This post contains an audio recording of an interview with Kimberly Kinden and Diana Kostrubiak, captains of Black Watch Color Guard
The audio recording has all of my responses and little quips, so I made it more of a conversation by accident.
Today was incredible. The Black Watch color guard hosted a clinic at our school. We started off doing their warm ups and stretches. Their stretches were kind of incredible, and we really in depth. However, their across the floor were incredible. We did their version of a box, and then watched them do the rest.
They go in lines, just like we do. Their box was just a little different, in the sense that it was smoother. the "box" consists of this:
This is our box. We fall at a certain point, and it's more like we're pushing through a lot of jello. Theirs, however, was only one hand, and when they rose it's like they stood there, and then did four steps and then the spins instead of us, when we fall.
We then watched them do their across the floors, which incorporated aspects of their show into it. It was incredible, because we then noticed the really cool parts in the show and felt like a bunch of little sherlocks.
Afterwards we watched them practice like 20 seconds of their show for two incredible hours, no this is not sarcasm. It was incredible. I watched this one girl emily catch a six perfectly every single time she tossed it. She tossed it every single time they began the routine. It was astounding, they went through it so many times, and she threw it with poise, and expression. She kept her hand up great, and supun around and then caught it went it into the routine it was astounding.
We watched them go through it. And the key point about the clinic was that we got to hear the critiques. There was a key difference between our critiques and theirs. At one point the instructor just straight up said "That was crap do it again" it was truly the best thing that could've happened.
Their instructor had them echo back and forth,
Instructor: Are mistakes bad?
Black Watch: No
BW: Mistakes make you better
(stray BW member yelling) not bitter!
It was really funny, but the idea was the stronger thing. Becuase even though they were constantly crtiqued, they had that core idea. It gave me a lot of good ideas, along with the interview. Watching them, and the way they practiced made me really disapointed in some members. One of my favorite things that was said in the interview was that caring, and being commited to guard was the key to success. And that was something that made me so intrigued to try out and look into the people in our guard, the really talented people in our guard were really committed and had a lot of history within it.
We then had a practice with their flag coordinator. He looked at all of our routine. My only regret is that I didn't do too great.. I wasn't quite warmed up. and so I was basically terrible. I did most things wrong.
It was so valuable and interesting, I loved watching it. Their falgs were different than ours, they were kind of rubbery and bounced, they were able to toss it and be able to spin it much better. It was incredible. Their sabres were entirely taped. It was so cool, I loved just being there and experiencing all of it.
This was a really good day, and It kinda bugged me some people were thinking that they had to be there. because it was a little mandatory, but not in the same way of the competitions and practices.
This day was an incredible learning oppurtunity, and I'm really excited for future years in which I can get help on weapons. I love guard and I care for it so much. I just love it s o m u c h.
It's incredible how much I still care for guard, and the family it brings. All my buddies are in it. This clinic was one of the best things that happened for us, learning wise. It was really interesting and pretty breathtaking. It gave me so much hope, and a game plan
I need to be able to:
- do the sabre routine. This is getting ridiculous how much I've procrastinated this
- blade toss. really? how did I not figure this out???
that's it
I hope you found this ~interesting~
Even though I've talked to you about your project almost every single day, I realize now that I've never actually commented on your blog! Hey, Ellie! This interview was really interesting, and I found the post super informative. Glad you enjoyed the clinic, unlike others (shade). Anyways, I was wondering, are there camps for color guard? Over the summer, before band camp, of course, do you think you could just hang out with a bunch of flag throwers for a few weeks? Sounds like a good opportunity if given the chance.
ReplyDeleteThe are drum corps you can join, but that's basically it. To the best of my knowledge there aren't those sort of camps. However, even if there were I wouldn't be able to go which (sucks)
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