Putting in the work will show results, and that’s what got the RUHS Dance guard team to finals this year. Color Guard competitions are typically multi-day, tiered competitions featuring choreographed dances with elements of military rooted marching band performances such as flags and rifles.
On April 19, the RUHS Winter Guard team competed at the Winter Guard International (WGI) finals with their piece called Fairest.
“It’s basically about the evil queen and her story. In our show, over time, it starts out very sweet. She’s not as evil yet. And then, as our show goes on, the song starts to become more intense and faster at some parts and it really shows how she becomes evil over time,” freshman Logan Wallsh said.
WGI competitions have two parts, Champs, which is when a team medals or wins in their division, and Grand Champs, which is when a team medals first overall in the entire competition. On the first day of WGI, the RUHS Winter Guard team placed 4th in their division. While Winter Guard weren’t able to progress to the next round, Wallsh was satisfied with their performance with a composite score of 78 after medalling fourth in their round.
“You’re grouped in with people that have around the same scores as you, to make it more competitive. Anyone can really be first, second or third. But in order to move on to grand champs, which would be the next day on Sunday, which we did not make, you would have had to be top 15 scores in the whole division,” senior Jackson Lee, captain of Winter Guard, said.
All the work the guard team puts in isn’t just about winning but about being a team, according to Lee. An added layer of pressure is on Winter Guard performances because they aren’t just competing in a sport, but performing for others.
“I’ve always had stage fright. I don’t think that will ever really go away, but I’ve definitely learned how to manage it. Often, I try to turn my anxiety into excitement […] I’m tricking myself into being a little more excited, but also trusting myself like, ‘You’ve worked for this, [this] is what you’ve been rehearsing for and it’s only this time where you are able to showcase it.’ That’s my mindset going into competitions, not so much the score but showing off what we’ve practiced, what we’ve rehearsed, et cetera,” Lee said.
That stage fright disappears when the Winter Guard team members finally perform and actually get to acknowledge their accomplishments, according to Lee. For Winter Guard, making it to WGI is a major milestone, providing validation to the team.
“I was honestly really excited that we made it to the championships and also to have made it with such an incredible team that I have seen the team grow from the very beginning of the year to the very end. More than half the team are freshman, so more than half the team haven’t even done this activity for that long. To see them grow, and to see everyone else grow in such a short amount of time — it just made me feel very proud of them for all the accomplishments they’ve done and that I could spend my senior year with them,” Lee said.
At the end of the day, Winter Guard is a team that has worked for months together to practice and try to perfect their routine. Those hours spent together bonds people like no other way can.
“We were all very like a family, tight knit. But going through finals with them, we had to make it good, because it was our last performance of the year, and we’ll never be able to perform with the same team,” Wallsh said. “Like my coach always says, ‘Always live in the moment because it’s never gonna be the same team again.’”