Jump to content

Are guards too good?


Recommended Posts

As I was sitting in Indy last year, watching guard after guard toss and catch, I was thinking that guard is less interesting for me now. If you've seen something often enough, it loses its effect. The guards are so good that I'm shocked if there's a drop. Do you think guards need to change to a different artistic direction?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I was sitting in Indy last year, watching guard after guard toss and catch, I was thinking that guard is less interesting for me now. If you've seen something often enough, it loses its effect. The guards are so good that I'm shocked if there's a drop. Do you think guards need to change to a different artistic direction?

it needs to constantly evolve.......you are right and good guards should find ways to create effect and not just by tossing...........but guards do drop even the best or the winners...we just have learned how to cover mistakes better than we used to....recoveries are part of the process

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it needs to constantly evolve.......you are right and good guards should find ways to create effect and not just by tossing...........but guards do drop even the best or the winners...we just have learned how to cover mistakes better than we used to....recoveries are part of the process

In old days dropped equipment stayed on the ground until someone picked it up for you and you were penalized. In new days you can recover and carry on with multi-tasking :) It's allowed guards to be amazing! Good golly, some are on stilts now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whether guards today are too good, or whether they are not good at all, depends on personal preference. As we see in another thread, this can be a heated discussion. For me, whether it is back in the day or in the present day, how well a guard is integrated in show makes for a good guard. If you look at some off the best guards from thirty years ago: 27th, Phantom, or Madison, take away the guard and you take away a vital part of the overall performance. Fast forward to today, the same is true. If we look at 2011, Phantom's music was almost a backdrop to the guard telling the story. It flowed beautifully. Carolina Crown's guard was integral to its performance as well, which I believe helped make their show memorable. I can't say whether this past year's group was more talented than past members, but it was more effective and more a part of the show. I'm never quite sure of what to make of the Cavaliers' guard. It can be outlandish to say the least and at times it can make Cirque de Soliel lookl ike an exercise in calisthenics. It can also be nerve-wracking on parents as I learned at a show a few years back where a mother of a Cavalier wondered if her son would make it out alive, but Cavie's guard is never boring and keeps people interested in the show.

As far as dropped equipment is concerned, it's less noticeable today, but it happens and in live performances I have seen it happens quite a bit. I also know most live shows I see are in early July and by finals nerves have settled, but as long as equipment is handled, it will be dropped.

Edited by Tim K
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I was sitting in Indy last year, watching guard after guard toss and catch, I was thinking that guard is less interesting for me now. If you've seen something often enough, it loses its effect. The guards are so good that I'm shocked if there's a drop. Do you think guards need to change to a different artistic direction?

Yes. They need to wear boots, march squad-based drill, do rifle basics , and limit all flag work to presents. The guards aren't too good -- the work is too easy! jimlad.gif

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drops are occurring less because equipment handling has become roughly 50-60% of a guard's book, compared to 100% 30 years ago. Dance and body movement, while nice additions, are overrunning the guard caption. The level of difficulty and exposure to error of much of the equipment work I see today pales in comparison to the past, where guards were spinning and tossing for 11-minutes straight. Instead of achieving a balance between dance and equipment, we seem to be swinging to the opposite extreme. It's actually my biggest gripe with modern guard.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drops are occurring less because equipment handling has become roughly 50-60% of a guard's book, compared to 100% 30 years ago. Dance and body movement, while nice additions, are overrunning the guard caption. The level of difficulty and exposure to error of much of the equipment work I see today pales in comparison to the past, where guards were spinning and tossing for 11-minutes straight. Instead of achieving a balance between dance and equipment, we seem to be swinging to the opposite extreme. It's actually my biggest gripe with modern guard.

many of the guards of the past walked or marched from set to set..there wasnt 11 min of spinning..although we did think we spun alot...Sometimes I wonder how we even broke a sweat compared to the physical demand alll around today...lol

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drops are occurring less because equipment handling has become roughly 50-60% of a guard's book, compared to 100% 30 years ago. Dance and body movement, while nice additions, are overrunning the guard caption. The level of difficulty and exposure to error of much of the equipment work I see today pales in comparison to the past, where guards were spinning and tossing for 11-minutes straight. Instead of achieving a balance between dance and equipment, we seem to be swinging to the opposite extreme. It's actually my biggest gripe with modern guard.

