Transcript
Speaker: Hey everyone, we are back for another week of exciting rehearsals. This week we are talking to mental health professional Sherry Kuzil and Jared Polite, founder of Melanin Mosaic. We also find out what made Emily stay. Go to therapy and do it. Talk to Sherry about your problems. Me in like three years when I get my licensure. For now, ignore my existence.
Speaker: and why Ricardo said, I am literally sitting here with my face and my palm and shaking my head as this is going on. I cannot. I cannot. All this and more. So get out on the field and we will see you back on the sidelines for this week's episode of On A Water Break. Eight off the Met and go. Welcome to On A Water Break, the podcast where we talk to everything marching arts,
Speaker: Welcome to another episode of season two of On a Water Break, the podcast where we talk about everything you and your friends are talking about at rehearsal on a water break. I'm Steve McCarrick and we are in for an exciting rehearsal this week. We have a kind of serious topic for us here on a water break, but it's a very important one and it's one that we promise not to get too serious with, but we're going to have a good time. We're talking mental health in the marching arts and specifically the growing need and resources for it.
Speaker: everyone bring it in it's time
Speaker: But before we get to all that, let's see who's on the sidelines this week. Ricardo, fresh off, you're a theater season at school. Bonjour, yeah. I just finished up with all the things. We had our magnificent spring musical performance a few weeks ago and then the very next week I did my school dance recital and then followed up with some color guard auditions and now we're gearing up, get ready for drum corps movements in a few days.
Speaker: Oh my goodness. See, it just does not stop for you, does it? No, no rest for the boy. Make us now seem like really lazy. Yeah, right. I'm over here. I'm like, I'm like, yeah, still feeling good from WGI. Might be about time. Get rolling.
Speaker: We'll be back, I'm sure, talking more about this all soon, but glad to have you here, Ricardo. Thanks. Emily, I heard you had your first Bantop design purchased and it's going to be manufactured now? Yeah, I mean, it was about time all of my doodles finally made it somewhere, but that was pretty cool. Yeah, so keep an eye out for it. I don't think I'm technically allowed to like share it just yet, but it isn't the works that's being made and it's really exciting.
Speaker: Just share the news. I mean, that's cool enough for me. I'm super that's awesome. Proud of you, actually. I feel like it's cool to see like your work come back and now you start to get paid for it after so many years of grinding. I'm still hoping maybe music will come that way for me someday, but we'll see.
Speaker: Nicole, barging in a little bit on our podcast over here, it sounds like. Well, one, hi, Stephen. I haven't seen you in forever. I know. I never see you or Jackie now because we've got the new structure. It's a shame. Yeah. Well, once you told me what your topic was today, I was like, oh, please pick me. I would love to come in and talk about those people. So, yeah.
Speaker: And I am just barking it on your territory. Well, you're always welcome. I am just being facetious. Happy to have you here, Nicole and Trish back producing and hosting this week, of course, kind of hanging out a little here in our background and making sure that all of our eyes are dotted, our T's are crossed. Weren't you just doing a Zoom class and and watching the Yankees?
Speaker: That's what I do best, multitasking, honey. That's what I do best. And I mean, you're dressed in the way that, you know, you're walking the talk, walk in the walk. I can see the Yankees shirt from here. So it's pretty much my summer wardrobe. I mean, I just have a million of them. So, you know, that's how it's reaching the closet. Close your eyes. You're probably going to grab a Yankee shirt.
Speaker: Um, yeah, I'll save my really good story for later. I'm sure you all have seen my profile pic. I'll save my really good story for later, but yeah, that's how we do. Oh, there was a whole text message conversation between. Yes. Yes, there was.
Speaker: Well, we will certainly revisit that one in a little bit. For now, we've got a very important guest that we all need to meet. So since we've got everyone on our sideline, we'll talk to our guest clinician for this part of rehearsal. As we begin to talk about mental health in the marching arts, please welcome Dr. Sherry Kuzil. Hi, happy to be here.
Speaker: Hey, we're excited. We're glad that you're able to cut some time out of your busy schedule to hop on our show. Why don't we, uh, why don't we kick things off here with your 32 count life story, which is how we love to get our new guests introduced to our audience around here. So you'll get eight and in from the Met, and then you'll have about 30 seconds to catch all our listeners up to speed on who you are and what you do. You ready? Sure. All right. You'll get eight and in from the Met.
Speaker: Hi, I'm Shari Kuzil. I have been in the marching arts since I was nine years old. I have marched with a small all -girl corps from New Jersey, the Bridgeman, the Crossman. I've taught world -class, open class, and now am on the White Seabirds DCI all -age visual staff and the mental health counselor for the Crossman in the real world. I am a behaviorist and psychologist for a school district here in New Jersey.
Speaker: Wow, nice. That's awesome. It's cool that you're like back around with a lot of groups that you either marched with or taught and you're even able to apply like aspects of your professional career into those groups that kind of like helped shape you when you were younger. What would you say maybe led you towards band initially or did you come from a music household or?
