solos (270)

Solos are very scary times. In any performance there can be a solo. Band, choir, show choir, acting, dancing, color guard…all of them, they can all have solos. But I know for dance, as in dance team, and color guard solos are an actual performance of their own.

You cut any song you like so that is has no bad words and fits under two minutes. Then you write work to it. The writing work part is the most difficult part because I know that when I did my solo I just wanted to fill it up with random work that didn’t go with the big hit points of the the song, or with work that was so simple it was boring. At  my school it’s YOUR solo you can do with it what you want, write your own work and put in your own flare, but at some schools they have their color guard coach write their solos for them. Don’t get me wrong, in our guard friends help out and tell you to change a move her or there, and so do coaches but they don’t write the whole solo for you. In a way I kind of feel like that is cheating. 

After you write all the work you also get to pick out an outfit and a flag to perform with. You also get to choose your hair and makeup.

After you get everything ready the actual performance takes place. The call the number and the performer comes on and does her thing and after that two minutes she’s done. The awards come later that day.

Speech (575)

            Well speech season Is coming up and I think that’s it’s about time to explain this type of performance art, which might take a while because speech is actually not just standing at a podium, talking to a lot of people. There are all kinds of categories for acting and singing to being totally silent. 

            Ensemble acting is when a small group does a small play, their only props being a table and some chairs. They are not allowed to wear costumes but are expected to look nice. In one school you can have multiple ensembles doing different shows.

            Musical Theater is kind of like ensemble acting in the way that there is a small group of performers and they put on a show. In musical theater though they have very little lines to speak it is mostly the song they sing that keep the show going.

            Choral Reading is a little more difficult to explain. It is a bigger group of students, with more speaking and singing then ensemble acting and musical theater. The lines are spoke either as solo lines, duet, a small group within the larger group, or the whole ensemble speaks as one. The whole choral reading show can be fifteen minutes long. Now and then the ensemble sings songs that go with their theme.  They also put on a show, but with more of a mystery to it. They are allowed to wear costumes and have multiple props; they also have to have their script on stage with them.

             Now Mimes. I think everyone knows what a mime is. The creepy people who wear white face paint and pretend to be trapped in a box on the streets of Paris right? No? Oh. Well in speech mime can be a group performance or a solo event. You have to act out a scene, either serious or funny, while not using any props or any words. Just facials and your body. You’re not allowed to have costumes, in fact our director makes us wear all black so we don’t distract from the performance.

            Now the competitions you take all these performances too,(I didn't talk about all of them by the way, if you would like to read more about the different categories click here, http://www.ihssa.org/) the first competition is called Districts. This competition is held in a high school, the gym is the “homeroom” for performers from all schools to warm up, or relax, or meet up with coaches. It is also where many props are stored. The performances take place in classrooms and the auditorium. There is one judge per room who will rate the performance. After districts if you get a one rating the performance will move on to state competition, held on a different day at a different high school. The premise is the same, the gym is the homeroom and the performances go on in class rooms. There are more judges per room and it is harder to get a one rating but if the performance does, and it gets recommended for it, it moves on to the highest competition; All State. All State is held at Iowa State University and the performers still have to perform in smaller spaces but they are bigger then class rooms. The top performance, chosen by one critic, is given the banner to hold on to for the rest of the year. The banner is the top prize from all state.  

Winter Guard (414)

If you have read my blog before you will see a lot of show choir, color guard and marching band, but there is also one activity that gets a lot less recognition; winter guard. Winter guard is just like color guard in the way that you dance some and spin flags and it’s a performance for people to watch. The differences are that there is no band any more, just a recorded track to play, they also perform on a big “floor” set in the middle of a gym. The winter guard performs just as the dance team would, like in a gym or arena to a short song, about a minute to two minutes long. At my school participants in winter guard have the choice of performing a solo at state or MA solo drill competition.  In their solo participants can wear and perform whatever they want as long as it abides by the set rules.

            I believe that winter guard doesn’t get as much recognition as it should. The people on the teams practice a lot, but if you ask any random student if they like it they might react with “What’s winter guard, bro?” Winter guard performs at some basketball games at half time. Basketball is not as big of a spectator sport as football games though so not as many people see it.

            Their performance starts with them and their helpers (coaches and parents) bringing out the mat and equipment. After everything is placed the announcer presents them and their performance starts. Judges give points for performance, technique, and overall presentation. They also take away points for moves not being together, bad technique, if you break the rules, etc. Some rules are pretty normal like, no curse words in the song, but some are odd like, no roller blades, no pole dancing and so on. Once the performance is over the performers pull their mat off the performance area and the next group would come up or the basketball game would restart.

            When we performed winter guard for the student body two years ago, you could say it wasn’t our best performance, we missed our beginning cue, no one was performing, and we were all nervous for our peers to be watching us.  Yet we still got a standing ovation. From this reaction I think that if people could see more of winter guard that they would enjoy it and then the performers would get more recognition for their hard work.