Color guard
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Color Guard is a term used to describe both military personnel assigned to a flag ceremony and a flag corps assigned to a marching band.
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Color Guard in the Military
In the military, the color guard is typically a small number of soldiers (4 is common) charged with protecting the flag and performing flag raising and lowering ceremonies. Flag raising and lowering ceremonies normally require two people to handle the flag. Thus, the color guard usually has extra members who can guard the flag while the primary two members are busy handling it.
Color Guard in a Marching Band
In a marching band, the color guard is a non-musical section that provides the visual aspect of the performance. It can be part of a school's band or dance organization. The marching band and color guard performance generally takes place on a football field while the color guard interprets the music that the marching band is playing. A color guard can also perform without a marching band. This is referred to as "winter guard." A winter guard performance takes place in a gymnasium, and the color guard interprets music that is recorded.
History
Originally, a military color guard often travelled with a band, which would play a patriotic song. This use continued into the civilian marching bands; and, today, a marching band color guard will normally carry flags, flag poles, banners, mock rifles, mock sabres, or batons, much as a military color guard does. Color guards may include separate groups such as a rifle team, a flag corp, or baton twirlers. Color guards often dress and use different pieces of equipment to fit the theme of the musical selection, and switch out equipment for different parts or movements or the selection. Band color guards also spin, flourish, and toss their equipment in an extremely stylized manner, adding movement to the routines. Other props, of a nature relevant to the theme of the musical program, are also used. Marching band color guards can grow very large, sometimes rivalling the number of musicians in the band.
Competitions
Some color guards also participate in competitions that exclude the musical performers. Taking place after "marching season" ends, winterguard takes over. Winterguard is much more rigorous and intense than marching season, but also held to be more rewarding. Most of these guards are found in North America. Held indoors, typically in gymnasiums, winterguard competitions are a growing part of the pagentry activity which also includes marching bands and drum corps. Color guards involved in these indoor competitions may be a part of a high school or college marching band or may be stand-alone club activities in these educational institutions. Some guards are "independent" and are self-sponsored or attached to a non-profit organization such as a veterans post, a church, or a municipal recreation department. Such guards can draw members from a wide range of ages and areas. Guards may range in size from less than a dozen to over two dozen members.
In the past, color guard membership was limited to those under 22 years of age (except for the small number of adult guards) but Winter Guard International (WGI), a governing body for much of the competitive guard activity, raised the age limit for the highest class of independent guard. By the 1970s, most guard competitions were influenced by military marching and were performed to live drum cadences or were silent, relying on the footfalls of the members or the vocal cadences called out by the guard captain. That style evolved into the modern guard and WGI was formed in the late '70s set the stage for more standardized national competitive rules and judging.
Guards perform a show, now typically set to edited recorded music, that incorporates the classic guard equipment of flags, rifles, and sabres. The movement is highly stylized and largely influenced by dance. Members are drilling in the combination of equipment and movement until they have a polished presentation. Choreographers and designers often help meld the music, equipment work, and movement and some units use expressive make-up and facial accents to convey their show theme. Elaborate props -- which must be able to be assembled and disassembled rapidly to fulfill rigid competition time requirements -- and colored plastic tarps or painted canvas floors are frequently used to transform the gym floor into a temporary stage. Props, flats, and floors, along with the musical score and equipment routines, are used to take the audience to another place or time. Shows ranging from Niagara Falls to the Pirates of the Caribbean can be found, though a new copyright rule has been imposed stating that if music is copyrighted, a group must have permission from the holders of the copyright in order to use that music.
Units are judged on the effect of the design of the show and the aptitude of the members in movement and equipment work. Expectations and timing are different for the varying classes of unit with longer shows and more stringent requirements as the units ascend to the highest class, "World Class."
Competitions are generally held from January through early May with local circuits accounting for most of the competitions nationwide. WGI sponsors widely attended Regional Championships leading to the national championship typically held in Mid-April.
The WGI guard movement also spawned indoor percussion contests which are often quite similar to the guard contests in movement and design. Megan Zagrobelny, a prominent member of the Winter Guard division, is known to have devoted a great amount of time to Guard rather than save the lives of her fellow history project classmates, who ended up dead due to their project.
External links
Winter Guard International (http://www.wgi.org)