First and foremost, I want to bring attention to the Palm Desert school district winter guards, all three of them. I don’t know what they’re putting in the water in the Coachella Valley, but these kids are ridiculously good. I’ve been involved in this activity since 1986 (I started spinning when I was 4-years-old, here in the Northeast), and I’ve seen a lot of very good, very young guards (St. Ann’s in the mid-1990s, I’m looking at you). That said, I couldn’t be more impressed with these programs.

Two of the three competitive Palm Desert groups are from Palm Desert Charter Middle School. Both guards medaled in this event (Palm Desert MS JV took first in SRA; Palm Desert MS Varsity took second in SA). Yep—a middle school competing against high school students took second against twelve other high school guards. 

While most middle school guard programs are relegated to Novice or Cadet Class in regional competitions, these two programs are not only punching above their weight class, they’re knocking out their competition.

In addition, the third guard from Palm Desert, Palm Desert High School, took first in Scholastic Open by nearly three points.

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The rest of this recap will focus on Scholastic World and Independent World, but here is the majority of results from the WGI Riverside Regional:

Scholastic World

El Dorado HS

El Dorado HS is new to the Scholatic World scene, in 2019, coming off of their third-place finish in Scholastic Open Class finals at the 2018 WGI Championships. 

Getting bumped up to a higher class doesn’t happen for a lot of groups, and when it does, there’s often an adjustment period as designers and staff try to adjust to competing on new judging sheets. 

What may have earned a medal in A Class may not even make Finals in Open Class; what medaled in Open Class may score quite lower in World Class.

El Dorado HS was meeting and exceeding those expectations, however, with their 2019 program, “Interrupted." The show is a complex diet of starts and stops, both musically and in the work and movement. Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony is the centerpiece of this performance, weaving in and out of the overall soundtrack.

The beginning of the show starts on a rifle six released on the first note of the music. The only cue for this is the placing of a needle on a record, a sound that almost goes unnoticed to the audience, which makes timing the release super difficult. Once everyone got the right count, the show went as smoothly as a show about abrupt stops can go.

There are several really neat moments. For example, at one point, the flag line strips their neon yellow and teal flags off of their poles and one group proceeds to use them as scarfs while the rifle line attaches them to their rifle straps and uses them as streamers—a very 1980s moment, for those of us old enough to remember getting slapped in the face with them.

Another very cool moment comes at the end of the show, during the ensemble flag feature. Just as the statement gets rolling, the whole guard comes to a hard stop mid-phrase. It’s very jarring, and the audience immediately thinks, “Wait…did they screw up?!” But, they didn’t…and that’s the genius of that moment.

Arcadia HS

Arcadia HS has been a frequent finalist in Dayton for much of the past twenty years. This season looks to be no different, even though the guard is under new direction. 

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Whenever there’s a large staff change, there can be a growing period, during which the kids are still getting used to new technique programs and writing styles. In Arcadia’s case, the performers seem to have more than risen to the occasion.

Their 2019 program, “Manifesto,” is performed to a poem about the millennial generation laid over Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ “Hand Covers Bruise” from "The Social Network" original soundtrack—an ambient track that clocks in at 65 BPM. 

With the underlying track being so slow, there’s no real beat to drive the counts, meaning that the performers must rely on the spoken word track for timing.

The biggest change in 2019 is the size of the guard, which has been cut by half or more. That said, this group is comprised of amazing performers, and the size of their membership didn’t impact their ability to deliver a powerful show. 

All of the moments are in the framework; this early in the season, there’s going to be dirt and timing issues. California scholastic guard seasons typically run really long, compared to East Coast and Midwestern seasons, with the marching season ending in December and winter season extending into May. This gives California winter guards less time to prepare and practice before WGI starts hosting regionals. 

Even with that rehearsal time disparity, the guards always catch up to their national competitors within two weeks of the first regional, but it takes some work to get there.

Arcadia has all the pieces in place, and when we see the final product in Dayton, it’s going to be glorious.

Independent World

Riverside treated us to three IW guards, this weekend—Malachi Independent, Fantasia, and Diamante.

Malachi Independent

Malachi Independent, out of Denver, CO, is a relative newcomer to the Independent World guard scene. They finished in the top ten in Independent Open Class in both 2016 and 2017, and this will be their second year in Independent World.

Their 2019 program uses the song, “107 Steps,” from the Lars von Trier film musical, “Dancer in the Dark,” starring Björk. This song, in the film, serves as a fantasy piece to urge Björk’s character, Selma, to walk to her own execution by hanging, which is represented on the floor by several pieces of timber placed and re-placed several times in the shape (or an approximation) of a hangman’s noose.

During both prelims and finals, I had a hard time getting “out” of the show in order to type up my thoughts about it, because I was so into the visual representation of this show. 

The flag work is so musical and intricate, and I spent much of the time during both performances following various groups of performers as they move through the piece. Performers moved the wooden planks around the floor to create new “stages,” which pays off at the end of the show with the build into the final ensemble flag statement.

For it being this early in the season, especially being such a new IW guard, there are a lot of really great things going on, particularly in terms of the flag work. The flag writing moves seamlessly from phrase to phrase, helping to recreate the dream-like state that Selma undergoes in order to convince herself that she’s not walking to her death.

Fantasia

Fantasia is serving up some classic color guard realness, in 2019. 

Throughout the past three decades, Fantasia has always been renowned for their phenomenal dance chops—and this year doesn’t disappoint. This year’s show design, however, demonstrates that they also have hands to go along with their perfectly pointed feet. 

The show is very reminiscent of late-1990s/early-2000s St. Ann’s Independent World shows:

Classical music? Check.
Weapon-heavy equipment book? Check.
Crisp, clean, and staccato weapon writing and execution? Check.
To my way of thinking, you can’t get much better 

Hint: I’m a St. Ann’s Fanboy.

While the flag silks are only open and spinning for about thirty seconds in the entire show, the design is a splash of jumbled, vibrant colors, and I can’t quite make out the design. This is, perhaps, the downside to screen printed silks: although they’re much lighter than the sewn silks I used to spin, if you get overly complex with the design of the print, nobody can tell what the image(s) is.

When they get uniforms and a printed floor, I’ll have to re-examine their show to see how it fits. In the meantime, I’m perfectly content to watch these ladies and gentlemen spin with great accuracy these fast and complex weapon phrases.

Diamante

Diamante really took Independent World by storm, coming in 4.4 points above Fantasia in finals. 

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Honestly, it’s hard for me to argue with that placement or score, because the show is, for lack of a better word, “breathtaking.” 

Both in prelims and finals, I was amazed at the performers’ level of proficiency in both movement and equipment from person to person. They can dance; they can spin; they can wear another performer like an upside-down backpack for an entire minute while simultaneously spinning rifles—and I’m not kidding about that last part. 

They literally carrying people upside-down on their backs, perform cartwheels with them, spin rifles, toss, and catch for almost an entire minute. It was like going to a Cirque du Soleil show.

This show is another weapon-heavy show, and is just shy of being an all-weapon show, save for the two flag performers who appear for the last thirty second of the program. 

The show uses contrary motion to create the visual effect and a minimalist approach to balancing the number of performers on each side of the floor. Every moment of the drill strives for a perfect balance, whether it’s in the amount of negative space on each side or the “weight” of the shapes from side to side.

Of the shows I've seen this season (which, to be fair, aren't a lot), this is my favorite World show, so far. There is so much beauty and nuance packed into this program, I really anticipate it doing well throughout the season. 

Of course, there are always bugs to iron out in terms of cleanliness and execution, but all of the elements are in place to put on a magnificent show in Dayton.