rayfallon Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 I don't have anything substantive to add to this debate, just that you guys thinking that it happened in the '90s is cracking me up. A lot of us were already danced to death by the early '90s. I do believe that you'll find the Reilly Raiders doing a sort of jig to "Irish Washer Woman" back during the late '50s, but I hesitate to call it "dance". It was bad enough that my mom (Mary O'Reilly) was glad she'd changed her name to "Fallon" (my dad's name) when she saw it! (she may even have begun pretending she was Italian, and her with that thick brogue). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NS787980 Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 I don't have anything substantive to add to this debate, just that you guys thinking that it happened in the '90s is cracking me up. A lot of us were already danced to death by the early '90s.I do believe that you'll find the Reilly Raiders doing a sort of jig to "Irish Washer Woman" back during the late '50s, but I hesitate to call it "dance". It was bad enough that my mom (Mary O'Reilly) was glad she'd changed her name to "Fallon" (my dad's name) when she saw it! (she may even have begun pretending she was Italian, and her with that thick brogue). My thought is this.. WHEN did colorguard turn to dance as their idenitification with drumcorps? Or For THEIR drumcorps? The moment an individual flitted across a football field. Name the drum corps that allowed that? You have dance. Sharon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophie Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 My thought is this..WHEN did colorguard turn to dance as their idenitification with drumcorps? Or For THEIR drumcorps? The moment an individual flitted across a football field. Name the drum corps that allowed that? You have dance. Sharon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sophie Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 Many color guards did a little bit of dance here and there up to and through the 70's, but I would have to say that for a drum corps, Blue Devils made dance a large part of their identity in the early 80's. Of course, in Winter Guard it is a different story. I think it was definitely the Seattle Imperials in the late 70's (about 1979 I believe) whose identity became clearly associated with dance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheus Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 My thought is this..WHEN did colorguard turn to dance as their idenitification with drumcorps? Or For THEIR drumcorps? The moment an individual flitted across a football field. Name the drum corps that allowed that? You have dance. Sharon Is there an entry in the drum corps history tome as to which corps was the first to "allow" "flitting"? <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHBob Posted October 16, 2005 Share Posted October 16, 2005 There have obviously been many instances of a corps "doing a dance" - including a dance routine or a dance segment into their show. The Americanos and SCV were mentioned among others. Heck, the Kingsmen guard did the Highland Fling during Folk Song Suite for three years. I think the original question at the top of the thread was asking when guards abandoned a military or semi-military style in favor of a complete show made up of dancing, emoting, and jazz running. A better question might be "when did guards stop marching" which is I believe another thread on another forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsssb Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I agree that many corps would do an occasional dance step, but it was definately Mary Doolittle and the Seattle Imperials that caused modern color guards to become dance machines. Seattle was the first to feature a jazz-dance guard from off the line to the final gun. Around 1976-77 they came out wearing jump suits and dance slippers. Seattle had maybe 30 horns but a color guard of around 40. The horn line's job was simply to play music for the guard to dance to. Unlike most other guards, they were not broken down into flags and rifles, everyone spun a whole bunch of different things. But mostly they just danced. Unfortunately, instead of ticking them and saying "what the **** was that?" the judges just gushed about how creative it was. They would get mid-20's in GE while scoring in the mid-60's overall. After that, the big guys took notice and the race was on. I remember sitting next to some of the Trooper guard members during a show in Boise. They stood up and "boo'd" at the top of their lungs. "That's not a color guard, it's a dance team." Unfortunately, they were right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheus Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I think the original question at the top of the thread was asking when guards abandoned a military or semi-military style in favor of a complete show made up of dancing, emoting, and jazz running. Actually, the original question was, "Who was the first corps to start adding dance," which sounds a lot more like "When was dance first used" to any extent whatsoever than, "When did guards abandon military style ..." I dunno ... just what I read into it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsBusDriver Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Around 1976-77 they came out wearing jump suits and dance slippers. Seattle had maybe 30 horns but a color guard of around 40. The horn line's job was simply to play music for the guard to dance to. Like I said earlier, it happened when they traded in their boots for dance slippers! :P (some sooner than others though, heh). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 (edited) Well then, what about Bridgemen 1977?...they had a boy/girl disco dance taking place in their show as well during Land Of Make Believe Was that done by the entire guard? I was talking more about the entire guard using dance and the boy/girl pair dancing...not just a pair or two. Edited October 17, 2005 by ssorrell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.