DANVILLE — Danville High School’s Dick Van Dyke Auditorium will be filled with song, dance and sparkly costumes as it plays host to the 16th annual Midwest Classic on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 3-4.

This year’s two-day premier event will gather 30-plus middle school and high school choral ensembles from across Illinois and Indiana to compete at DHS for awards in various categories.

The competition is expected to draw thousands of spectators to enjoy the entertainment of 19 high school show choirs and 10 middle school groups.

Although Danville’s own show choirs won’t compete for awards, South View Middle School’s Encore, North Ridge Middle School’s Radiant Reds and Redcoats as well as DHS’ Contemporaires and Delegation groups will show off to the hometown audience with their exhibition performances.

Contemporaires, an all-female ensemble of students in grades 9-12, and Delegation, a co-ed ensemble of students in grades 9-12, are coming off big competition wins themselves.

Both Delegation and the Contemporaires took home arms full of awards Jan. 14 at the Crete-Monee Invitational. There, the Danville show choirs competed against 12 or 13 suburban Chicago groups.

Contemporaires won awards for best vocals, best choreography and grand champion overall of the unisex division.

Delegation earned accolades for best vocals and grand champion overall.

DHS sophomore Christian Cunningham also earned awards in the Jan. 14 competition for best soloist and solo competition grand champion.

“They did an awesome job,” praised Kassandra Krause, DHS’ new show choir director. “It was an exciting time.”

Krause replaces longtime show choir director Marty Lindvahl, who retired last summer. However, she is no stranger to show choir competitions.

Before arriving in Danville, Krause was the show choir director at the middle and high schools in Manteno.

Krause said she has been pleased with how well received she has been by the community.

“It’s such a supportive community of the fine arts,” she said of Danville. “Other places cut music programs first, but here it’s so celebrated.

“The kids are great,” she added. “They’re so talented, and this area is so rich in music.”

Krause said the members of Contemporaires and Delegation work hard and practiced their show numbers for the Jan. 14 competition since the end of October.

Now the focus has turned to the Midwest Classic, an annual competition hosted by DHS and its show choirs.

It takes dozens upon dozens of local volunteers to plan out every detail of the event.

Krause said the minute one year’s competition ends, the following year’s competition is already starting to be planned.

“It’s a year-round thing,” she said. “It’s a well-oiled machine.”

On Friday evening, the middle school division competition will begin at 5:15 p.m.

South View Middle School’s Encore group will perform in exhibition first at 5:30 p.m.

Exhibition performances by the Radiant Reds and the Redcoats, both from North Ridge Middle School, will take place at 7:35 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. respectively. The awards ceremony will be held immediately after the Redcoats performance.

On Saturday night, the high school division competition will kick off at 8 a.m. with the first of 19 show choirs performing throughout the day.

The groups will compete in the categories of unisex division, small group, large group, solo competition and dance team competition.

DHS’ Contemporaires will perform in exhibition at 11:45 a.m., with Delegation performing at 6:30 p.m.

Soloist and dance team competitions will take place from 10:20 a.m. to 5:40 p.m. in DHS’ Little Theater.

Preliminary awards will be presented at 6:55 p.m., with the finals competition beginning at 8:30 p.m. and the championship awards presented at 11:45 p.m.

Coming up

The Midwest Classic kicks off with the middle school show choir competition at 5:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3 in the Dick Van Dyke Auditorium at Danville High School. The last choir group will step on stage at 9:50 p.m.

Friday admission is $6 for students, seniors and adults.

On Saturday, the high school show choir competition will begin at 8 a.m. with performances throughout the day until 6 p.m. in the Dick Van Dyke auditorium.

After the performances, awards will be given, with the top six groups performing for additional awards in the finals starting at 8:30 p.m.

Saturday prelims admission is $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.

Saturday night finals admission is $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults.

An all-day pass for Saturday is $12 for students and seniors and $16 for adults. An all-weekend pass (for both Friday’s and Saturday’s performances) is $16 for

students and seniors and $20 for adults.

Event programs are $3 each.