From: rwberry@hubcap.clemson.edu (Robert W Berry)
Subject: Re: General chatting
Organization: Clemson University
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 14:37:45 GMT

dugan@wpi.WPI.EDU (Robert Francis Dugan) writes:

>I know Ken marched Royal Guardsmen, what about everyone else?  

I did drum corps all the time I was growing up, but I couldn't get into
a guard until I was a freshman in college.  I marched in the Rebel
Lancers guard for a couple of years.  We rehearsed a lot and did a few 
basketball half times and two local circuit shows in Memphis.

>And what guards are you teaching? 

I'm working with a couple of HS guards here in the upcountry of South
Carolina.  (Daniel HS and Pendleton HS, I'm still working on the details
of which shows we'll be able to attend but we're looking at 6-7 circuit
shows and WGI South.)

( ... stuff about Admiral ... )

My two biggest memories of Admiral are the charge I get out of the
version of September Song that they used for a closer in 1986 and
watching that girl on the center line mug for the camera in 1987.  I'm
still trying to find out where that version of September Song came from
and I was sitting in the middle about three rows up for finals in 1987
and about bust a gut when I saw that girl working the camera.

...

>And I have one parent coordinating sewing.  

This is *always* a good idea anyway.  I normally have one parent make
all the uniforms and one parent make all the flags (or at least a
complete set.)  Nothing is more frustrating that problems that crop when
different people interpret patterns and designs differently.

>Where are those corporate sponsors for us little guys, huh?  

Oh you'd be surprised.  You may not be able to get money, but you can
almost *always* get something if you approach local businessmen.  We
had the PVC pipe for our flats donated by two different hardware
stores.  We got screws, hinges, and a staple gun from another.  We had
a local textile mill donate three industrial-size rolls of fabric.  At
the very least, most local business will give really decent discounts
on things they sell if they know its for a non-profit group.  (Of
course if you have an independent guard, you will have to be able to
prove non-profit status.  To do this you need to incorporate -- which
is a good idea from a legal point, it takes a *lot* of the financial
responsibilty off your shoulders.  We also had an attourney donate his
time to help us with the legal paperwork.)

>But the
>other factor, time, I could fix.  I have kids whose parents mandate
>they work but they desparately want to march.  So I set the show up
>like a theater would.  Some kids have leading roles, some have
>supporting roles and some are just chorus.  Then depending how much
>time they can dedicate and talent and stuff I gave them a part.  It
>seems to be working out well.  But it takes a lot of coordination on
>the part of the staff.  We have the show broken down into scenes and
>depending on what scene we are working on depends on who comes to
>rehearsal.  I tried to get them all together for at least two hours
>every week so they can "bond" somewhat.  This whole system has worked
>well, especially since one girl got sick and I had to cut back her
>role.  She took it well since she wasn't the only one not doing the
>whole show.  

This seems like an inventive and productive approach to time demands.

I've found that once the basics are in place you can put a show together
and clean it in minimal time.  (The 1988 Cavies show was taught in a
couple of weekends because it was based on basics most of the members
learned from the summer corps, although they had a couple of non-guard
Cavies in there too.)

>My biggest problem is in facilities.  Since we are independent, we
>don't have a "home" gym, and very often have to pay for a space.  That
>really shrinks your budget when it costs 20 dollars an hour!  Any
>suggestions on facilites?  There are some empty warehouses around that
>would be perfect, but I don't even know how to find the owners let
>alone how to approach them.

Are there community centers there?  We told them we needed a court for
guard practice and they balked.  We explained that we would need the
space for one basketball game and they said ok.  We only had to pay a
one-time "membership" fee (around $50) and got to use the place up to
10 hours a week (although we never could schedule that much time since
the center was so busy.)

If you want to find the owner of a building, check with city hall, it
will be on record there.  If it's really empty you may be able to really
"set up shop" there until its rented, sold, or used again.

>Working with a small group is also tough when they vary dramatically
>in ability and experience.  Any hints on how to make this work?

I usually pick a performance level which will be challenging for the
median member first.  You can always beef it up or water it down if you
need to.  One problem with this approach is that the less-experienced
members may become discouraged if they flounder too much or too long.
You have to be very supportive and let them know it's OK to make
mistakes.

>And how about how to write interesting drill for 10 people?

Oh boy, I can help you with this one:

Some of Bob's rules for writing for small units:

1)  KISS - keep it simple, stupid.  If you write complex sets you often
underestimate how much a little dirt will degrade the readability of
your set.  (i.e. a box still looks like a box if a couple people are off
by a step, but a long stretched-out curvilinear form will look like
broken segments if the intervals are off by more than just a little
bit.)  The mind tries to fill in details of shapes it is familiar with.

2)  Don't try to look bigger by using big intervals.  You really don't
fool anyone, and you risk losing readability.  (Corr: don't be afraid to
get dense, the judges realize the constraints your size place on you.)

3)  MOVE EVERYBODY - you'll get more motion from less people if your
drill flows from set to set moving as many people as possible.  Try to
avoid relying on large ensemble floats, as well as rotations around any
one person (rotations around a point not corresponding to a member are
OK usually.)  Counter motion will make the guard look bigger.

4)  Other have been there before, watch San Marino from the last couple
of years.  They do more with <10 girls than guards a lot bigger than
they.  I'm not advocating ripping their drill off, but you can learn a
lot by studying their approach to drill writing.

5)  This isn't really drill, but use big equipment.  Daniel had a
segment of their show last year where each of the 10 girls had two 5x8
flags.  We really filled the floor with color and motion.

>In my humble opinion, you need to cover the following bases.  If you
>have people who can fill more than one job, that's even better. But
>never let the person who created the work clean the work.  The creator
>should stand right next to the tech while things are being cleaned,
>but the kids should hear someone else explain it.

This is good advice.  I never really thought about it that much until
just now but it really makes sense.

I hope this advice might help somewhat.

Later,
Bob

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