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Do you care about show cohesiveness?


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1 hour ago, BRASSO said:

 For years, Corps went out with no themes at all, so it was all performer based as to what we liked or didn't like, and the foucus was on performer excellence. Then Corps decided to have themes, and now even " theme specific attire ". Well. ok. I'm on board with the need for " themes ".But the irony comes about when some tell us..." well, forget the theme, as almost nobody knows what the theme and messaging is anyway, and just enjoy the performer excellence". But I already could enjoy that without the themes, and did for years and years.... lol!

 So my thoughts are... if  Corps are going to have themes, with some sort of messaging they want conveyed thru music, dance, narration, singing, or whatever, then it should be clear in the end of the show what the show was all about, and what its theme message is. If audiences are unsure what the show/ theme is, that can't be good training for future music ed educators, or future performers in the Arts, imo. Judges should notice if the theme is convoluted, or confusing, or makes little to no sense at all. Conversely, if a show theme communicates via show design, performer efforts a successful communication to most audiences, there should be some place on the judging sheets for such substantive rewarding, imo..Otherwise, lets all admit that show themes don't have to make any sense at all to most audiences to enjoy the performer excellence on display, and just pretend nobody has themes and " theme specific " attire on during the shows.. I suppose in a weird way, thats a solution to confusing and/ or convoluted themes/ messagings. Personally however, I'd  much prefer judges learn what is being communicated well, and what is not, and act accordingly with their #2 pencils. They're in the drivers seat here in regards to what is rewarded, and what is ignored as not important re. themes/ messagings. Right now, if a show is confusing to most in the audience, that is seemingly unimportant. So thats why imo, most audiences have increasingly begun to  overlook themes/ messaging, and look for something else... ie, performer excellence alone to enjoy.  if thats the case however ( and it is, imo ), well we've  come full circle now, as thats pretty much the same thing we all learned to do before themes, theme attire, and  large and costly props were created and introduced by the Corps themselves awhile back.. Oh the irony.. lol

Drum corp shows (currently) are like English papers, some are easy to read, understand and follow. It all depends on who is writing (designing) the theme! 

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5 hours ago, dbc03 said:

No, but the judges do and I like competition... so yes

Amen to that! But let's ALL REMEMBER the current judge sheets include aspects of cohesiveness.

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Watch to be entertained and don't care to think too deep about "meaning". Burn my brain out enough at work so corps watching is done to relax. 

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That is why BAC's show this year was so refreshing and easy to follow.... they were LOST then FOUND and then a Giant Tidal Wave got them in the end...  :tounge2:

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20 hours ago, Moomitch said:

I am curious to hear from you all about this. Do you care about the cohesiveness of a show concept? There is a lot of praise for BD's design, but I have a hard time buying in. To me, it seems like they are going for a collection of moments, and fitting those moments to their show theme. This is in contrast to a show like Session 44 which feels almost all driven by the show concept. The execution and performance of both of these shows is fantastic, but I find the transitions in BD's show really jarring, and the moments to be only loosely related to their overall theme. 

Actually, a collection of moments was kind of the point of the show. Sections that set a mood for each of the four characters, who are then brought together to reside in the painting during a cohesive ending. 

By nature, some of the transitions had to be a bit jarring because they were musically and visually illustrating different personalities. In some cases, they used visual transitions instead of musical ones to improve the flow. 

They gave themselves a really difficult task of attempting to convey so much distinct information in such a short time, but it was generally successful and most seemed to understand the Reporter, Criminal, love interest Woman and Army Guy. And then you see them in the painting and think of them in a new way. Pretty fun stuff.

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Go back far enough and a corps repertoire might be:

Legend of the One Eyed Sailor

Ice Castles

1812 Overture

<insert corps song here>

 

Given the choice between no programming and too much programming, I'll choose too much programming. But it doesn't need to go to the extremes some corps go to today to make me happy.

 

 

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Programs aren’t cohesive now.   All I hear is ten minutes of mashup.

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