This weekend's WGI Indianapolis Regional has a line-up that could go head-to-head against the Power Regional schedules in late March. This is going to be a good one, folks, so stick around for the whole weekend.

If percussion/winds is your kind of thing, head over to the WGI Dayton Regional for an equally impressive schedule in store.

Watch the 2019 WGI Indianapolis Regional LIVE on Feb. 16 @ 10AM ET

WATCH LIVE (Scholastic A Prelims/Semis) | WATCH LIVE (All Other) | Schedule

One thing that's critical to understand is that this will be a two-day, two-venue regional event: All of the Scholastic A groups will compete in preliminary and semifinals competition at Greenfield-Central High School on Saturday, February 16. All OTHER classes will be at Warren Central High School for prelims on Saturday. All classes (except for Scholastic Regional A and Independent Regional A) will be at Warren Central High School for finals on Sunday, February 17.

Greenfield-Central (Scholastic A)

This year, there are 27 SA guards in competition (3 rounds), 14 of which will advance to semifinals in the late afternoon. From there, only 7 will advance to Finals competition on February 17. This makes competition incredibly tight, and there will be some great competitors at Greenfield-Central High School.

Middletown HS

Coming off their 17^th Place finish in 2019 WGI World Championship SA Finals, Middletown HS (OH) is performing late in Round 1. Their 2018 program was a gorgeous show that emphasized balance and mirror images throughout the program.

With a quiet soundtrack, Middletown made excellent use of a smaller ensemble, designing their show by smartly balancing the number of performers on each side of the 50. Throughout the 2018 program, members performed work mirroring each other from across that line, which created excellent opportunities to show off the level of training these performers had in their back pocket. 

Anyone who has ever done guard can tell you that left-hand anything is always a struggle to make better; this guard demonstrated a distinct ability to master equipment work on either hand, including several flag releases that were performed very well.

I'll be looking forward to seeing how Middletown can showcase new and old skills they will be using in 2019.

Warren Central (Everyone Else)

Over at Warren Central HS on February 16, there are a total of 50 units in competition including 7 Scholastic Regional A, 2 Independent Regional A, 8 Independent A, 14 Scholastic Open, 3 Independent Open, 11 Scholastic World, and 5 Independent World guards.

Of the non-regional class guards, 4 IA, 11 SO, 3 IO, 11 SW, and 5 IW will advance to Finals competition on Sunday.

Scholastic Open

Both Marion Catholic HS and Decatur Central HS medaled in Scholastic A Class Finals at the 2018 WGI World Championships (second and third place, respectively), and as such, were promoted to Scholastic Open for the 2019 season.

Marian Catholic HS

Marion Catholic’s 2018 program, “Locomotive,” was a train-themed take on Philip Glass’ "Violin Concerto No. 1" (also performed in 2001 by Pope HS Scholastic World in their star-themed show, “Polaris").

Marion Catholic’s take on the piece was a master class in excellent design, staging, and equipment and movement writing. They made excellent use of equipment work performed in a round, movement and drill informed by the train tracks the get laid out on the floor (via rolling tarps), and had smart use of directional variations.

While every aspect of Marion Catholic’s 2018 program was strong, they shone best performing the very effectively written flag work. The closing flag feature included a segment where the guard formed the “Train Crossing” sign shape, and performed the same work facing the four corners of the floor (NW, SW, SE, NE) to create a fantastic effect that, when performed perfectly in sync with one another, demonstrated perfectly how well these performers mastered their equipment.

Decatur Central HS

Decatur Central HS’s 2018 program, “Light of Mine,” begins and ends with a quote from Marianne Williamson’s poem, “Our Deepest Fear,” and features a fantastic combination of beautiful floor design, complementary costuming (featuring a well-placed LED light), and simple non-printed flags—a welcome respite from the often-overwrought designs favored by many groups.

There were two moments in Decatur’s 2018 program that really stuck out, for me: the all-guard rifle feature with intricately layered writing, and the reveal of the ensemble flag to the final resolution.

All-guard rifle features are either hit, or miss, as it’s often clear which performers are not typically “rifles” (myself, for example, I’m a “sabre” and a “flag”); in this case, Decatur’s rifle feature really paid off for them. 

The ensemble flag feature to the resolution was performed using, again, a hand-sewn flag (as opposed to a printed one) on what appear to be mylar-taped PVC poles. I say this because, from their appearance, as they move through directional changes, there’s a slight bend to the pole as the silk drags through the air. This slight bend has the effect of softening the motion of the silks, adding a minute curvilinear shape to the work that is both subtle, and entirely obvious if you’re familiar with the physics of color guard.

Both Decatur Central and Marian Catholic have a lot of strengths upon which to capitalize in Scholastic Open, and I look forward to seeing what they bring to the table in 2019.

