2022 WGI Discussion Thread (Non-Face-Mask Edition?)

[Rubisco]

Miamisburg gave probably the cleanest show they could give, if the multicam view was any indication. That might be enough to put them on the podium, if the judges are torn. The Woodlands, Carmel, and Avon all had a small number of drops. Carmel's show probably had the most exposed ones. The Woodlands' drops came during massive flurries of tosses. Overall, I thought all 4 were great. Avon's and Carmel's performances definitely stood out to me as generally having cleaner hand placements, cleaner lines with the body, better poise, better uniformity, and clearer staging than The Woodlands and Miamisburg, as much as I love those two shows.

Enormous crowd response again for both Avon and TWHS.

[Rubisco]

Yes! Finally!

Congrats to our WGI Scholastic World Bronze Medalist, The Woodlands High School!

[stellamo]

  On 4/10/2022 at 4:36 AM, Rubisco said:

Yes! Finally!

Congrats to our WGI Scholastic World Bronze Medalist, The Woodlands High School!

Expand  

Which is, I’m pretty sure, the first ever Scholastic world class medal for a Texas guard. 

[Rubisco]

  On 4/10/2022 at 4:42 AM, katew1228 said:

Which is, I’m pretty sure, the first ever Scholastic world class medal for a Texas guard. 

Expand  

Indeed it is!

Although Bowie 2016 still holds the score record. Very low scores at the top this year, but with the pandemic, that's to be expected.

[packwick]

  On 4/10/2022 at 4:44 AM, Rubisco said:

Indeed it is!

Although Bowie 2016 still holds the score record. Very low scores at the top this year, but with the pandemic, that's to be expected.

Expand  

it is the lowest scoring wgi scholastic world finals at the top since 1993. not that that should be very surprising, given the circumstances. there was a little prelims panel/semis panel split in GE in finals at the top, with the prelims panel being a bit stingy, in my opinion.

i adore that Bowie show. probably my pick for best scholastic show of the 2010s, if it's not Carmel 2018. criminally underscored. it's the closest thing to a work by Merce Cunningham i've seen in winter guard. an original in a sea of mostly sentimental imitations.

i'm thrilled for TWHS. most people don't know this, because why would they, they aren't following like i do, but this guard kind of skyrocketed into world class after Cyndi Robbins took over. some history: TWHS guard went from being world class and rock solid on the marching field in the early 00s, to distractingly weak on the marching field in 2008 and 2009, to being ok in 2010-2013. Robbins took over in 2014 and the improvements were immediately obvious. they went from not being able to make A class finals to getting promoted mid-season two seasons in a row. Robbins took them from A class to world class in one and a half winter guard seasons. never seen anything like it. it's nice to see them start to live up to that initial promise. with their feeder programs now more developed, i'm hopeful they can continue to improve.

at least *that* aspect of the marching show next year should be strong, if the band director transition isn't so smooth.

[Rubisco]

Congratulations to all the guards on a fantastic season! A lot of pleasant surprises this year, given the circumstances.

For those interested, the WGI indoor percussion world championships start April 21st, with winds championships following shortly after. I don't follow those very closely (a little too much like marching band redux for me), but those who do are more than welcome to commandeer this thread!

[stellamo]

  On 4/10/2022 at 7:35 AM, packwick said:

 

i'm thrilled for TWHS. most people don't know this, because why would they, they aren't following like i do, but this guard kind of skyrocketed into world class after Cyndi Robbins took over. 

Expand  

Do you know anything about her history? She has created the most successful Colorguard program in the entire state of Texas and I can’t seem to find anything about her. 

[packwick]

  On 4/10/2022 at 6:35 PM, katew1228 said:

Do you know anything about her history? She has created the most successful Colorguard program in the entire state of Texas and I can’t seem to find anything about her. 

Expand  

she arrived waaay after i was in the band. i don't know her at all. but tcgc did a little bio vid on insta last year.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNLponflO0y/

[packwick]

  On 4/10/2022 at 2:28 PM, Rubisco said:

Congratulations to all the guards on a fantastic season! A lot of pleasant surprises this year, given the circumstances.

Expand  

curious what ur favorite show was and how u would have scored it. i actually didn't add anything to my permanent collection this year. may be a good time to stop keeping up w/ it.

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

  On 4/10/2022 at 6:35 PM, katew1228 said:

Do you know anything about her history? She has created the most successful Colorguard program in the entire state of Texas and I can’t seem to find anything about her. 

Expand  

She was in the code black group that won the independent open back almost 20 years ago.  She’s been at TWHS since 2014/15 I think? Or somewhere around there.  a lot of the techs come from her connections and people she knew with code black 
 

 

[Rubisco]

  On 4/20/2022 at 12:40 AM, packwick said:

curious what ur favorite show was and how u would have scored it. i actually didn't add anything to my permanent collection this year. may be a good time to stop keeping up w/ it.

