The Tilt-a-Whirl Sends South Dakota Show Choir Spinning Each Season
By Heath Jacobs, South Dakota contributor
The carnival staple Tilt-a-Whirl ride is a flurry of constant movement. Whips and spins, sudden speed-ups and drastic slowdowns are all a part of the adventure.
The show choir scene in South Dakota has been a tilt-a-whirl in recent seasons, with groups moving up and down in near-constant movement from year to year and even during a single season.
In other regions of the country, powerhouse show choirs almost never need to rebuild; they reload. Like well-oiled college athletics programs, outgoing senior classes are replaced year after year by a talented freshman class, making these groups near-standard locks for podium finishes.
That's not the case in South Dakota.
The 2024 season is one example. Mitchell Friend de Coup—the undisputed king of South Dakota show choirs—finished third in the state in Grand Championships won. Aberdeen Eagle Express produced an Edward Scissorhands show that featured an unbelievably talented male soloist who carried them to previously unreached heights as they netted three wins over the course of the season.
Sioux Falls Roosevelt's show, “The Heist,” flew them to Paris to steal diamonds, New York to steal rubies, Cairo to steal emeralds, and Mumbai for sapphires. They stole precious jewels on their way to capturing two GCs that year.
Both Aberdeen and Roosevelt were exceptional, but to see Mitchell occupying third in the number of GCs in such a small state is something many were surprised by. Is it an apples-to-apples comparison? Perhaps not. Mitchell never competed in-state in 2024 and was competing against the likes of Los Alamitos, Center Grove, Johnston, and Lincoln East while the Sioux Falls outfits and Aberdeen were snagging wins off each other. Still, the win count is the win count, and Mitchell's sole triumph (coming at Bishop Heelan) left them third in that category.
So how did Aberdeen and Roosevelt fare the next year? Their seasons regressed, at least purely looking at the results sheet. Two groups that captured five GCs collectively and were ranked nationally in 2024 landed outside the national Top 100 in 2025. By contrast, Mitchell brought their show “Euphoria” to life. Euphoria was the kind of show Mitchell has become known for: big vocal moments, aggressive choreography, strong visual staging, and an upbeat emotional arc. Described as a “ showstopping spectacle,” judges and fans alike loved it, and Mitchel finished the season at No. 23 in the nation, back among the household names from each reason. Was incredible season due to it being native son Steven Todd’s final one as choreographer for FDC? Possibly. There's always a little bit of extra magic in the final run, and who doesn’t love to go out on a high note?
The tilt-a-whirl doesn't exclusively operate on a season-by-season basis either. Sometimes, the whirls come much faster.
Sioux Falls Washington brought "Stranger Things” to stages in 2026 and had four podium finishes last season, an impressive year for the program. The show took audiences to the alternate dimension “The Upside Down” and featured effects including a bike crash, screen-to-person interactions, and extravagant lighting designs. Despite many podium finishes, Washington missed finals at a tough Linn-Mar competition in Iowa, breaking its streak of 28 consecutive finals appearances. Losing an impressive streak the same year as so many podium finishes adds up as well as two plus two equaling five does.
Sioux Falls Jefferson Legacy, the newest kid on the South Dakota show choir block, burst on the scene in 2022 and won two grand championships. They lost to Roosevelt in 2025 before rebounding to beat them twice in 2026, taking two grand championships some assumed were Roosevelt’s to win.
The longer one studies the Rushmore state, the more the topsy-turvy results churn ‘round and ‘round.
In 2025, at the first South Dakota competition, three schools matched up and finished fifth (Aberdeen), sixth (Washington), and seventh (Roosevelt). Weeks later, at the final big competition of the year, the order was reversed: Roosevelt was second, Washington third and Aberdeen fourth.
A glance at O'Gorman Ovation and Harrisburg Eclipse in 2026 could cause eyeballs to cross in confusion. O’Gorman stormed out of the gate in 2026, winning their first Grand Championship in nine years, and had no problems dispatching Harrisburg at a different event in January. At the end of the season, Harrisburg beat O’Gorman, something that hadn’t happened in five years. It's only fitting of the tilt-a-whirl to have a group break out of a nine-year GC slump and then lose to a group that almost never beats them.
Another factor that contributes to whips and spins in the rankings is that some groups start red hot but cool as the season progresses, while others start glacier cold and heat up later. In 2026, Aberdeen Eagle Express brought a clean, vocally-strong show to the early Cavalier Classic. They finished second, beating an impressive field of challengers. Later, Eagle Express cooled and was unable to duplicate their early strong results, finishing sixth twice and missing finals once later in the season.
In contrast, Roosevelt Executive Suite finished sixth at the same Cavalier Classic, but turned up the heat by grabbing two runner-up placements and finishing within a half a point of a GC at Mitchell later in the season. One parent from a rival group said, “When we see Executive Suite the first time each season, they’re a bit of a [work in progress]. But then they always beat us the rest of the year!”
So, in 2027, when audiences jump on the South Dakota show choir ride, they better secure their lap bars. It’s anybody’s guess on any given day where any group might finish in the standings - but that’s all part of the adventure.
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