Carl306 Posted January 11, 2008 Share Posted January 11, 2008 Never cared for it in '04 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lancerlady Posted January 12, 2008 Share Posted January 12, 2008 (edited) Never cared for it in '04 Well you're a front line guy, so I can see why you didn't like marching on to the field. (JK) You're weren't supposed to like it, it's a testing of your patience. It was something you were doing for the audience and not yourself. It was a spectacle for the audience seeing all the corp sout on the field in all the different colors. The pagentary and yet now the splendor is gone. Okay, I'm done now! Edited January 12, 2008 by Lancerlady Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BD2Rings Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 Retreat was the grand finale of the show. Everybody was on the field at one time. To me, it is similar to the opening and closing ceremony celebrations of the Olympics. This is not based on the benefit to the marchers. This was part of making our activity the grand spectator spectacle that is was, and still should be. It was all part of the show, and the fans loved it. Each corps played themselves off, in reverse order of finish. Many corps used this as an additional presentation of themselves, as well as paying their respects to the victor. If you had heart string ties to 27th Lancers, would you not get a kick out of them playing Danny Boy again? How about Santa Clara and their Fiddler music, or thrill of thrills, Send in the Clowns? How about if Vanguard turned their entire horn line towards the victor to play? One of my all time favorite retreat moments was at '76 DCI Finals. Madison chose to play their corps song 'You'll Never Walk Alone'. The biggest joy was when the soprano soloist turned and played his solo directly at us. The field was largely empty at this time, and the sound of his solo reverberated throughout the entire stadium. One of the biggest class acts of my drum corps career. It was a sad day when retreat went away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pit_Girl_77 Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 I love full retreat, loved doing it and being on the field with the big boys and messing with folks. It adds closer to the show, the crowd gets to show their appriciation and opinions on the scores. I think the real thing that killed retreat was the internet-folks in the stands can go home and log in to get scores, all while beating the traffic out of the stadium. Along with the sometimes 30 minutes of dead time to get everyone lined up to go back on the field...No one in the stands, no point in having retreat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 I love full retreat, loved doing it and being on the field with the big boys and messing with folks. It adds closer to the show, the crowd gets to show their appriciation and opinions on the scores.I think the real thing that killed retreat was the internet-folks in the stands can go home and log in to get scores, all while beating the traffic out of the stadium. Along with the sometimes 30 minutes of dead time to get everyone lined up to go back on the field...No one in the stands, no point in having retreat. I have to say I liked retreat better as a spectator than a member (although standing on the field and seeing Pepe next to us was worth the effort!) But - knowing how nuts the travel schedules are now, I have to bow to the idea that the members might get a little extra floor time. Not sure if this has actually happened in fact. I didn't feel like it did when I was on staff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BD2Rings Posted January 29, 2008 Share Posted January 29, 2008 I think the original argument was to benefit the lower placing corps. If mid season, your corps was ranked about 11th or so amongst the big corps, odds are that your corps would be scheduled to be on roughly 2nd at a show with 12 corps. Your corps would have to show up considerably earlier for the evening performance than say the top 3. So your corps didn't get as much rehearsal time prior to the show as say the top 3. Your corps would then perform, and have a couple or even a few hours dead time waiting for retreat. You'd go out for retreat, get your placement, and then scramble on to the busses for an all night ride to the next destination. Your corps would probably have to go on earlier in this next performance too. So there was this cumulative effect of your corps continuously getting less rehearsal time than those that won. I think the argument was that if this 11th place corps was only required to do a drum majors only retreat, the busses could leave ASAP after their performance and only the drum major and some DM specific transportation needed to remain for retreat. This corps would conceivably be on the road 2-3 hours before the top corps, the drum major specific transportation could hopefully catch up as it wasn't a bus, and the corps would theoretically gain some degree of equality based on rehearsal time, compared with the top corps. Whether or not this is actually done is another discussion. Now I can see some benefit in rehearsal time as I explained above, but the corps that finish say 6-12 would then lose the ability to watch the higher tier corps, which I use to enjoy back when. Granted the higher tier corps never get to watch the other corps, so maybe this argument is a wash. I do wonder if the corps that are not in the top 3 or top six actually do leave before the scores are announced. Hopefully their busses have radio or some other form of communication so the corps members can learn of their placement while in transit, rather than waiting until they reach their destination. This is why the drum major only retreats were introduced, and also why other experiments, such as the random shuffle of corps performance orders were tried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
show_mellow Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I miss playing America/O Canada... I know some of you think that's weird... but I seriously get a little depressed when I hear the tune in my head. *sigh* to each his own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tekneek Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 I liked it as a fan AND as a member. I won't deny sometimes being excited when it got canceled, but I wasn't upset when we had to do it. I wouldn't want to bother if we just played some mass song and then left the field. It was important to me that we played something as we left the field. The lack of full retreats with each corps playing off the field is just another part of drum corps tradition that DCI has done away with. It is really the cumulative effect of all these changes that has turned me off, not one of them by themselves. The allowance of electronics in addition to all of the other changes has more than likely finished me off as a fan. Add back in full retreats at every show with each corps playing off the field and I would at least think about hanging around a bit longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markdewine Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 Full retreat, and the corps playing to the victor, was one of the last great traditions of drum corps. And we all know that in the DCI of today..."tradition" is a dirty word. Too bad... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kusankusho Posted February 12, 2008 Share Posted February 12, 2008 Full retreat, and the corps playing to the victor, was one of the last great traditions of drum corps. And we all know that in the DCI of today..."tradition" is a dirty word. Too bad... With travel schedules being what they are now, it's a tradition I'm willing to sacrifice if the kids get more floor time at the next housing. That has been called into question though. Better solution, less insane travel schedules, more floor time without cutting out retreat. Cheaper, less stressful, more fun for the audience. There - cracked it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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