Color Guard

High School

I saw color guard for the first time when I was in 5th grade. The high school band in my school district used to do a performance of their competitive show at the 5th/6th grade school every fall. (By the time I got to high school this wasn't done anymore.) I was fascinated watching the girls dancing on the field with flags and other equipment, since I'd been taking dance classes for 6 years and enjoyed any sort of dance performance. I had a passing thought that this would be a fun activity to learn, but I didn't really think about it again for another few years.

When I got to the end of 8th grade I remember hearing a few announcements in my middle school band class about joining the color guard section of the marching band, but I had already committed myself to marching the flute so I ignored it. On top of that, only 2 girls from my grade were planning to do color guard, and I didn't know either one very well. Once I got to the high school marching band I learned quickly that the guard was a group of mainly upperclassmen who didn't have the greatest reputations and most of them weren't very good. I was still fascinated watching the flag, rifle, sabre, and dance skills they performed but my intrigue with it wasn't enough to convince me to get involved with that group. More than half of the guard graduated after that school year and a bunch more quit. So few joined the following year that the guard had only 9 members my sophomore year. Plus, they had had three different coaches in three years and the current coach wasn't sticking around either.

At the end of my sophomore year marching season the band director decided to make a big push to improve the color guard program. After two disappointing marching seasons he knew that one major problem that needed to be addressed was improving the color guard program. No matter how good the horn and percussion players were, the band would never reach it's full potential if the guard program wasn't up to par. He found a new instructor who was enthusiastic and committed and persuaded her to hold color guard practices through the winter to introduce the basic skills to potential members. When he told the band about this I was intrigued again and thought that maybe the color guard would finally be worth joining. It seemed there would be a change in the group dynamics and attitude. Plus I had 10 years of dance training and 2 years of marching experience under my belt, which meant I only had to learn to spin and toss the equipment. I would have less ground to cover learning a new activity halfway through high school.

I went to the color guard winter practices and gave it a try. I didn't feel like I learned very much but I liked all the other people that were trying it out too. I didn't really want to get too attached to color guard. I was thinking ahead to my senior year and based on the skills of the other flutes in my grade I was pretty much a shoe-in for flute section leader that year. As much fun as color guard sounded I didn't want to give up my chance at such a leadership position.

When June came and it was time to get the next year's marching band season kicked off I got set to spend another season in the flute section. Unfortunately, only 4 girls showed up to the color guard informational meeting and the band director threw a fit at our band class the next day about how after all he'd been doing to get this program improved no one was willing to take a chance on it. He knew I had dance training and had been attending the winter practices and was probably hoping I would do guard. It probably wasn't but I certainly felt that his rant was directly at me. At the end of the band class I swallowed my pride and told the band director that I would do color guard. When I went home and told my parents that night they were a little uncertain that this was a good change to make as a junior, but was mind was made up. Honestly, I still missed dance and doing color guard would give me a chance to dance again. On top of that I wasn't very happy with many of the girls in the flute section and some of the girls who I knew were joining color guard were friends and people I knew to have positive attitudes. It seemed like a group I would fit with better. Plus, I liked the idea of being part of reinventing something. I felt like I'd make a bigger difference in the band doing color guard than if I just stayed as one more flute player.

It was the best decision I ever made in my life. Learning to spin flag was a mental and physical challenge. The coaches had a lot of ground to cover in a very short time, having to get 10 brand new guard members out of 14 total ready to learn a full marching band show in less than 2 months. We had rehearsals for three hours every Monday and Wednesday night. We did countless drop spins and other basic exercises and I had a particularly hard time with tossing at first. But within a few weeks the group had become fast friends and even though it was hard work I always felt good at guard rehearsals. Learning a marching band show for the first time in the guard was magical. I felt like I was learning marching band for the first time all over again and I began to remember why I loved it so much. I loved how the flag movements seemed to fit perfectly with the music, sailing up and down and around in circles. I felt as if I was sailing on the music with my flag. And being able to perform dance again, with or without a flag, was amazing.

