Vanguard's floor

[combia1]

So section 2.1 of the WGI manual (page 73) states that the performance area can vary, but floors/tarps cannot be any larger than 60x90. SCV's brown velvet floor was simple and gorgeous, but it was much larger than 60 x 90. Not trying to bash them, but I am curious why they were not penalized for an oversized tarp. My guess is they called it a "prop" and not a floor/tarp.

If there was a small, Scholastic A group who had a floor that was larger than 60 x 90, would they have been penalized? It's frustrating when the rules are applied inconsistently from one group to the next.

Just curious.

[PC]

I don't mean to be rude or question your assertion but . . . how do you know their tarp was larger than 60x90? I hauled tarp carts onto the Dayton Arena floor four times last weekend and there were almost no markings at all on the floor covering - just figuring out the centerline ("fifty") by eyeball was hard enough. From the entrance corner of the floor I couldn't see any side or back boundary markings at all. Our floor tarps are 60 feet from front to back and my recollection is that they didn't come anywhere near covering up the little T markings they had at the front and back ends of the "fifty".

[SPINCYCLE]

So section 2.1 of the WGI manual (page 73) states that the performance area can vary, but floors/tarps cannot be any larger than 60x90. SCV's brown velvet floor was simple and gorgeous, but it was much larger than 60 x 90. Not trying to bash them, but I am curious why they were not penalized for an oversized tarp. My guess is they called it a "prop" and not a floor/tarp.

If there was a small, Scholastic A group who had a floor that was larger than 60 x 90, would they have been penalized? It's frustrating when the rules are applied inconsistently from one group to the next.

Just curious.

I kinda wondered that myself when I saw it. Maybe someone from WGI can comment on that ( BUT I DOUBT IT ) They made such a big deal of it a few years ago but World Class has always been the world of double standards including within the class.

[dugg]

i can't add any info regarding your question however i loved the shape and design of their perfomance area and how they never entered the negative space.

the unique floor with it's monocromatic geometric shape and tension reminded me of some early *frank stella canvas.it's very much in keeping with the way that he built his canvas to fit the design specifications of his line drawing.

*1965's "de la nada vida a la nada muerte"

1965's "empress of india"

1966's "conway I"

1971's "chodorow II"

Edited April 14, 2010 by dugg

[combia1]

I don't mean to be rude or question your assertion but . . . how do you know their tarp was larger than 60x90? I hauled tarp carts onto the Dayton Arena floor four times last weekend and there were almost no markings at all on the floor covering - just figuring out the centerline ("fifty") by eyeball was hard enough. From the entrance corner of the floor I couldn't see any side or back boundary markings at all. Our floor tarps are 60 feet from front to back and my recollection is that they didn't come anywhere near covering up the little T markings they had at the front and back ends of the "fifty".

Well, an NCAA basketball court is 50 x 94 and SCV's floor went wall to wall in UDA, which is 116' wide. The distance in UDA from the back wall to the front "out of bounds" line is 72'.

[PC]

Well, an NCAA basketball court is 50 x 94 and SCV's floor went wall to wall in UDA, which is 116' wide. The distance in UDA from the back wall to the front "out of bounds" line is 72'.

I'm . . . uh, impressed with your apparent knowledge of the details of the dimensions of the floor in the UD arena. When SCV spread out their floor and performed, I did not have the best vantage point to observe exactly where the edges of their tarp lay in relation to all landmarks on the arena floor. I do, however, have some personal experience with the basketball court markings in the UD arena and I'm quite sure that they were not visible through the beige tarps that completely covered the arena floor. I'm assuming that the line you refer to is "out of bounds" for basketball and whether that relatively coincided with the "front sideline" markings on the WGI performance area has to remain a mystery. Furthermore, the black background curtain was well forward of the back wall to make room for PA equipment and supporting structures behind the curtains and banners.

Standing at the bottom of the tunnel Thursday night I was surprised by the complete absence of the usual WGI heavy blue tape markings for ready line, safety zones, boundaries, center lines, etc., which are the usual landmarks I rely on. Pulling the tarp cart toward the middle of the floor, it took a lot of eyeballing between tiny markings to just estimate where the "fifty" might lie. I know that we placed our floor tarps somewhat back from the front sideline marks. I noticed other units placing their tarps quite a lot further back, like six, eight or more feet back. So I'm only questioning how we could be relatively sure that SCV's or any other unit's tarp was deeper than 60 feet front to back. 72 feet minus six to eight feet offset for the black curtain doesn't leave a whole lot of depth left, if your dimensions are in the ballpark. The arena may be big and deep, but the viewing angle (from the front) is very shallow (that's why most of us have to look around, rather than over people's heads) and units that prefer to pull their floor tarps back from the front sideline have to pull their tarps a lot further back to make the visual difference they're aiming for. Audience members in the better seats can see the side and back edges of a unit's floor tarp without obstruction but often only get glimpses of the front edge. So if SCV pulled a sixty-foot deep tarp all (or most) of the way back to the black curtain (making that wide band of beige in the back disappear and annexing the curtain into their "stage"), it might appear to the front-side audience that they had somehow made a much larger floor for their performance because the receding front edge would not be as apparent. I saw them from a back corner and nobody from our angle commented that their floor seemed oversized. I suspect that this might all be a trick of perspective.

This might also apply to the apparent width of their floor. The arena floor isn't really square toward the back. The tunnel opening makes the back corner on side one appear to be angled and the back part of the floor by the side two end-zone actually jogs inward and narrows in dimension. A 90 foot wide floor tarp would appear to be much closer to the end-zones at these back corners and those corners would be the most prominent visual clues for front-side audiences. It would be relatively easy to eliminate perspective variables by comparing SCV prelim or semi DVD's with DVD's of other IW units with verifiable 60x90 tarps. Those overhead cameras were ridiculously high in the arena rafters and their bird's-eye view minimizes perspective discrepancies.

I'm really just playing Devil's Advocate. SCV's floor could just as well be 70x110, although I doubt it. But I'm still a bit ticked about having to wander around on a sea of beige vinyl scanning the horizon for any glimpse of blue landmarks. WGI probably diminished their markings so that Center Grove and Pride's tarp-less shows wouldn't have their backgrounds marred by clashing large blue lines and markings. I've gone tarp-less before so I can sympathize. But back then tarp-less meant the Full-Monty with wood-grain, color graphics, circles, lines and stuff (landmarks) all over the floor, not a sort-of default beige desert.

[Hornhoser]

No individual tarp can be larger than 60x90. If they had several tarps, all of them 60x90 or less, then they are okay.

[combia1]

I'm . . . uh, impressed with your apparent knowledge of the details of the dimensions of the floor in the UD arena.

I just looked it up on the WGI web site. They had detailed mesurements of all performance venues.

[ItsOnTheField]

I just looked it up on the WGI web site. They had detailed mesurements of all performance venues.

Makes one wonder why anyone would not know what to expect at any venue before they get there. LOL

[the lone ranger]

No individual tarp can be larger than 60x90. If they had several tarps, all of them 60x90 or less, then they are okay.

i thought the only rule... was about the size of the dimensions that had to be provided by wgi. which is 60 x 90, at any space that is wgi sanctioned at least that amount of space must be provided... meaning use larger tarps at your own risk.

:)