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Photos: Gym-Ex
The night before students left for Spring Break, they participated in the annual Gym Exhibition, commonly known as Gym-Ex. Students displayed talents in Folk Dancing, Tumbling, Rope Jumping, Balancing, Lemmi Sticks, and Poly Poles. Students had been practicing their events throughout all of third quarter. The evening ends with the girls singing a special song to the boys by candlelight.
Folk Dancing was led this year by Rich Sidwell and Debra Tabor, class of 1985. Students danced to three traditional folk songs: Bat Hareem, Miserlou and Mayeem, and also to the more-recent Louisiana Saturday Night. Tumbling students were coached by Rich and Angela George and showed great prowess in jumping a high-bar and turning flips and cartwheels. Rope Jumping students were coached by Cleda. They tackled double-dutch ropes and other multiple variations of ropes and the dreaded "coffee-grinder" in which ropes are turned in an X formation with four students jumping. Students in balancing were coached by Cleda and Brett Potash. They gracefully executed many formations and feats including a 5 layer human pyramid and several "flying angels," in which students leap high into the arms of a spotter with arms outspread. Lemmi Sticks involves creating a rhythm with sticks while artfully flipping and swapping them amongst participants. Two students were carefully coached on Lemmi Sticks by Cleda and Anna Suter, class of 1980. Poly Poles, an event whose name is shrouded in mystery, was coached by Cleda. Here several students sit on the ground and beat out a rhythm with long plastic poles. The poles are constantly in motion. A second group of students follow intricate steps as they dance over the poles, attempting not to get hit or disrupt the rhythm.
Each year, Cleda Mott, Alumni Director, organizes the Gym-Ex and coaches many of the events. Thank you Cleda! Many thanks also go out to all who helped prepare the students for Gym-Ex, especially Anna Suter and Debra Taber.
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