Imagine your performers in this situation
It’s Show Time!
For many performers the hardest part of the performance is controlling the nerves you feel prior to and during the performance.
“Conduct Becoming”
Your conduct off the field/floor is as important, if not more important, than your performance. As members of a competitive ensemble, you are ambassadors of your school and community. Your individual performances, sportsmanship and conduct both on and off the field will shape the impression others have of your entire organization. It is important to represent your organization with pride and professionalism. Here are a few things to keep in mind!
RESPECT
Respect should be the value at the heart of all of the decisions you will make as a participant and spectator at a competition. If you show respect to others you will earn their respect in return. The behaviors listed below all demonstrate respect.
Remain Quiet and Attentive During Performances
Nothing feels worse than to be in the middle of a performance and realize that people in the stands aren’t paying attention, or worse to see them laughing or giggling and think they’re laughing at you! We all know that it takes a lot of hard work and preparation in addition to a good dose of courage to get out there and perform at a competition. Think about how you would like spectators to behave while you are performing. You want to see them paying attention, smiling, enjoying your performance. Support your fellow performers by being a great spectator and giving them a chance to show you what they’ve been working on!
Do Not Enter or Exit the Stands During a Performance
This is distracting to both audience members and performers. Don’t do it! Many contests have monitors who rope off the stands or close the doors during performances but even if they do not, it’s a good idea to stay put during a performance!
Do Not Make Negative Commentary at a Competition
We all know how hurtful it feels to hear someone say something negative. It feels even worse when you have spent as much time preparing for your performances as we do in color guard. Even if you think no one can hear what you say, you never know whose Grandma, Mom and Dad, or friend is sitting just a few rows away. You’d be surprised how voices can carry! Keep any negative commentary to yourself and focus on the positives. Not only will you avoid hurting someone’s feelings, you will be demonstrating good sportsmanship and you may learn a few things along the way about what makes a great performance!
Clean Up After Yourself
Not only should we show respect to our fellow performers but also to the parents, spectators and staff who run the contests we attend. No one likes to clean up a huge mess and it reflects poorly on your team if you leave one behind. Instead, go out of your way to leave the areas you visit better than they were when you arrived. Take a moment to pick up your own trash or even a stray piece left behind by someone else. You and your team will earn a reputation of being considerate and respectful.
Sportsmanship
Good Sportsmanship should be a primary goal of every competitor. We all recognize the hard work that goes into preparing for a competition. We all can relate to the excitement that accompanies a great performance. It is important to be able to show your appreciation for the activity, your respect for the work that all competitors bring to the arena and your ability to be gracious even in moments of disappointment. Here are some behaviors that demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Wish Other Ensembles a Good Performance
You may be thinking, “If I want to win, why would I wish the other team luck?” Perhaps you’ve found yourself secretly hoping the other team “messes up.” The truth is, a victory is not as sweet when you know it was only due to someone else’s mistake. Aside from that, we all know how awful it feels to make a mistake in public performance. We shouldn’t wish that feeling on anyone! Wish everyone a great show, and then if someone comes out ahead of you, admire their achievement and let their performance motivate you to work even harder for the next show.
Applaud for every group
This one needs no explanation. Be a great spectator!
Be Gracious both in Disappointment AND Excitement
Most think about sportsmanship in terms of dealing with disappointment. You should always be gracious even when disappointed with the outcome of a competition. Smile, congratulate the winner, and put aside your disappointment until you get back to the bus. No one likes to see a sore loser and your team will earn a negative reputation for sour faces at awards retreats. Again, thinking back to the value of respect, show respect to your competitor for a job well done and treat them as you would like others to treat you when you come out on top.
Good sportsmanship should also be demonstrated by the winner of a match-up as well. Avoid “overdoing it” when celebrating your victory. Be sensitive to the fact that there are others in attendance who worked equally as hard and may be disappointed. Make sure to congratulate other competitors letting them know they also did a great job. Try to think of something specific you enjoyed about their performance and let them know. Finally, make sure that your cheering and celebrating at the announcement of your team’s results doesn’t mask the next group’s results. Make sure everyone gets a chance to hear their name announced.
