Making their voices heard: ‘Showdown in the Desert’ highlights Arizona’s growing show choir presence

Show choir has been especially popular in Midwestern states for a long time, but now it’s a growing activity in schools across Arizona.

ANTHEM – Boulder Creek High School choral director Kirk Douglas stood on stage among representatives from each of the final five competing choir groups. As he announced Horizon High School’s “Step on Stage” as the winners of the 2025 competition, Horizon students screamed, jumped, cried and hugged with excitement.

This scene concluded a long day of show choir at Boulder Creek High School, where students, families and show choir fans from 12 schools packed into the high school gym in Anthem for the third annual Boulder Creek Showdown in the Desert. Over 500 high school students from two different states performed their show choir routines for judges from all over the country.

Show choir is a musical ensemble that combines elements of both singing and memorized choreography. Show choir gained national popularity and spotlight when “Glee” appeared on FOX from 2009-2015, but show choir has been prevalent for decades in specific areas of the country.

Show choir has been especially popular in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska for a long time, but now it’s a growing activity in schools across Arizona. Boulder Creek High School hosted the first competition in Arizona in 2023. The competition was called the “Boulder Creek Showoff in the Desert,” and eight groups attended the first show choir competition in the state’s history.

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Two years later, the competition has doubled in size, and Arizona choir students can compete against and cheer for fellow Arizona students.

“When we started, it was very small,” said Kirk Douglas, Boulder Creek choir program director. “It was like me calling all my friends and saying, ‘Please come and try this out. This could be really good for all of us.’ A lot of people were already backing it.

“Now we’re seeing schools from the East Valley of Arizona, that’s where the predominant Jazz community was, starting to see the value in show choir and more schools are developing their programs.”

The competition was a two-state affair. Students and families from Palm Desert High School, located in Palm Desert, California, made the four-hour road trip to compete against Arizona schools.

One of the best aspects of show choir is the camaraderie between schools and directors. While the groups are competing against each other, many schools will watch others perform to learn and cheer them on.

“I have a lot of friends who are directors out here and choreographers out here … I love coming to cheer on their kids and them cheer on my kids and kind of see what we do,” said RJ McCrackin, Palm Desert High School choral director. “This is the one time a year we get to see each other (perform) live.”

Boulder Creek senior and current choir president Chloe Villa has watched the Boulder Creek competition and seen it grow into a day-long event over the past three years.

“This year we also get to go to a competition in Arizona, which is also great, which means we’re inspiring other people to do this too and making show choir in Arizona and on this side of America bigger and bigger,” Villa said.

For the first time, Arizona will host two high school show choir competitions. Valley Vista High School will be hosting its inaugural competition Friday and Saturday in Surprise. The “Valley Vista Monsoon Madness” will include 25 groups competing in middle school, treble and mixed divisions.

Hosting hundreds of people at a high school is a tall task. Countless numbers of volunteers, both parents and school alumni, and current high school students play an important role in the competition going smoothly.

“This isn’t even a choir event, this is our whole school has to be a part of it, because we use classrooms to host choirs, we use different rooms for clinics and for warmups … As hosts, we have to make sure that everybody’s on stage, and everybody’s getting the best competition experience possible,” Villa said.

Depending on the region, show choir styles are different. In Arizona and California, storytelling is prominent in the high schools. Dialogue separates songs, similar to what occurs on Broadway. While some show choirs in the Midwest tell stories, most groups perform four to five songs surrounding a central theme.

No matter where a competition takes place or where the competing groups are from, competitions are always scored by judges. The score sheet is composed of two parts: vocals and choreography, with different subcategories for each.

“The first one is always tone quality, what is their tone quality … if it’s in tune or not in tune, that’s intonation,” said Hersel Cremeans, one of the Showdown in the Desert judges who has been a judge or clinician at all three Boulder Creek competitions. “Can we understand it? Do they have good diction? Are they precise with rhythm? Are they consistent in what they do?

“The same thing applies with choreography. Is it precise? Do they have good technique? Does the style fit? If they’re dancing doo-wop, but they’re doing a hip hop song, that’s probably not appropriate.”

The 17 groups this year competed in four divisions: middle school, single clef, open and championship. Awards were announced after each division finished, but every group could qualify for finals, which took place after the open and championship divisions competed.

The top five overall groups – Horizon Step on Stage and Show Divas, Valley Vista’s Vocal Thunder and Tempest and Shadow Ridge’s Stellar FX – competed in Arizona’s first show choir competition that included a finals round.

Step on Stage won the overall competition, the musicianship and showmanship categories, while Vocal Thunder took home first runner up, the Best Show Design and Best Costumes awards. Each division had its own best soloist award. Vocal Thunder performer Levi Lundberg won the award in the championship division.

Show Divas, Tempest and Stellar FX rounded out the top-five placements, respectively.

Many schools at the Boulder Creek competition will perform at Valley Vista’s inaugural Monsoon Madness competition. High schools from Arizona, California and New Mexico will compete.

Clinton High School, located in Clinton, Mississippi, boasts one of the most well-regarded and successful show choirs in the country. Amazon Prime Video made a documentary about the group titled, “Attaché,” the namesake of the group.

Clinton’s group, which hasn’t lost a competition since March 2013, could be coming to Boulder Creek’s competition very soon.

“Clinton Attaché, which is a very well-known show choir, they reached out to us to bring their show choir to our competition,” Douglas said. “I don’t know that we were quite ready to host them yet, but I think definitely in the near future, like next year, we will definitely be ready to host some of the bigger show choirs.

“I think people would really love to come and be a part of this event. The way the parents and the community have just come around and supported this festival and taken it to the next level has been incredible.”

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