La Salle High School recently held its seventh annual follies.

The show, put on by the parents and students of the school, is an evening of various dance acts and skits.

It saw humble beginnings in 1965 at Marquette High School, a former all-boys Catholic school in Yakima. The idea was that of football coach Tom O’Brien. His team needed new helmets, and the follies was a fundraiser that became a tradition.

The follies followed O’Brien to Yakima’s Davis High School after the closure of Carroll High School, which picked up where Marquette left off, and finally to La Salle.

Several acts have been around since the beginning. The football team has always had large involvement with the show, with its freshmen taking part in a ballet act and its junior being part of a whistlers act. The seniors have traditionally danced the can-can, while a newer tradition sees the sophomores dancing to Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.”

This year’s show, held at the West Valley Junior High School auditorium, featured the theme “Shades of Blue,” which allowed for a great deal of variety. Acts included dancing, singing and skits.

This was my third year involved in the production. I participated in the freshmen ballet two years ago and “Footloose” act last year. This year, I once participated in the junior class act: “We Go Together” from the “Grease” soundtrack.

Generally, participants in the class acts practice during lunch breaks on school days. Our class was no exception; we sacrificed several weeks of such breaks to practice our routine. And in that time, it went from an ugly mess to a presentable performance.

My other contribution to this year’s show was a take on the Abbot & Costello routine “Who’s on First?” performed with my father. I realized what some of my peers might relish: The opportunity to bicker with a parent without any kind of punishment.

More than 130 students participated in 24 different acts. As always, the traditional acts were performed along with several new audience favorites, including salsa and swing dances.

But nothing got the crowd of parents and students going like the “Battle of the Bands.” Performed just before the senior can-can and subsequent finale, the act featured 10 juniors as members of the once-popular boy bands N*Sync and Backstreet Boys.

The show wrapped with all student participants dancing onstage to The Beatles’ cover of “Twist and Shout.” As the song ended, the students threw their hands in the air with a final “Yeah!” which the audience returned with roaring applause.

For the seventh time, a La Salle follies show was in the books — and a very successful one at that.

-Andy Carroll will be a senior at La Salle High School in the fall.