As winter approaches, the winter color guard teams are up to showcase their talents in a series of competitions. They choreograph dances and have props and equipment to showcase different scenes and storylines of routines that are developed from a single theme. While the winter guard is a part of the marching band and other showcases throughout the fall season, in the winter season, they get to present their performances alone.
“There are a lot of things that go into the creative process of putting together our show but first there has to be inspiration,” color guard coach Jacqueline Pollard said. “That can come from a concept or story that we want to tell, or come from a song that we connect to and ideas just start connecting to it. Once we have that first idea, we develop the concept further with costuming, flag design, props, staging and choreography.”
At the beginning of the season, the team was given a theme from Pollard, and throughout the season they will construct performance pieces based solely on that theme, which is based on the song Dandelions by Ruth B. Their flags, costumes and routine will go along with it.
“Our song and theme this year is very flowery and flowy and it’s about an expressive love story with a dandelion-type theme.”
Competitions will mainly be held in high schools around the metro, despite the winter guard not being in the Metro Conference and some competitions will be held out of state. This will provide new competition and challenges for the team. The season’s first competition will be held at Gretna East on Feb 3. After that, they will travel to several other locations to compete.
“Our main goal is to compete against as many other schools as possible,” sophomore Sonia Morales-Sanchez said. “We’re not just competing around the same people and getting the same advice.”
When the show comes together, a performance as well as an art piece, is made. There are a total of seven people on the team and they work together to demonstrate their talents. Most team members are experienced, but others, such as some of the freshmen, are new to the activity. To help prepare them, the team will watch other schools’ showcases to help enhance their performance.
“An important step in being able to create [a story line for a performance] is by watching and appreciating the shows that other teams create and exposing yourself to as many different ways to do this activity as possible so that you can grow and be inspired,” Pollard said.
During each competition performance, the judges will take notes, write down their scores and discuss them with each other, but it is only at the end of the competition that teams will be critiqued and scores will be revealed.
There are five judges at every performance: one judges movement, one equipment (flags, rifles, etc), one Design Analysis (the story and how well the performers communicate the story through body and equipment as a series of events) and two judges for General Effect (the way everything performed combines to create entertainment value. General Effect is a part of the judging system that rewards the extent the audience is interested, involved, entertained, or emotionally engaged in the program.
“In the off-season, we [winter guard members] are just the sub for marching band, but for winter guard we are the main show,” Morales-Sanchez said. “We will play music, start to dance and throw our flags around, making up a story to gather our audience. So then we can get a good score and represent our school well.”
