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JBPHH Airmen selected for Tops in Blue

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Lauren Main
  • 15th Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii --  Two Airmen from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii were selected for the Air Forces premier performing arts group, Tops in Blue.
 
Airmen 1st Class Briana Hofreiter, a financial services journeyman with the 15th Comptroller Squadron, and Jonathan Leak, a knowledge operations manager with the 692nd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing, were selected as vocalists during the January auditions.

Hofreiter, who considers herself a dancer at her core, initially sent in her choreography DVD in November 2011. It wasn't until a few weeks later that she learned from her commander that she would be heading to Lackland Air Force Base, Texas for the all call.

"Even though I'm a dancer, I had to sing as part of my audition," said Hofreiter. "I was nervous, but hopeful. I didn't entirely expect to make it, because I'd never really sang before."

Leak, on the other hand, submitted his DVD as a vocalist and sang Chris Brown's "She ain't you."

Neither Airman knew what to expect when they, along with more than 80 other Airmen from around the Air Force, began their auditions at Lackland AFB.

"When you first get there, they put you through a few different audition processes," said Leak. "They take you to this big auditorium and you have to sing the same song that you submitted on your DVD initially. It's a total of ten days worth of auditions where they have you dance, sing, harmonize and they basically test your musical abilities."

The competition is judged on six main categories: female vocalists, male vocalists, instrumentalists, musical variety, dance and non-musical variety.

The applicants are rated by a panel of judges consisting of the out-going Tops in Blue members. Of the more than 80 Airmen selected to attend the live audition, 35 Airmen were chosen to perform with the new group.

Starting March 18, Hofreiter and Leak, along with the rest of the cast, will begin to learn the process known as "staging."

"Staging is basically where you learn the procedures of how to set-up and tear down the stage for every show," she said. "We also have to learn the routine in that time too. It's going to be a lot of long days."

Regardless of the challenges that lie ahead, they are excited for the opportunity presented to them to travel the world and raise the morale of the troops they perform for.

"I can't believe it," said Leak. "It's like living in a movie."