RONAN — Could this be the final Cabaret?

Ronan Show Choir Director Cathy Gillhouse sure hopes not, but when she retires at the end of this year, it will be up to her successor to carry on the tradition that she began as a young music education teacher 30 years ago.

“I had such a talented group of kids,” Gillhouse said of that first year’s inspirational choir. “There was no other way for the community to see these kids other than concerts and concerts can be sort of boring. So, I had this idea, and every year it just grew and grew.”

Nowadays, between 800-1,000 people attend Cabaret over its three nights at the Ronan Performing Arts Center. At least five costume changes take place throughout the show, which is unique every year and highlights many different eras and genres of music and dance. Dessert is served to the audience during the show, which is why they call it “cabaret.”

“Cabaret is a French word for a group of people performing in front of an audience that is seated at tables,” Gillhouse said, stressing the show is wholesome fun and not “risqué” as some may assume.

She still remembers that first year’s performance at K. William Harvey Elementary — and that first dessert, a cherry jubilee that had usually turned into soup by the time it was served. Later on, Cabaret moved into the high school gymnasium before finding its home four years ago in Ronan’s brand new, world-class performing arts center.

“I never thought I would see an auditorium in my career,” Gillhouse said. “It has just been wonderful.”

While this year’s show is sure to be filled with the same radiant energy and top-notch performances that have filled the house in the past, it’s different from every other Cabaret in history in one respect — the date.

“Cabaret has always been on Mother’s Day weekend,” Gillhouse said. “This year, we’re a week earlier and I hope that people who come to the show every year won’t miss it.” ***

Forty and one half years ago, Gillhouse graduated in December with a degree in music education from Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo., a small-town suburb of St. Louis. She struggled to find a job in Missouri, but somebody in Charlo saw a bright future in Gillhouse.

“They hired me on the spot,” she said. “I thought, oh no, I’d never move to Montana — we just thought Montana was the end of the world.”

However, her boyfriend at the time (Jim Gillhouse, now her husband and a retired Ronan teacher and administrator himself) had been out west with the military and persuaded her to take the job in Montana.

“I was not used to rural areas or the farming lifestyle and I wasn’t planning to stay, but everyone was so good to me,” Gillhouse said. “The mountains were covered by clouds for so long until one day they opened up and I was just in a daze. I kept telling people, ‘you don’t know what you have here.’ I think I got homesick one time.”

After a few years, Gillhouse made the move to Ronan, where she’s been molding young musical talent ever since.

Her show choir may have even been the first of its kind in the state of Montana during the early ‘80s, and word spread. Pretty soon, the singing and dancing troupe from Ronan was entertaining audiences across North America.

“We were invited to the national championships in Los Angeles,” Gillhouse recalled. “I had an administrator at the time who loved music and he said to me, ‘You’re going to this.’”

So, away they went.

From Disneyland to St. Louis, Mo., and even into Canada, talented show choirs have represented Ronan on the international stage and in three national championships. With Gillhouse’s big ideas and the community’s avid support, students piled onto busses to sing the National Anthem at Seattle Sonics and Los Angeles Dodgers games, performing for nursing homes, veterans centers and residential facilities along the way.

“There got to be a point when we didn’t have to audition anymore,” Gillhouse said of the Sonics games. “They knew who we were and they knew we could sing.”

Gillhouse said she has always felt incredible support from both the Charlo and Ronan communities, as well as the school districts themselves.

“Montana values music education,” she said. “While they are making cuts in places like California and along the East Coast, music education is valued here and I haven’t faced any funding cuts that other teachers in the school aren’t facing too.”

Thanks to that great support, hundreds of students have benefitted from their involvement in choir. In fact, Ronan’s current superintendent, Andy Holmlund, was a member of one of Gillhouse’s first show choirs that traveled to the national championships in Los Angeles.

“It’s got to be one of the most rewarding jobs there is,” Gillhouse said of her career as a music teacher. “My favorite part is to see how much they grow — the transformation of when they mature and become confident performers — especially during Cabaret.”

Students will often come back years later and express to her how much their experience with show choir changed them for the better.

“I hope I’ve instilled in my students a love of music as well as a confidence that will carry them through the rest of their lives,” Gillhouse said. “I’ve seen it a hundred times — kids that didn’t think they could do anything find out they can.”

In addition to the show choir, Gillhouse directs both middle and high school concert choirs.

Seventy middle schoolers can definitely be a handful, but luckily for Gillhouse, her students are there because they want to be, and most of them work hard while having fun.

“You have to have a sense of humor and you have to be flexible,” said Gillhouse, who is now teaching the grandkids of students she once taught in Charlo. “I’m going to miss the kids and I appreciate the support I’ve had from the schools and the wonderful parents.”

Retirement was a bit of a shock, even for Gillhouse, but she has plans to stay busy. An accomplished harpist, she hopes to make more time for practicing, while taking classes at the University of Montana, traveling with her husband and volunteering. Of course, spending time with her five grandchildren is another top priority.

“My biggest concern with retirement was that I wouldn’t be able to stay busy,” she said, but her list of hobbies goes on and on.

At age 61, Gillhouse started training for triathlons and has since raced in a number of the events, which require competitors to swim, bike and run.

On April 21, Gillhouse was rounding a tight, slippery corner of the bike course in Missoula’s Grizzly Triathlon when her rear wheel shifted beneath her. Despite her best attempt to stay upright, the bike tumbled over on top of her, breaking bones in her foot in the process. The accident required her to undergo surgery on Thursday, and wear a cast.

With Cabaret coming up, the timing couldn’t have been worse for Gillhouse, but thanks to her dependable assistants, Wendy Sanders and Karla Martinson, the show will go on.

“This was a horrible time to miss school, but I’m totally confident,” she said of her big event. “Cabaret is a great tradition in our school and I hope that whoever comes in will continue it on, but every teacher has to find their own way.”