I'm not sure there's less spinning now. Yes -- guards dance now. But for most of a typical show *someone* is spinning. There may a section of the show where the entire guard is on dance but that's typically less than a full number.

I think your perception may be due to members picking up *different* pieces of equipment throughout the performance. But the level of difficulty and exposure is actually much higher. In fact switching equipment (rifle - sabre - flag - dance - rifle -flag) actually requires a great deal of focus and concentration -- much easier to spin the same equipment for the whole show.

But the largest change is the increased simultaneous responsibilities. Guard drill can be really demanding with members traveling insanely large distances in short periods of time (and spinning and doing lower body as they travel). Just watch an ensemble practice where the music staff is perhaps focused on a segment of a show and take no notice that half the guard is sprinting from one 20 to other and BACK AGAIN while spinning during that small section. The reps may not be so tough on the hornline but the guard will be dying after just a few reps. Just watch the step size and field coverage in the older shows. And the actual show work -- yeah that's called basics block today.

Body/equipment/form/character responsibilities for the colorguard are just off the chart.

And...imagine the hornline never receives a printed copy of their music, is expected to learn it by listening to a staff member play it a few times, and oh yeah -- no music before move-ins. It's really easy to miss a lot when all you see is the finished product.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to belittle the accomplishments of modern guard. I understand the overall physicality of the role is vastly increased. But one of the things you said highlights one of the modern trends I dislike: "for most of a typical show *someone* is spinning."

As you said, Someone. Not Everyone. In fact, for a majority of the show, Everyone is hardly ever doing the same thing at the same time. The greatly increased difficulty of modern drum corps is achieved partially, IMO, by having fewer kids perform it. Super-difficult technical passages are relegated to groups of 3, or 6, or 10 kids, instead of the full 30-40 member guard or 80-member horn line. Sure, having three or four "pods" of guard performers doing three or four different functions and then merging them into the ensemble visual looks and seems really complex... but I would argue in many cases it's easier to clean than if all 40-members were doing the same difficult equipment work. And again, balance. I'm not saying we need 11-minutes of everyone doing the same thing, but we're down to almost nil in some shows.

This isn't just a guard thing, it applies to music, too. Look at BD in, say 09 and 10. How much difficulty, really, is there in those ensemble brass books? Almost all of the difficulty in 2009 is in solo and small ensemble passages. How often is the whole ensemble performing at once? And when you attract the level of performers BD does, I certainly understand showcasing soloists, but again: balance.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to belittle the accomplishments of modern guard. I understand the overall physicality of the role is vastly increased. But one of the things you said highlights one of the modern trends I dislike: "for most of a typical show *someone* is spinning."

As you said, Someone. Not Everyone. In fact, for a majority of the show, Everyone is hardly ever doing the same thing at the same time. The greatly increased difficulty of modern drum corps is achieved partially, IMO, by having fewer kids perform it. Super-difficult technical passages are relegated to groups of 3, or 6, or 10 kids, instead of the full 30-40 member guard or 80-member horn line. Sure, having three or four "pods" of guard performers doing three or four different functions and then merging them into the ensemble visual looks and seems really complex... but I would argue in many cases it's easier to clean than if all 40-members were doing the same difficult equipment work. And again, balance. I'm not saying we need 11-minutes of everyone doing the same thing, but we're down to almost nil in some shows.

This isn't just a guard thing, it applies to music, too. Look at BD in, say 09 and 10. How much difficulty, really, is there in those ensemble brass books? Almost all of the difficulty in 2009 is in solo and small ensemble passages. How often is the whole ensemble performing at once? And when you attract the level of performers BD does, I certainly understand showcasing soloists, but again: balance.

just trying to understand BUT does any of that really matter? to me just so much more interesting now and I was one of those BITD................it may also seem that it was harder to clean a whole guard verses segments but another way to look at it is there are way more things to clean now which makes it easier..let alone seperate moods from one section to another while traveling across a field with multiple respoinsibilities

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...