DCImonkey Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 Class is in the eye of the beholder. Cadets do look classy, but as has been previously mentioned, they did freeform retreats for many years. Cavies were having a ton of fun killing each other with swords during their block. It was great Crown and Cavies both participated in the "WAVE" with the crowd. That's not bad if you ask me. Cadets are all about business now. However I thought it was a tad not-so-classy as they were marching down the hill prior to Gate, "HUT HUT HUT" loud as crap as SCV was on the field. How bout keeping it down a little guys? I can hear you and I was at the top of the bleachers. I know there wasn't Ill intent...but still. Courtesy BLUECOATS! Ya'll seriously...that prehype crap totally ruined a moment in Bluestars show! That honestly should be a penalty for being THAT loud right outside the gate. At least Cavies did their SPLOOIE far away. I could still faintly hear them though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salad315 Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 Cadets are all about business now. However I thought it was a tad not-so-classy as they were marching down the hill prior to Gate, "HUT HUT HUT" loud as crap as SCV was on the field. How bout keeping it down a little guys? I can hear you and I was at the top of the bleachers. I know there wasn't Ill intent...but still. Courtesy I've never heard the cadets dut like that. We always made fun of them because they did this weird hissing to stay in step, but i've never heard them dut or hut in a block (now glassmen have a REALLY weird way of dutting....we used to use it in rehearsal for tapoffs) I guess you were there...i just cant imagine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwillpayne Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 I have actually always remembered the Cadets doing free form kinds of things during retreat, which i am sure was a lot more relaxing on their kids.... last night, they were off the field SO Quickly. It almost looked like they were pouting, taking their ball, and going home. I felt bad for the kids who may have wanted to go and congratulate their friends or school mates...... Finals retreat should be a celebration an And in terms of HILLARIOUS stuff going on last night, how about half of the cavaliers hornline falling over when the crowd erupted in hearing that BD was second place!!! That was absolutely hysterical!! And the Madison bass drum thing was cool....until they weren;t in step with each other after 20 steps..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
salad315 Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 I have actually always remembered the Cadets doing free form kinds of things during retreat, which i am sure was a lot more relaxing on their kids....last night, they were off the field SO Quickly. It almost looked like they were pouting, taking their ball, and going home. I felt bad for the kids who may have wanted to go and congratulate their friends or school mates...... Its been that way for a long time, and i doubt it has anything to do with being 'pouty'. I prefer it to the corps that hang around for an hour and delay the encore myself. Better yet would be the corps playing themselves off, but obviously that isnt possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxfreq1128 Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 (edited) I dunno y'all, in the video that I've seen, it looks like as soon as BD was announced 2nd place, members of the Cavaliers started mocking the tightrope thing, which seemed kind of lame. Then again, when PR's score was announced and it was realized how ridiculously close the scores were, the BD members looked like they were having a fit. That's gotta hurt! Oh well . . . At least the guard won. Edited August 11, 2008 by saxfreq1128 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phillygwm Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 Full retreat at every show? Have you marched? Like really... it's nice for the fans but lets be honest... it's kinda a pain on the members. lol. just being honest. I agree with you. When I marched (stone age: mid-80's) retreats were a pain. And today, as a fan, retreats are mostly a wasted opportunity. DCI needs to make a decision: either tighten up the process by taking the "America" seriously, and bring back the practice of letting corps promptly play themselves off the field, or put the whole concept out of its misery and come up with something more enjoyable for both members and fans. The tradition has been so watered down at this point that the time would be better spent (from a fan perspective, at least) watching the 13th place corps or an outside group do an exhibition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaq9195 Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 I have actually always remembered the Cadets doing free form kinds of things during retreat, which i am sure was a lot more relaxing on their kids.... Not always the case. I remember picking a few bad poses that made me a little sore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaq9195 Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 The Cadets used a "freeform retreat" from 1989 to (I think) 1994. It was inspired by the free form drill moves in the Les Mis show. The horn line would freeze in a pose. The horn sergeant would instruct you to change poses after a few minutes. There were definitely some memorable ones, such as the guy who held up two contras for an entire pose.I think they stopped it because it had stopped being novel and started to just look sloppy. I don't think they intended it be disrespectful, but I remember discussing it with some people on RAMD at the time who took it that way. We did freeform retreats in 1995 as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgeHester Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 we usually just were relaxed in retreat... and I'm pretty sure it's very similar now as it was when I aged out 10 years ago. I can see how people perceive us as "mocking" the other corps, but that's kind of what we do. But we do it as subtly as possible. Yeah there are times it went a little too far but I wouldn't call any of it disrespectful. In many ways, it's just a matter of opinion. What was great was that we would get out there and line up and it wasn't that we didn't have a plan... but sometimes (when it wasn't me) whoever made the calls to 'step off' and 'halt' would make it much more interesting than the monotonous "1, 2, ready, move" and it made retreat that much easier to get through. Of course, when I marched we had retreat 32 times a year. :) Did anyone catch Bluecoats in 2004 as they entered the field for finals retreat? I vaguely remember them putting together a tetris sequence as they came on! I didn't see it because I was with the staff in the back field, but I heard it was pretty cool. Some corps are very very straight forward and have a traditional way of composing themselves during the entire retreat process. Others are simply more relaxed about it. I would never want to see it turn into a big circus but from what I've seen from many corps over the years, it's actually nice to have some corps more relaxed about it and some who are traditionally, well... traditional about it. (not to say that everyone isn't relaxed... no need to do a play on words.) There are people from other organizations that would disagree but in the years I marched, it was just a fun time sitting on the field for what seemed like 2 hours as they announced scores for some of those shows. And Preview of Champions in 1993... we were in Ypsilanti, MI and our hornline had just kneeled down. I forget who was around us but out of nowhere someone yelled "INCOMING!!!" and I saw a load of jolly ranchers land about 2-feet in front of me. (thankfully it didn't hit my horn). :) But then a couple more came in and landed right next to me... one even hit me in the hat! I just picked it up and ate it! hahaha! Probably wasn't supposed to eat in uniform and all that, but hey... I was 16 and friggin' hungry after not eating for so long. Anyway, I could talk all day about my retreat stories, but that would have little to do with what this thread is about and that is The Cadets, who are always the most classy and traditional when it comes to their etiquette at retreat. Every corps has their thing and whenever I've seen The Cadets in retreat, it has always been very classy and very professional. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StuStu Posted August 11, 2008 Share Posted August 11, 2008 I'm still of the mindset that anything you do in uniform reflects on the entire corps and organization. If some corps are comfortable that the last image they project of the season is them goofing around, well, good for them. I guess I'm officially one of those cranky old guys now talking about how much better things were back in my day. Sigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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