#NW10Years

What a fantastic weekend!!  x10!

Words can't describe what it meant to be able to see all my best friends from college.  These girls (plus Megan, who couldn't make it) were my lifeline, my cheerleaders, my teammates, my listening ears, my vacation buddies, my songmates, and my closest friends. 

 Several of the alumni organized this 10-year reunion and concert.  We met up for a dinner Friday night where we giggled, told stories, met everyone's husbands and kids, watched the current NW group perform their ICCA set, took pictures, and hugged.

 Aaaaaand I had to make a dress for the occasion :)

Saturday we threw together a show!  We'd been practicing our tracks from our old recordings and brushing up on choreo from youtube videos at home.  Its amazing how it all comes back!

 

This concert also celebrated the new release of our 4th CD!  It is called "Unbound", and the songs are killer.

We had the Covey at 8am, and fit in vocal rehearsals, choreography, sound checks, and pizza, before the show that night. 

Getting to perform for Travis & Holly, Braden & Lauren, and Janae made this performance even more magical!  Most of them had never seen me perform in NW, and it was fun to feel like I was in college with them.

My two years in NW put me in the "1st Generation" group as well as the "2nd Generation", so I got to perform in twice the numbers.  A moment I will never forget is being introduced at this concert as the group that won ICCA, and before even singing a note, hearing our friends, our families, and our dear show parents completely warming us with applause.  What an incredible feeling!  Going back to 2007 as if nothing had changed, but then thinking of all the things that have happened in those 7 years, was humbling and touching.

Here's a little "Don't You Worry", part of our winning ICCA set:

The closer (or 2nd encore, rather), was "How Great Thou Art". 

Its a good thing Travis' video ends where it does because we all start to lose it, the pitch drops, we're all in tears, and I'm a wreck.  These girls.  That song.

Kristen describes it all best when she wrote, "Late Tuesday and Thursday nights, early Saturday mornings, scraping to get by, dodging HFAC night closing crew, eating too much, dancing in front of mirrors, discovering the etiology of my sore knees to be the frequency of prayers said with pinkies clasped on hard floors, wondering if anyone would care about female a cappella, choreographing when I should have been studying, "visualizing" a win, the vision board (a perfect score), Saturday night gigs, NW limo ride in NY, trying to arrange parts, negotiating show flow and a set list, awkward talkies, getting kissed by a 40 year old man at a gig, winning best choreography, corded microphones at ICCA, winning ICCA 2007, road trips and speeding tickets, chappy, 12 minutes on the Lincoln Center Stage, the Tuacahn, heels and hair up, Barbie hands, and retreats.  It was all of that.  And more.  It was finding myself onstage with 8 other women ready to bear witness to the world what we knew to be true about womanhood, music, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a journey to "win the world", and I won so much more." -- Kristin