It was the best marching band season I'd had so far. I loved learning new guard skills and it made band rehearsals less tedious than it had been in the flute section. Band competitions were more fun too and I definitely enjoyed hanging out with the color guard girls in the bus, before warm-up, and after the performance. I was thrilled to let the good times continue doing color guard into the winter for the indoor competitive season. Winter color guard, or winterguard, turned out to be an entirely different ball game, but just as fun. Winterguard is color guard performed indoors without the band. We perform to recorded music in a gymnasium and similar to marching band, winterguard shows are elaborate and theatrical, expressing their story or theme through music, dance, equipment, costume, and backdrops. Winterguards perform on a vinyl floor tarp that’s painted to fit the show theme and used for drill placement. 

My first winterguard season was a little rough, since most of us had never done winterguard before and it was the first winterguard show our coach had designed. Our show was called "Better Dating Through Technology," set to an alternative rock song by our coach's cousin's band. The show explored how teenage communication, especially with regard to dating relationships, has evolved over the years from note passing to e-mail to instant messaging to text messaging. We had large note, e-mail, IM, and cell phone props that we brought out and displayed throughout the show. It was an amusing concept and it was fun to tell the story through the guard show. Learning the drill had quite a lot of trial and error and the flag, sabre, and dance work was much more complicated than in the fall. I faced a bit of frustration trying to master some of the new skills but I was proud of my accomplishments. I was excited to toss a double on sabre (a toss that spins twice in the air before catching) and I even had a dance solo at the beginning.

The organization for competitive color guard in Michigan is called the Michigan Color Guard Circuit (MCGC) and it has several different levels for color guards based on skill level and age. We started in the lowest level for high school guards back then, Michigan IA class, but the judges moved us up a level after the first performance to Michigan AA class. At the state championships we placed 8th out of 15 or so guards in Michigan AA, a respectable finish for a brand new guard.

If you remember, the one thing that made me unsure about joining color guard was giving up the opportunity to be flute section leader. I wanted to hold a leadership position in the band before I graduated, but I didn't think that would happen for color guard after only being in it for one year. But in the end the stars aligned to make that happen too. The color guard has two captains, unlike all the other sections with one section leader. There were two juniors on the guard who had more experience than I did, but only one of them was going to return to guard senior year. Everyone expected the other girl, Kaitlyn, the only junior to have done color guard since freshman year, to be a captain. But the other position was up in the air. Soon it became apparent that out of all the other new juniors I had the strongest guard skills and was the best leader. I was excited but not entirely surprised when I was picked as the other captain, and all the other girls were happy with the choice. I took the position very seriously and worked hard to set a good example and help out the other girls as much as I could. 

Gradually over that first year and a half that I was in color guard, the negative reputation that the Novi guard had began to fade away. The band members willingly acknowledged that we were a fun group of people, we worked hard, and the improvements we made in such a short time were amazing. But I didn't realize just how much color guard had gained recognition until no fewer than 30 girls chose to join winterguard that year. It was exciting to think that so many were interested, but 30 was a huge group to work with. But we managed and the show actually turned out to be amazing. Our coach had designed a show meant to display the joy she felt about being involved in color guard and coaching us, performed to Ben Folds's "The Luckiest." I hadn't heard this song prior to learning this show, but once I did I realized that this song described very well my own feelings about color guard as well. Every time I performed this show I felt an outpouring of joy and love and I let it carry me through. The coaches did a wonderful job of teaching the new people the basics they needed to know and splitting the guard into several featured groups to display the more advanced skills of experienced members. I had a dance solo to open the show again and was a featured dancer and sabre later in the show as well. At the end of the show the 6 seniors and one younger girl who was moving at the end of year came together at front and center. It was a beautiful show. Here's the song with lyrics.

