like four hours to dance with breaks of course then the last two singing they give us videos to watch and tracks to listen to and sheet music. It’s very put together to practice what we have to do for rehearsals.”

With all the work and preparation that comes with the LTD Combo, there are also many challenges that the group must face. Fancher said, “In order for us to perform some of the music there either needs to be arrangements of the music out there for us to perform or we need to get permission from the people who wrote it to arrange it. Every once in a while there’s an artist or a song out there that we aren’t able to get the rights to.”

Not only does the advisor of LTD Combo have to deal with many conflicts, but so do the members. Corpus said, “LTD is very dependent on an interaction between two partners and the whole issue is if you don’t have your partner it is going to make it very difficult to practice if you don’t have a partner. You can practice your positioning when you’re at home and not on the stage.”

Fancher has many plans that are going to unfold to get ready for the shows. He said, “I have been working with the combo to get them set up. This next rehearsal coming up we are going to add another song with the combo and we are going to add customs to really get the whole production to come together.”

Fancher’s biggest concern is making sure the kids are prepared for the shows. He said, “Making sure that all of the singers and dancers and instrumentals feel comfortable and confident in what they’re doing so when we get to performing it’s fun and not scary or intimidating, it’s just, you get to go out there and how everyone what you have been working on and that audience gets to show their appreciation.”

Corpus is confident in all the preparation that they LTD Combo had to take to feel prepared and show ready. He said, “People are starting to get the feeling of singing and dancing at the same time. You rarely have people messing up but of course it happens. By show night we will be ready.”