Jump to content

Anyone else watching WGI guard finals tonight?


KVG_DC

Recommended Posts

Tarpon Springs comes on.   Motorcycle stopped at an old style gas station.  More bikers ready to go as preshow ends.  Fun start.

Rifle work work is top notch as they go.  Solo toss has to make a sliding catch but she totally sold it with a sassy "I meant to do that" grin straight center.  Gas station has flipped to show the maintenance garage inside now.  Various silks and equipment coming out as the mechanics take the floor.  There's a precision in their work that is a step up from anything I've seen tonight in Scholastic World and complexity for days.  

The bicycle biker moving through those flags going so fast makes me nervous. I wonder how many rehearsal collisions they've had early on!   Garage flips and we're back on the open road.  Bikes mass up in a cluster and they do a slow pop lift as a soloist does a MASSIVE toss and catch before hopping on his bike with his woman to hit the road.  

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shenendehowa comes on.  The tarp has text words that blur out of focus from center to edge.  Or I really need an eye exam.  It's sort of hard to look at.  It's black and white with "stress" in red at center on a raised platform.  It's very...dizzying it its way.

Gary Jules'  cover of Mad World.  So ... right for this look.  As mentioned, the platform rotates.  Mad World has morphed into something more intense and building as the silks come out.  Members have white facepaint with a cutout upper left side.   Mad World weaving back in as things cool down.  There's a great 'madness' vibe going on here.

Oh the unison flag releases on the spinning platform there with near silence is super.

Center Grove is next.



 

Edited by KVG_DC
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Center Grove has a black tarp with purple wisps.  The members are in shocking neon yellow/green. There's a bit of their BOA vibe going on with the color scheme but no backdrops to hide members behind.  

A breezy jazz vocal ballad plays as they do a great deal of complicated body work with their equipment.  The uniforms pop every. single. bodyline. against that tarp.  There's not much dirt in them though!  Nice rifle ripple around a circle.  Things keep moving so the crowd seems uncertain when to cheer as there's no stop marks in their motion that say "this phrase is done."  They move seamlessly through the phrases.  Now the vocals soar and they go all silks and it's stunning.  That brings a clear cheer out.  Silent ending is quite nice.  A breezy day in the park sort of feel for the whole show.

next on is West Broward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

West Broward puts a basketball court on the floor at a diagonal. Fences going up for some pickup games in the park vibe.   Nice call out for Stoneman Douglas in the wall graffiti "msdstrong" 

Hip hop and drag ball drop moves in this show!  Very fun as they bring the rifles too.  Lots of swagger.  Akin to that great Guardians DCI show with all the Kayne West last summer.  Bring out the skateboarder to introduce the sabres!  Oh!  Great tosses timed hot with the hip hop.  Roller skates...into splits, crowd eats it up.  This is getting great cheers.  Very fun show.   The timing is exquisite.  They'll ripple sabres to flags and end with a sabre soloist catching exactly on the beat.  Big flag tosses out of the dumpster.  Using the dumpster for equipment storage and having it pop out of there to catches is really neat.

Full unison flag work and now ensemble choreography with them as the move around that court well.  Crowd clapping along. That's a fun show ending with the rifle toss and catch on skates.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Flanagan comes on with a purple tarp that has purple squiggle lines similar to the sort of thing an old style hashbrown masher would make. White U walls in a flower petal pattern as they sit on them at the start.  They're used in three dimensions as they're rolled up on the U bends in various ways for interesting effects.

The pacing of this between a driving beat and a slower piano tone seems...disjointed somewhat.  The use of the U walls also seems to be limiting how much of their corps is using equipment at any one time.  Now they've all got various equipment as the Us are inverted as arches.  And they move through them doing tosses. 

Ok the U props perfectly angled like that with the purple silks being moved through them like that was great.  This has some great moments but it seems a bit too focused on the props as equipment for me. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Top three from semis left.  Trumbull, Carmel, and Avon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trumbull has a black tarp with gold brushstrokes.  Wooden park benches being placed at diagonals across the floor.

Music build slowly and sultry.  LOTS of equipment work though with big effects.  Nice rifle ripple as they step over the benches.  They have really lovely choreography and movement. It's making a very demanding show look graceful without hiding the difficulty.  The flag feature here toward the end has them moving in unison but their flagwork being in pod modules until they sit to the benches and go into unison.  

Very elegant ending.

Next on, Carmel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Carmel brings on a black tarp with a huge line green splotch that covers most of the floor. And four massive lime green tunnel tubes. They're so green they seem to be lit up.

Members start inside the tubes then emerge like some sort of forest pixies.  Big cheerleader style toss of a member up into the air as they start.  Lots of comically weird moments in their choreography.  Rifles spinning and tossing like mad.  Members in tubes holding rifles as they're rolled along. It appears they're spinning the rifle, but they're being spun.

Delightfully weird way to bring this impressionistic piano piece to the floor.  I have no idea what this show is about but it's mesmerizingly weird. HAHA  They roll a tube over a member (seemingly) and there's a flattened member tarp at the end.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Avon has a black tarp with an orange sunburst in the center two blue starfishlike wheels with orange circles on either side.  And so outsized old fashioned footlocker chests. Some sort of melange of victorian circus meets steampunk uniforms.  It is set up as a three ring circus.

Oh big opening moment. Soloist with three sabres juggles them and does a mouth catch of one...I kid you not.  They may have been smaller sized, and there may have been sleight of hand going on, but it totally looked like a mouth catch.  Avon is amazingly precise and this theme has some great moments scattered across the floor so there's always something fairly unique and interesting to catch your eye. 

Oh a neat thing with the pole props as the rifles latch on and then are spun in a way that they slowly come down the pole in a spiral in unison.  The footlockers are used to hide equipment, and members...only to have them open and tosses of flags coming out.  Again, the show has something going on all the time somewhere, there's not a 'wrong place to look' at any moment.  Yet it's also cohesive as an ensemble and there's subtle cues to guide your gaze.  Amazing show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I gotta go with:

1. Avon

2.  Carmel (fairly close)

3. Trumbull (step back)

4. West Broward may have gotten ahead of Flanagan tonight. Their energy was peak.

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...