By By JOHN EBY / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC – Gary Cech says Dowagiac heard, saw and felt in the Young Americans' last Midwest show the "most powerful performers in the world."
"They have the opportunity to change lives," he figures.
The 47-member troupe received a standing ovation after their show and another after their collaboration with 172 local students from grades 4-12 before an overflow crowd Tuesday night at Dowagiac Middle School Performing Arts Center.
Cech turned his back on the audience briefly at the close of the 2 1/2-hour performance to serenade in prayer the departing Young Americans, but mostly he sang Dowagiac's praises.
"I want to compliment the community of Dowagiac for what you do to support the arts," he said.
"The fact that this is the first time we've been here and you filled this (Performing Arts Center) to capacity is a tribute to you and to what you do to support your children.
"There's a battle all over this country to diminish the arts in importance. When opportunities come, I hope you will continue this enthusiasm you've shown tonight so you can see what impact it makes on your children. These are life-changing events that will be remembered for years and years to come, and they learned it in about 11 hours. Your kids are awesome!"
"You have this moment to hold" as a reminder of what they can achieve and overcome, Cech told row upon row of youngsters, who in closing went down like dominoes in a blend of a bow and The Wave.
"Tonight you were stars. Don't let anything hold you back," said Cech, from Flint and associate director to 1973 Niles graduate Bill Brawley.
Cech was a Young American with Brawley in 1973-75.
In 1969, one of the current performer's mothers was a Young American.
Mom happens to be singing the same song now on Broadway in Oprah Winfrey's "The Color Purple," she said during the gospel set.
"What a great town to have as our last show on this tour," and not just because Dowagiac is "fun to say," Cech said. "You guys have been so hospitable."
"This cast has been together since September," Cech said.
"This cast was put together for this Midwest tour and this is the last night."
Young Americans is completing a 19-stop tour which recently included Niles, East Jordan and Wayland before heading back to the West Coast, where all the troupes will be reunited for a holiday show.
Eight to 10 from Niles repeated the wonderful experience being part of the group.
"Some will be going on to California, some will be going home. Some are going on the next tour (from January to April), some will be in the resident company. That's the beauty of the Young Americans: Every tour is unique."
"There are about 70 brand-new Young Americans who joined the group in August. They are rehearsing for their first show, the New Kids Show, beginning Monday. When they fly back on Thursday, they have a big convention show on Friday and join other cast members from Germany. It's a big family. You're saying hello and goodbye to people all the time. It's a wonderful organization."
Founded in 1962 in California by Milton C. Anderson, who is now 80, the Young Americans have come from Alaska to Florida, but mostly from the Midwest, Cech said.
Snips of songs shower the stage like confetti as they whirl without pause through enough material for several shows.
The easiest way to pick out Young Americans in the teeming mob onstage is the infectious excitement they radiate.
The calisthenics and cacophony crescendo so fast that the room itself seems to be spinning.
Are they acrobats who can sing or musicians whose springy legs are half Tigger?
Typical of the frenetic pace is "I Can See Clearly Now" seguing into a Beach Boys medley heralding their California roots, including "Surfin' Safari" and "Surfin' USA," plus "Wipe Out," as yellow beach balls carom into the audience from the sunny set.
Then wiped clean like an Etch-a-Sketch, the yellow vista becomes bathed in blood-red light for the streets of Chicago and sinister dancers dressed like Eminem who look like the hip-hop updating of "West Side Story."
The stage brightens again as action shifts to Disney World, for which the performers don Mickey Mouse ears and fill the air with "Zippity Doo-Dahs" and "Bippity Boppity Boos."
Nashville is the next stop on this tuneful travelogue, with a 15-black hat salute to Gretchen Wilson and other "Redneck Women" and Rascal Flatts and their gang.
Of course, no Michigan stop would be complete without Detroit's Motown sound, including the Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Jackson Five, Tina Turner on the rough side of "Proud Mary," James Brown and the exuberant "Shout" like Otis Day and the Knights would perform it at Delta House.
Next stop, Broadway, the Great White Way, 42nd Street, with the guys and gals alike clad in white tuxedoes tap dancing furiously.
All those white figures gyrating like windmills looked like an early winter blizzard of snowflakes, similar but no two alike.
The final destination on this whirlwind musical exploration delivered Dowagiac to the South for powerful gospel renditions, so quiet on the high notes it was as if the audience was holding its breath.
The first half of this Three-Dog Night concluded with "Joy to the World," the women swirling in silky white dresses.
The back nine of this golf course of the mind began like being dropped from outer space into the Grand Old City, landing in front of the 2005 Dowagiac Middle School, with the big screen rising to reveal students swarming into position for a stomping opener and some free association – just how would trees which won the lottery look?
Then it's time to travel again at a breathless pace. Postcards fly by from France, Germany, Japan, Scotland and England as the next touchdown seems to be in Colorado judging from John Denver's "Country Roads."
Other characters flit by at a dizzying rate – Peter Pan, Little Orphan Annie, Beauty and the Beast, The Wiz and an acrobat standing in for Dick Van Dyke cavorting with penguins in a "Mary Poppins" homage.
After a brief respite to pie a clown, this time-traveling train chugs on through decades of dance – the Charleston, "In the Mood," "Rock Around the Clock," "Tutti Fruiti," disco's "Stayin' Alive," Madonna's "Material Girl," the dawn of MTV in 1981 and Sugarhill Gang's seminal "Rapper's Delight."