Texas Rose Festival Tom Brown president Tom Brown poses for a photo with members of the Queen's court during a rehearsal for the Rose Queen coronation Thursday, July 14, 2022, at Dance-N-Drill in Tyler (Les Hassell/News-Journal Photo)

The Texas Rose Festival court has been busy in a local dance studio practicing choreography for the big festival set for October.

This year will be the 89th annual Rose Festival and the theme is “Empires of Enchantment.” This year’s court includes Queen Molly Louise Berry, Princess Olivia Bristol Young, Duchess of the Rose Growers Hadley Hills Brewer, along with the Ladies-in-Waiting and Attendants of the Queen.

Dance-N-Drill Studio Owner Lynn Ramey has been working on directing, blocking and teaching the court what they will be doing on stage during the Rose Festival.

“It’s all about posture and movement and posing, blocking, looking and moving beautifully,” Ramey said.

Ramey has been the choreographer for the Rose Festival for 24 years. Ramey teaches the entire court, including the children.

“There is a lot of hard work that the audience would never probably understand unless you watch. It’s very specific, it’s very detailed,” Ramey said. “Each participant has something unique to her choreography and her bows, and we put in hours of practice.”

Each girl has her own poses that Ramey works to create based off of the dresses, music they’re going to perform with and script. Ramey then works one-on-one with the girls to teach them their poses.

Ramey said despite all the hard work and hours they put in, it’s a lot less than it used to be because of college students’ busy schedules.

“A lot of them have summer school, internships, travel abroad, so we only get them for a limited time in the summer, but we have to really work hard while we’re here,” Ramey said.

Ramey said they practice for a total of four days before the festival in October.

The court was also excited to be practicing this week. Brewer said it’s fun to practice alongside the other members of the court and “watch it all come together.”

Brewer was involved with the Rose Festival with her sister when they were children. Her grandmother and mother were also involved. Brewer said it’s exciting to keep the legacy going and be in it now as a Duchess.

Ramey said she loves being a part of the festival more every year. She said she enjoys promoting and being part of the Tyler community, meeting new people and doing what she feels like God has blessed her with.

Ramey is not from Tyler but said the festival is special because of the history and her family’s involvement. Ramey said her husband’s grandfather helped found the Rose Festival and her former dance teacher was the former director and choreographer for the festival.

“Getting to step into his shoes and do what he did when I admired him so much is really extra special as well,” Ramey said.