College

Just like marching band, I contemplated the idea of continuing with winterguard in college, but didn't take it seriously right away. Unlike marching band, not all colleges have winterguards. To continue with guard after high school you often have to join an independent program, which usually rehearse all day every Saturday and Sunday from November to April. It's a grueling schedule and it's difficult to have a social life in college with it too. I was somewhat interested in auditioning for one of the independent color guards in Michigan since there were a couple good ones, but I wasn't too keen on the rehearsal schedule. I would have preferred joining a color guard affiliated with whatever college I attended. Once I decided on MSU I looked into whether or not they had a winterguard. They did, a group called MSU Expression, but it was student-run and not very good and I wasn't sure I wanted to deal with that. But when I attended the Performing Arts Camp the summer before starting college I learned that the guard coach for the MSU marching band was planning to take over the winterguard and improve it. It would have a new name, State of Art, and he promised it would be good. I was thrilled.

After having so much fun my first season with the SMB, making lots of friends, and learning a lot from the coach I was excited to try out for State of Art. I made it without a problem and even got to be on the rifle line. (I finally learned to toss higher than a double on weapon that year.) The show we did was to a song called "Songbird," by Eva Cassidy. It was a graceful, lyrical song about falling in love, but our coach used the metaphor of singing and melody that appears in the song to create a visual motif for the show based on reading music. As the show progressed we pulled black fabric lines across the floor and pulled back parts of the tarp to reveal the lines of a music staff. At the end of the show we laid down our flags to look like music notes on the staff. 

It was a much more complicated show than either of the ones I did in high school. At all times in the show there were 2 or more groups performing different choreography, sometimes on different equipment or dancing. We did quite a bit of weight sharing partner work and formations sometimes wove in and out of each other dangerously. It felt as if every count of music had a movement assigned to it and everything we did had to be with clear intention. I had seen guard shows that were this complex and wanted to be able to do them, but actually learning one was a different story. But I was determined and I was successful. Giving this much attention to the details of the music and movement made the performance feel stronger and richer. And the judges seemed to agree. At the state championships we were the clear 1st place winners in Collegiate class. MSU's winterguard was on it's way.

I was on State of Art for three more years and every year the show became much more challenging and complicated than the year before. My equipment and dance skills were pushed to their limits many times, but each show I did made me stronger and prepared me to tackle the challenge of the next year's show. Sophomore year we tried a different style of music and movement, performing to Bjork's "Hidden Place." We got an innovative new dance choreographer (who would work with us every year after that). We threw higher tosses (I was up to quads now) and threw flags and rifles to each other. We also now had the baton twirler from the marching band on the winterguard and our show became more impressive because she was there to do exciting twirling inspired tricks. We got 1st at states again and kept moving forward.

Junior year our coach told us we would perform at the nationals for the first time and as a result had to move up from Collegiate class into Independent A class, the first of the three classes for the Winterguard International (WGI), the international color guard competitive organization. Now that we were competing on the national level we really had to step things up. We had sabre for the first time, a few lifts, throws, and other gymnastics-type moves incorporated into our dance choreography. I helped lift a girl in the air, caught another girl who was basket-tossed, and flipped over another girls back to name a few. The show was called "Follow the Lead," and had many follow-the-leader visual motifs. It was set to the song "The Moment I Said It" by Imogen Heap. We attacked the learning process with determination, as we always did, but none of us had any idea of how far we could possibly go. Then at the WGI regional we attended that year we surprised everyone by beating out all other Independent A guards, which included all of Michigan’s other Independent A guards and a couple from other Midwest states. After that competition our coach told us that he thought we had a good shot at making finals (the top 15 in our class) at Worlds. It was an unbelievably exciting prospect. But it seemed even more possible when we took first place at states in this new class, beating out color guards that had been around much longer than us.