Independent Open

Avidity Independent

Avidity Independent (St. Louis, MO) returns to IO competition in 2019 after finishing 11^th in Dayton at the 2018 WGI World Championship finals. Their 2018 program, “Withstand,” featuring the track, “Momentum,” by Thom Robson, Caspar Kedros, and Scott Doran, a very nice orchestral track that builds throughout the piece.

It stuck out to me that Avidity does a great job of representing a build in “momentum” within their equipment work and drill, which grew increasingly rapid (though less tricky) as the program progressed. It ended with a jubilant ensemble flag feature using silks that look like the sun in the blackness of space. 

My favorite “moment” of this feature was a half vertical release that transitions immediately into a 45º toss under which the performers turn and catch in a stag leap.

I’m interested to see if Avidity can get bumped up to World, in 2019. They have a lot of great things going on in their program, and it’s reassuring to see groups that aren’t afraid to go for it, while at the same time keeping things simple, in terms of design.

Scholastic World

When I first began contributing to FloMarching as a guest writer in 2018, one of the first pieces I wrote was essentially a love letter to Avon HS’ program, “The Forgotten Circus.” I also wrote about the greatness that was Carmel HS’ program, “Emerging.” 

Both of those guards went on to win first and second place in Dayton in 2018. 

This year, I wanted to focus on a newcomer to the Indianapolis Regional, because we all know that Avon and Carmel will be amazing, regardless.

New to Scholastic World competition in 2019 is Plymouth-Canton Educational Park, which is not, in fact, a public park—pause for laughter.

Plymouth-Canton Educational Park

Their 2018 program, “The Artist is Present,” featured “No. 9, Adagio-Mesto,” by Hungarian-Austrian composer, György Ligeti, as well as the track, “Marina and Ulay,” from the film, “Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present,” composed by Nathan Halpern.

Marina Abramović is a performance artist upon whose 2010 endurance-based performance art piece, “The Artist is Present,” Plymouth-Canton’s show was based. In the piece, Abramović would sit in a wooden chair at a small wooden table for hours and stare directly at a person sitting across from her. Her former long-time romantic and artistic partner, Ulay, visited her piece at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen, Denmark, where the couple reunited after twenty years for an hours-long non-verbal conversation.

In her piece, Abramović is dressed in a flowing red gown, as was the main character in Plymouth-Canton’s show, and the set design for P-C was also based upon her piece. This is one of those design elements that, for the geeks who like to know every inspiration for a show, is really the best entrée we’ll ever eat, as it encompasses both art with which few Americans outside of the niche performance art community would be familiar, and incorporates design elements from Martha Graham’s visual style and modern dance techniques (namely “Contraction and Release,” “Spiraling,” and “Falls” – you can find out more about those on Wikipedia).

The flow of this show, in fact, was what I loved best – the opening segment with the white flags was truly a treat to watch, with the flowing dresses and the flowing silks…it was at once simplistic and complex; so much so that I felt that the show should’ve been bumped up a class during the season, last year, but that’s rare, these days.

With their promotion to SW at the end of last season, Plymouth-Canton has the opportunity to really showcase some of the great design taste, and I look forward to seeing if they can mesmerize me, again, this season.

Independent World

In Independent World, we’ll be seeing Bluecoats Indoor, Pride of Cincinnati, Onyx, Lexis, and Juxtaposition.

Juxtaposition finished in 16th place in 2018 WGI Semi-Finals with their program, “One Man’s Trash,” featuring “Ballet Pour Instruments Mecaniques et Percussion” by George Antheil. Everything about this show was…over the top is probably the easiest way to describe it. The designers took the title of this show seriously, and every aspect of the design, from the set, to the floor, to the flags, to the uniforms, incorporated “trash” in some capacity.

Performers’ uniforms included orange extension cords, soda bottle hair rollers…I think there was a surge protector that I almost stole, because my phone was dying, and I was dying for some great video from this group.

Aside from the show design, these performers were wicked talented. They had hands for days, and they were spinning some tough and interesting work. They were doing a lot of great work, out there—they moved well, and they incorporated trash into their show.

So, what kept them out of Finals?

Competition was really tight in Independent World in 2018, and they were a mere 0.3 points away from tying for 15th with Interplay. Judging guard isn’t an exact science, no matter how hard we try to force it to be. Since we’re no longer judging based solely on the perfect execution of a specific set of skills, what one judge loves may not be to another’s tastes. And that’s perfectly fine. I still loved Juxtaposition’s 2018 show.

But, now, it’s 2019 – it’s a new year, and given the insane amount of talent present in their program, I have no doubts that Juxtaposition will bring forth a phenomenal and unique show that will be just as memorably as the 2018 program, and I look forward to cheering them on to Finals this year.