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Confessions from a DINO


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I was kind of fortunate in that I marched in an era of a major sea change … when I started, most guards were still kind of  ornamental, (Anaheim was an exception). When I aged out, our guard was slinging flags and rifles all over the place. It was nice to march in an era of such seismic evolution.     

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I like old-school English riding boots/skirt color guards best because that was my era.  Something about rifles doing all the same work in perfect precision, military bearing and snap.

And I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE contemporary guards like Boston!!!  So incredible, and they do a lot of group work too - not as much individual dancing, which kinda just fades into the back ground for me.

Color Guards really haven't gotten the credit they deserve.  

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17 hours ago, Jurassic Lancer said:

I was kind of fortunate in that I marched in an era of a major sea change … when I started, most guards were still kind of  ornamental, (Anaheim was an exception). When I aged out, our guard was slinging flags and rifles all over the place. It was nice to march in an era of such seismic evolution.     

100% agree. Up until the Kingsmen, Color GUARDS were just that. Guard the colors. Yeah, semi-militarily, but don't do anything that's going to cause the old VFW coots to freak out over. Then the Kingsmen and to some degree the Troopers brought things up a step, which I think was right at the time when Guard became its own sub-caption. Keep the military precision but add a little razzle dazzle to things (those rifles, oh my). From there things progressed (2-7 being a prime example) and the whole visual aspect of corps presentations became not only major crowd pleasers, but a dedicated caption of judging. 

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The cyclical history of the whole activity is fascinating. These developments are not linear. The original purpose for the establishment of what we call drum corps was to provide cadence and field music for the military color guard on parade. That continued when the Legionnaires and other vets groups held those massive events at their National Conventions, beginning in the 1920s.

Eventually, the tail began wagging the dog and for corps competitions the guard, though mandatory, became a kind of ancillary accoutrement as drum and horn lines swelled in number. Those sections became the main focus by sheer size.

Fast forward to the present. Some would argue (with a fair degree of justification) that today's guards have re-taken the lead, so much so that the music is in support of their effects, not the other way around. I have heard it said that what we now have are color guard shows with musical accompaniment. Consider who the primary show designers are for many top units. That would be a good indicator.

This is not to be taken as a criticism, just an observation. Shows are infinitely more visually interesting because of this return to the original philosophy, ironic though that may be.

Now, if the music were half as riveting as the guards...we could have our cake and eat it.

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3 hours ago, ironlips said:

Fast forward to the present. Some would argue (with a fair degree of justification) that today's guards have re-taken the lead, so much so that the music is in support of their effects, not the other way around. I have heard it said that what we now have are color guard shows with musical accompaniment. Consider who the primary show designers are for many top units. That would be a good indicator. 

With GE at 40 points and Visual at 30 points, this is why music is not as important currently.  

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