Dancers whirl across the stage in bright costumes, their faces beaming with excitement as music rushes through the auditorium for a night filled with energy, rhythm, and joy.
Since late October, the Bowie Silver Stars have been prepping for their final show of the 2024-2025 school year with the theme “Game On.” Spring Shows is two acts with a total of 30 different dances from Silver Stars, JV dancers, dance class periods, parents, boys athletics, and performances from three area middle schools. The 35th Annual Silver Stars Spring Show directors were Leanne Bilnoski and Alyssa Paramski.
“We write a script for all of the dances we want for Spring Shows, and then have the dancers learn the choreography, and a lot of the choreography is done by the student officers and class dance aids,” Paramski said. “Some of our dances we’ve been doing since late October and we use those dances for our competitions and pep rallies.”
The Silver Stars started when Bowie opened in 1988, and Spring Shows have been annual showings since the spring of 1989. Silver Stars have become a well-known dance company in AISD from their annual performances and plan to continue this legacy and to grow for years to come.
“I grew up in AISD and knew of the Silver Stars then especially their Spring Shows, so after I graduated college, I worked at some other high schools until the position opened at Bowie, then I just knew I was meant to be at Bowie,” Bilnoski said. “Bowie has always had such a great dance program and I am super lucky and honored to be one of the directors.”
Leadership plays a big part in the success of both the Silver Stars and their performances. Senior Amorie Erichsen is a first lieutenant for the Silver Stars and plays a key role in bringing the team together with her leadership skills. Erichsen shows this during Spring Shows by choreographing pre-drill, the finale, the opener, and many of the other dances.
“My goal as lieutenant is for the dancers to have fun, but still have structure,” Erichsen said. “Also I hope the audience has fun with the dances I either choreographed or helped with .”
Dance directors pick the theme for performances typically a year before, so they can create dances and an environment with music and decorations that follows with the theme that was chosen.
“We choose a different theme every year,” Bilnoski said. “We have a storyline that kind of leads everything and we chose “Game On” because it would be really fun, just to show all the different games that there are to play and how we can make that come to life with dance.”
Even with years of experience of performing, stepping onto the stage can still come with nerves, however once the music starts, the passion for dance can take over.
“I was nervous before and during shows, because I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for everyone in the audience watching,” Deeb said. “As soon as I start dancing on the stage my nerves tend to fade away because I am doing what I’ve always loved to do.”
With high school coming to an end for seniors, Spring Shows is Erichsen’s last dance performance in high school and she has decided to attend the University of Texas at Austin as a dance major to pursue her love for dance. Erichsen choreographed her own solo for her UT audition and used the same dance for her solo in Spring Shows.
“I plan on dancing at UT as a dance major, so I’ll be continuing to have performances and dancing, hopefully for a much longer time,” Erichsen said. “I choreographed my solo all by myself for Spring Shows and I used that solo to audition for the UT dance major.”
According to Loo, the Silver Stars accomplish many things and make countless memories by the end of every school year.
“We always do a memory circle before shows, where the whole team gets together in a little circle and we all share one of our favorite memories that we had in the year,” Loo said. “It’s always just so much fun, we all have a good laugh before the show, and it helps get our nerves out of the way.”
