Senior retreat, Night of the Stars and graduation are often hailed as the greatest annual traditions on campus. However, for many students, the king pageant during homecoming week trumps them all.

This year’s nominees, Tyler Duerr, Tyler Revis, Tim Miller, Landon Martens and Doug Daniel danced, bashed and strutted their way to victory at the pageant, Oct. 16. By the end of the event, Martens was crowned the 2009 homecoming king.

The pageant, most famous for the “king dance,” also included rehearsed pick-up lines, a fashion show with Disney costumes, and both the king and queen bash videos. The queen candidates had their pageant Oct. 14, and the winner will be announced Oct. 16 at the football game.

The dance, several minutes long and featuring all five candidates, was choreographed by seniors Julio Ibarra, Kayla Haydock, junior Danny Ibarra and John Dinsdale, ’09. The repetoire included Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” performed by Martens, and “My Heart Will Go On,” by Celine Dion, delivered by Daniel, complete with a cheer-style lift.

“The dance was fun because I didn’t fall over and I was worried I would,” Daniel said. “I was sliding around like crazy in my socks. I had fun doing the Celine Dion song, there was nothing I would have rather done. I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t win, but not too upset.”

Having begun practice Oct. 9, the candidates met several times in order to perform the dance twice perfectly during the pageant.

“It was pretty hard to prepare for,” Martens said. “None of us knew how to dance; we were all awkward. It was pretty stressful, with this and the game. I’m so glad we did this with everybody. It’s probably the funnest thing we’ve done all year.”

Despite Martens’ uncertainty, at the end of the event he was crowned by emcees Julio Ibarra and senior Tyler Combs as the king.

“It feels pretty good to have won,” Martens said. “I didn’t even think I would get nominated.”

After individual solos, the five reassembled for a rousing rendition of “All the Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it)” by Beyonce.

“It was so much fun, going to Julio’s house and rehearsing, putting so much practice into it,” Revis said. “It totally paid off. Duerr was the best dancer because he is really coordinated and entertaining to watch.”

The performance received uproarious applause from the audience, who also welcomed an encore at the close of the event.

“The dance was hilarious. I thought Landon was actually a pretty good dancer,” sophomore Allison Camden said. “Doug doing ‘The Jerk’ was like an awesome robot chicken. My favorite part was Landon’s dance, he’s usually so quiet, so seeing him go all out and be ridiculous was great.”

The JV football game will begin Oct. 16 at 5:30, and the varsity at 7:30. Class floats, themed “happiest places on earth” will be judged at halftime. The princess and queen winners will also be announced. For more information, read the Oct. 6 article, Homecoming redefines Disneyland themes or check out the photo page. Be sure to check back next week for the videos of the queen pageant and the king dance.

King Dance ’09 from FC Video Productions