Gratitude
Finally, there are a lot of people that work really hard to make your team, trips and competitions run smoothly. From parents to staff, bus drivers, judges, volunteers, floor crew, and student helpers, take the time to let them know they are appreciated. They sacrifice a great deal of time and without them our activity would not be possible.
Take a moment to smile and say a simple, “Thank You.” It really means a lot!
Strive to display both amazing skills during performances as well as impeccable sportsmanship and behavior at all other times and you will help to earn your team a reputation for excellence!
A NEW YEAR AND A FRESH START
Hi All: In no time you
Featuring Fundamentals: FINDING THE TIME!
| Written by Catina Anderson |
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Have difficulty finding time to maintain your rehearsal of fundamentals throughout the season?
Bringing it All Together
 The memos I’ve been sending you each week have been intended to address the priorities most of you would have at this calendar time. I promise you that if you heed this advice you can only benefit. Please take the time to review them, apply what you can to where you are in the show creation and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions at all. Remember, I’m happy to listen to your show tunes, chat about your concept or answer any concern you have.
In no time at all it will be the holiday season and many of you will be facing challenges in rehearsal space and your kids being all over the place visiting relatives, etc. Take this time to do your own “homework” and have as much detailing done as you can. Especially work on your calendar gearing toward production of the show. Start focusing on your floor, your costumes and your props. The biggest treat you can give your audience is a show where the students are wearing their show attire, have their real flags and a completed floor. Early season, when so many groups perform in the old standby “black unitards” you’re making it tougher to “stand out” and be remembered.
Let’s talk about your floor
On the subject of the floor, this is a good time to give you some food for thought as you plan that major part of your show “look.” So, I offer you some little tips to consider.
A floor that is excessively busy will “gobble” up the guard and make them less visible and less accessible. Often the show becomes more about the floor than about your design and your performers.
You can design your floor to aid the guard in “set points” or as color blocks to highlight areas where you will stage features.
You can design the floor to enrich the look of the show concept and help set the stage and tell the story.
If you paint geometrics on the floor, please don’t ignore them when you stage. You know the old saying: “use them or lose them.”
The floor is the biggest visual on the stage; as you plan it, you must coordinate the design/color of the costumes and the flags so that the whole color story and the design story work together.
How about a few words on costuming?
Remember, wearing spandex is a privilege, not a “right.” Be sensitive to changing young bodies.
Design your costumes for the extremes of the body sizes so that the very tall very thin body will be flattered and so that the short round body will also be flattered. Never design the costume only for the perfect body. Thank goodness we have the choice of customizing the looks for each individual student or section.
If the dominant color is on the body, the eye will naturally go there. If the dominant color is in the flags, the eye will go there. Regardless of choice, the two must be in harmony in both cut and color. You need to plan all the visuals in tandem to create an impressive look and elevate the production value.
Remember that the color yellow tends to exceed its boundaries. It can sometimes seem to bleed larger than it should.
Finally, a word on Taste
(This is a Biggie)
TASTE Taste is what you like.
Having taste implies an educated and discriminating awareness
Showing taste implies a sensitivity to your audience and “their” taste.
Being tasteful implies application of all of the above
Tasty means that it worked!
So my friends, with the holiday season upon us, this will wrap up the planning portion of our dialogs. I’ll resume our weekly conversations right after Christmas. In the meantime, we’re working on ways and means to offer you more services, on-line discussions, Q&A sessions via teleconferencing, etc. That’s OUR homework for this next slot of time.
By all means if you have any suggestions for how better we can serve you just tell me about them and I’ll try to make it happen. Personally, I’d love to be able to teleconference directly with the kids in your guard and answer their questions. Who knows, maybe even that can happen?
So, enjoy the holidays, get your planning and personal homework done and don’t hesitate to contact me for any reason or any question. I love hearing from you.
Best regards,
Shirlee Whitcomb
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