For 5 weeks, the 2029 freshman class has been sacrificing lunches and eighth periods in order to prepare for Musical Extravaganza (MEX).
Homecoming week is a time when Jefferson students participate in a wide variety of events, one of the highlights being MEX. The event was held on Sept. 26, and is an eight minute dance where every class displays their school spirit. This year, the seniors took home first place, followed by the juniors in second. During the preparation for MEX, each class faced its own unique challenges.
“[Preparing for MEX is] very fun, but there’s a lot of time needed to choreograph and practice,” freshman and choreographer Michelle Kim said. “Usually, I spend around four to five hours just for practices with the people in my dance, and an additional two to three hours for communications and scheduling per week. Choreographing everything took somewhere between five to six hours.”
For freshman Hong-Duc Pho, learning the choreography was a big challenge for MEX, especially in memorization.
“One of the challenges I encountered [during practice] was learning the choreography,” Pho said. “Not much teaching was done because it was mostly based on learning from a video. For memorizing, it was time-consuming.”
The choreography was also hard to work on as a group, specifically trying to get people together.
“Getting a section in a group of people is challenging,” freshman and dancer Naveli Jain said. “Some people’s friend groups are noisy during rehearsal and not focused.”
The freshmen also had trouble organizing practices, needing everyone to know when and where practices were.
“Lunch practices are less productive because everyone wants to eat and it’s very chaotic, but 8th period practices are more productive because the choreographers are actually focused on you,” freshman and dancer Juwon Kim said.
While the freshmen faced a number of challenges, the upperclassmen also faced their own unique issues.
“Sometimes people don’t show up to practice,” senior and choreographer Julia Showers said. “I’d say, when people show up to practice, it looks good. People do well together.”
“I think there’s always the challenge of getting people there on time, because a lot of people want to eat lunch,” senior and choreographer Evelyn Chen said. “But once they’re there, I think it goes pretty well, and people try their best.”
To grapple with these issues, the senior class used a few unique tactics to try and make practices more productive.
“This year, I brought a really big karaoke speaker,” Chen said. “I think that’s really been helpful to command their attention, and then usually if they’re not paying attention, I’ll just say something funny so then they’ll laugh and I [can] get their attention.”
Both Showers and Chen had experience in MEX prior to their senior year
“I’d say freshman year was when we didn’t really know much about the process, [so] the choreographers were really winging it.” Showers said. “But senior year, I feel like MEX has changed a lot. As seniors, you have a bit more experience. In terms of teaching, you know your own teaching style and what works best for the group that you teach.”
“I think as a senior class, we’re more hype because we know that we have to try really hard to win,” Chen said. “We’re putting in the effort more, and people are coming to practice more, which is something that’s really nice to see.”
Based on her own experience in MEX, Showers shared some advice for the freshmen class, reflecting on her past challenges.
“To [the] dancers, make sure [that] you show up to practice,” Showers said. “Not only are you putting yourself back, but you’re holding the group back as a whole, because it is a group effort. But it’s also not very cool to do that to your choreographer, because they have to scramble and go [organize things] last minute.”
Beyond just the nitty-gritty work of organizing MEX practices, Showers also shared advice on enjoying the event.
“I would also say, to make sure that you have fun, to bring everybody in, that’s pretty much the most important thing,” Showers said. “If you see someone struggling, don’t say that they’re struggling, but you should find a way to have fun as a group, and also improve everybody’s form and technique. Work all together and have a kind of group learning environment.”
Despite the challenges the freshman class faced, many of them have decided to do MEX again next year.
“I think [I would do it again],” Jain said. [Participating in Mex is a] fun and nice distraction from the rest of school.”