Expand  

I'm not sure. I guess the one show that gave me chills the first time I saw it was Kiski Area's. It seemed to take its inspiration from Spielberg's much maligned Hook movie, with the echoes of "will you take me home" at the end. The show was another case of me jumping around to different parts of the Flo stream and accidentally landing on a mysterious show and knowing immediately it was going to win the contest in its class. The way the show built suspense was really great, with the music perfectly building to the final moment when the girl jumps out the window. I got goosebumps the first time I saw that -- not at all like the hammy, unintentionally campy ending to Bishop Kearney's Sybil show. ("Staaaahp! Staaaaaahp!!!" 😄) And Kiski nailed their performance every time I saw them. It was a strange and, to echo other comments, refreshingly unsentimental show, given the Peter Pan inspiration.

In the tippy top class of IW, honestly, there wasn't much that was super memorable for me. The top 3 shows lacked strong themes and seemed more like (admittedly impressive) skills showcases. And the ones that did have clear themes didn't inspire me much with their artistry. The joker one is a good example. Like, it's a fun show, and the audience loved it, but for me it was like watching what Halloween has been like every year since the release of The Dark Knight in 2008. Like, I've seen this before way too much. 😄

  On 4/20/2022 at 6:14 PM, Bandmomx4 said:

She was in the code black group that won the independent open back almost 20 years ago.  She’s been at TWHS since 2014/15 I think? Or somewhere around there.  a lot of the techs come from her connections and people she knew with code black 

Expand  

Robbins was one of the founders of that group with her friends. Actually, based on the year given in that insta video, Code Black won IO in their very first year of existence in 2007 with a 98.5, and then made world class finals the next year. That's super impressive for a home-grown group, and shows great initiative and talent. The ending of that 2007 show with the forward push with the unison yellow flags still gives me goosebumps!

[packwick]

  On 4/20/2022 at 11:05 PM, Rubisco said:

Like, it's a fun show, and the audience loved it, but for me it was like watching what Halloween has been like every year since the release of The Dark Knight in 2008. Like, I've seen this before way too much. 

Expand  

lmao. such a read, but an accurate one. it's definitely a low hanging fruit idea. but really hon, people without high IQs need something to love, too.

  On 4/20/2022 at 11:05 PM, Rubisco said:

I got goosebumps the first time I saw that -- not at all like the hammy, unintentionally campy ending to Bishop Kearney's Sybil show. ("Staaaahp! Staaaaaahp!!!" 😄)

Expand  

oh see i loved that show precisely *because* it was campy and different and made me laugh and probably couldn't be done today without the outrage machine starting up. "oh hey let's do a show based on a ridiculous 70s TV show about a young woman with multiple personalities!" "yeah, brah, that sounds great!" hahahaha. i love it. but let's face it, if i got my way TWHS would be doing a marching show based on the movie Showgirls, and the cacophony from the parents would be glorious, just endless amusement.

but yeah, the Pollock show is prooobably Bishop's best one artistically speaking.

thanks for answering my question.

[JockTurnedBandDad]

Congratulations to Rhythmic Force on making finals in their first year competing in the World Class Independent level.

Also Congratulations to Clear Brook HS from Friendswood on their 2nd place finish in Open Class Scholastic Percussion.  There were 4 Texas HS in finals.

And how about Avon HS and their WGI World Championships sweep.  They won Guard, Percussion, and Winds.  I was in Dayton for the percussion events and got to watch them at prelims and finals.  Their show was awesome.

[packwick]

advisory board proposals were posted over at WGI.

https://wgi.org/2022-advisory-board-proposals-now-online/

does anybody know which ones passed? has the meeting happened yet? some of the guard proposals are remarkably stupid lol. maybe that's typical. i like the ones that encourage upward movement through the classes. A class is overstuffed and has lots of groups executing open class skills. i also don't like that open class finalists perform in the morning to a smaller audience. that's not how you reward more advanced groups.

[LeanderMomma]

  On 6/10/2022 at 5:32 AM, packwick said:

i also don't like that open class finalists perform in the morning to a smaller audience. that's not how you reward more advanced groups.

Expand  

That’s truly terrible IMO. 

[packwick]

results for the proposals were posted.

https://wgi.org/2022advisoryboardvotingresults/

it looks like the guard members mostly voted to keep the status quo. i guess that's not surprising. why change the system much when you've been successful in it.

[Rubisco]

I'm not sure how I would have felt if they had passed the proposal to reduce the judges to three and have all three judges judge every caption at once -- equipment, movement, design, and effect. 