On the first day of the world championships in Dayton, OH early in the morning. We performed in prelims that afternoon and felt pretty good about how it went, just hoping it was good enough to move on to semis. I’ll never forget when our coach came and found us as we were getting ready to have our pictures taken. He huddled us all together and said, in a forced calm voice, attempting to contain his excitement and surprise us, “Guess what, guys. You got a 92 and you’re seated in first place out of everyone.” We erupted into girlish shrieks of joy. At semis the next day we were even better and came out first again. Finals were the same day in the evening and we went into it with a feeling of sheer excitement, hardly daring to hope that we’d keep our position through finals. The finals performance felt amazing, every spin, toss, and dance move felt solid (at least for me). I could hear the audience cheering like crazy throughout the whole thing. It was a nerve wracking awards ceremony because we had to wait all the way to the end to hear our results. When the announcer got down to the top three we all held hands down the line and squeezed really hard. The guard that came into finals in 2nd was called Salem Blue, so when 2nd place was announced we had an extra half second of anticipation as the announcer pronounced that initial ‘S’ sound of the name and we waited to hear what came next. When we heard that 2nd place was Salem Blue we squeezed our hands even harder, knowing that we had indeed done the unthinkable and won. Standing up there on the red carpet getting the gold medals hung around our necks, I realized how incredible this accomplishment really was. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.

Winning Independent A class meant that we moved up the following year to Independent Open class. As difficult as this show was I think it might be my favorite. It was set to music from the soundtrack of the movie "Angels and Demons," but the concept our coach had us illustrate inspired by the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. He wanted us to picture that we were like Orpheus, having fallen into the Underworld and having to fight our way out. More abstractly we were trying to show the idea of falling into pain and struggle, fighting your way out, and succeeding. I loved Greek myths and I loved the music when I heard it. The coach brought in one of the acting professors to help us develop the right characterization. We had to have an intense, angry, almost evil persona in the first part of the show as we played the forces fighting against a person trying to get out of their struggle. In the second half of the show we developed a more determined longing persona as the person started to succeed. Also, about two months before the winterguard season started I went through a break-up with my boyfriend. I was still struggling to get past it at the beginning of winterguard season, but learning and performing this show actually became cathartic for my feelings. I was able to release my pent up frustration through the angry character, the intense choreography, and the powerful music.

Our world championships experience that year wasn't nearly as joyous as the year before. We faced more of a struggle against the competition in Independent Open and our rehearsals were much less relaxed. We had lots of mistakes in our prelims and semi-finals performances, but managed to make into finals in 14th place. The finals performance was the best it had been all season and we managed to move up a place and finish 13th. In the past two years since I graduated, State of Art has continued to improve and hold their own in Independent Open class, finishing 7th in 2011 and 8th in 2012. In the span of 6 years, State of Art has grown from a new surprisingly good Collegiate guard to one of the best winterguards in the state, a guard that Michigan high schoolers dream about joining. I'm proud to call myself a founding member. Here's a video clip of a news story about State of Art my senior year on one of Detroit's local stations:

The last two years since I graduated college I've moved on from being a guard performer to a guard instructor. I was brought on to coach a 5th-7th grade color guard in the school district I grew up in, which has turned out to be a wonderful experience. The students I teach only perform in exhibition for no score at winterguard competitions, but they have lots of enthusiasm and are so impressed by the more advanced color guards they get to watch. Even though I only teach them basic flag and dance skills I still try to make their shows have expression and meaning. The first year I coached them they performed to Shakira's "Waka Waka: This Time for Africa," which was written for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I studied abroad in South Africa during the World Cup in the summer of 2010 so this was a song that had a lot of meaning for me. Last year I created a show to one of my favorite songs, Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten," a song that describes well how I feel about many things in my life and has an inspiring message for the girls I coach.

Winterguard is the activity that truly strengthened my sensitivities to the emotional and thematic potential of music. I reached an advanced enough level in color guard that I've learned to imagine the choreographic and show design possibilities of music I listen to. I'm planning to keep coaching color guard for several more years (depending on where my career takes me it might not always be with my current guard) and every year I try to push myself harder to be more creative in the shows I design.