If you want to reduce the judges for cost reasons, roll the analytical aspects of design analysis into the effect caption. DA usually very strongly correlates with effect anyway, and is pretty much just a less passive, more technical, nitpicky version of it. The equivalent captions in BOA/DCI are ensemble visual performance and visual effect. Because ensemble visual takes into account the artistry of the show and isn't just about pure ensemble cleanliness, the line between it and effect is blurred and the two captions usually correlate well with each other.

[WoodlandsMom4ever]

Nice article they did on the WGI website.  
 

https://www.wgi.org/thewoodlandshsthedoorsareopen/

 

[packwick]

confirms what was discussed here. gotta invest in those middle school programs, especially when u can only practice 8 hours a week. one of the main reasons why Texas bands got so good.

interesting that over a 3rd of the world guard was freshmen, compared to only 1 freshman in 2019. seems right. i also liked the bit about members using older members and Insta posts as models. watching some of the recent vids on their guard page i see them trying some Tarpon skills from last season and those scissor kick tosses. ideally they'd be creating some new ones too and putting equal effort into movement. c'moooon James Logan style double split leaps!

they've got some exciting seasons ahead. maybe we'll see more guard investment across the state.

[packwick]

darn this thread popping back up. i fell down another Center Grove hole. i think this is their '97 show. Joy. god i love it. filled w/ irony. seems like something i would do. when that girl runs out of breath and collapses during the big finish. hahahaha. love the petit allegro ballet part too.

the rhapsody in blue one where everything is orange is pretty good too. hahahaha.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2EaUTDub6aQ

 

[Rubisco]

I know marching season is just starting up, but for those interested, WGI opened event registration today for those units attending both World Championships and another event. Registration will open up for the other groups within the next couple of weeks. You can see the current entries here: https://wgi.org/color-guard/cg-current-entries/

If they all actually end up going, and that's a big if, Texas will be very, very well represented again. There are lots of returning units from last year, including Coppell, Friendswood, Westlake, Southlake Carroll, Moe and Gene Johnson, and The Woodlands, along with some groups that did well in-state but didn't go to Worlds last year, like Hebron, Pebble Hills, Winston Churchill, and Rock Hill.

It looks like Moe and Gene Johnson may have self-promoted to world class, so that will be interesting. The last time I think that happened was James Bowie 2016, which is still the highest scoring world class show from Texas. Arcadia, who now works with the legendary Rosie Queen, and Tarpon Springs are listed in scholastic world class for the 2nd year in a row, which is unexpected and exciting, plus the addition of Kiski Area and Marvin Ridge after their 1st and 2nd place finishes in Open class last season, along with virtually all the other guards that participated in world class last year.

Churchill appears to have self-promoted to Open class, so that's exciting. And we could be seeing Palm Desert Middle School in A class again. It'll be interesting to see if they can place in the top 5 this time, which would send them into Open class. Crazy!

Texas will have a new Independent World guard from Houston called Third Coast Independent. ORIGINS and Invictus will be returning as well.

[gregorydf01]

  On 9/15/2022 at 10:18 PM, Rubisco said:

I know marching season is just starting up, but for those interested, WGI opened event registration today for those units attending both World Championships and another event. Registration will open up for the other groups within the next couple of weeks. You can see the current entries here: https://wgi.org/color-guard/cg-current-entries/

If they all actually end up going, and that's a big if, Texas will be very, very well represented again. There are lots of returning units from last year, including Coppell, Friendswood, Westlake, Southlake Carroll, Moe and Gene Johnson, and The Woodlands, along with some groups that did well in-state but didn't go to Worlds last year, like Hebron, Pebble Hills, Winston Churchill, and Rock Hill.

It looks like Moe and Gene Johnson may have self-promoted to world class, so that will be interesting. The last time I think that happened was James Bowie 2016, which is still the highest scoring world class show from Texas. Arcadia, who now works with the legendary Rosie Queen, and Tarpon Springs are listed in scholastic world class for the 2nd year in a row, which is unexpected and exciting, plus the addition of Kiski Area and Marvin Ridge after their 1st and 2nd place finishes in Open class last season, along with virtually all the other guards that participated in world class last year.

Churchill appears to have self-promoted to Open class, so that's exciting. And we could be seeing Palm Desert Middle School in A class again. It'll be interesting to see if they can place in the top 5 this time, which would send them into Open class. Crazy!

Texas will have a new Independent World guard from Houston called Third Coast Independent. ORIGINS and Invictus will be returning as well.

Expand  

I will very much enjoy watching WGI this year, my Daughter made Invictus World and is just over the moon about it (I am as well)!    

[Rubisco]

  On 9/17/2022 at 1:55 AM, gregorydf01 said:

I will very much enjoy watching WGI this year, my Daughter made Invictus World and is just over the moon about it (I am as well)!    

Expand  

Wow! That's awesome! She's going to have a great time. It'll be a blast.