Speaker: I did not come from my, I mean, other than my dad playing like a saxophone and clarinet, but like a friend of mine, when we were in fourth grade said, I have this thing I want you to come check out. And it was a small agor core from New Jersey back in the 70s, late 70s, early 80s. And I was like, yeah, let's go. Let's do this thing. So back in fourth grade, instead of like a school program that was actually going to an independent core.
Speaker: Yes, yes. Wow. Sure she'll remember all the small cores that good old New Jersey used to have back in the day. And was in a few. Yeah, no, I kind of wish we still had that. That sounds like a really cool way to get into the activity.
Speaker: And then at some point along the way also got brought towards all the different mental health aspects of things as well. What would you say maybe draws you towards like working as a psychologist or working with mental health?
Speaker: Well, I went to school for speech pathology and started working in the autism field and really just loved working with the kiddos with special needs. And became a behaviorist, went, got my doctorate in clinical psych, did a lot also with adults with what they call dual diagnosis. So those are mental health issues and developmental disabilities.
Speaker: still consult with a, um, adult program here in New Jersey. And yeah, I, I, I love it. I think, and I think now that we have mash at the DCI level, bringing awareness to the mental health issues that happened within drum core WGI and all of that, you know, it's an important topic. Yeah. So why don't we talk a little bit more about that? You said it sounds like DCI is putting more of an emphasis towards marching arts. Yes.
Speaker: Great. So like, could you maybe tell us a little bit more about some of these new initiatives that DCI is taking to help promote mental health in the marching arts? Sure. This past January, we all went to Indianapolis, Indiana for the DCI general meeting.
Speaker: I actually was there with the Whitesabers because I'm also their mental health counselor. And I got roped into joining the MASH, which is the Marching Arts Safety and Health Committee through DCI. Mental health is very tiny right now. It's very new. It's very, you know, sort of
Speaker: on the radar for all the cores. They're like, oh, we had a lot of issues last year. A lot of kids deciding to have anxiety attacks in the middle of the summer. So they did a lot of talking about the Gen Z and the new generation and anxiety in our Gen Z kids.
Speaker: Because those are the kids that are marching drum corps anymore. It's not really the, you know, the millennials are now older. It's now the Gen Z. And, you know, they're basically the generation who have never not had social media.
Speaker: So, you know, and some of the anxiety -ridden stuff. So it was very interesting. And when they found out what I did, you know me, Trisha knows me really well. I'm always like, yep, okay, let me raise my hand and put my two cents in on my opinion here, please. And, you know, and I got roped into being on the WASH committee for the mental health. It is really just me and Dr. Levy right now who's with the Cavaliers.
Speaker: And so right now the mental health part of MASH is really, really teeny tiny. You're looking for new people who might be able to join in a few years? Yes, of course we are. I'm something of a mental health person myself. So when I'm not randomly drawing uniforms on random astronomical phenomenon or high schools, I'm actually in a master's program for counseling, actually. It's not a doctorate program, but I've been really interested.
Speaker: Yep, you don't need to have your doctorate, you just need to have a license and get hooked up with a drum corps because that's really the big thing.
Speaker: I'm not sure. I know that Dr. Levy's with cabbies. He also consults with blue devils and I'm with the Crossman. I can't tell you if any other DCI core has a mental health person associated with it. I've heard rumors. We do. We have a team at the academy. Yeah. We actually have two mental health specialists that are going to either be with us on special parts of the tour, but
Speaker: I am proud to say that the members are able to access them and contact them 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any of their mental health needs. So that's how I'm very proud of them. Oh, that's so good. That is something with the Crossman. Those members will have access to me. Fortunately, as most mental health counselors are, we're state -
Speaker: license, not national license. That was my next question about how the ethics across state lines work. So I can't treat, but I can triage. And I can just listen. I can listen and advice. And I am doing a training at Move -Ins.
Speaker: with the membership about anxiety toolboxes, like worse things you can do when you're having a rough day, you know, to have things. I know that I was at their April camp this past April and we at Crossman actually do a self -assessment that the kids are have to turn in.
Speaker: and part of it is mental health questionnaire. And when they had said that, and we flagged some of those kids who said, hey, you know, three or four times a week, I'm feeling anxious, I'm this. And then I went and did PHQ -9s and GAD -7s on those kids that we flagged. I know what those are, I just learned about them before. I met with them and went through the checklist and, you know, we talked about, you know,
Speaker: how, you know, that I met with administration to, hey, you know, what can we do to support these members, you know, so that they can march? I mean, I think it's really important now to think about mental health, you know, because... Oh, totally. Back when I marched, it was not a thing. Well, I think they called it at that point, like, you're hitting a wall, you know, and it's just like, why do I keep hitting this wall? Like, I'm bashing my head again.
Speaker: you know, and I think we just had different ways of going about it. Sherry, I just wanted to tell you like you're actually kind of living the dream right now is because you're taking what you are doing in and this is real world, but you're taking real world stuff and adding it to that pageantry arts, which
Speaker: honestly is, is going to, you know, just catapult us. I want to say to the next level, elevate the experience. I think it's, I think it's amazing. I'm a huge self -care advocate. Like self -care Sunday started when I stopped doing drum Corps. And I, I'm, I'm, I'm a little, I mean, I'm only on tour for two weeks, Ricardo, three weeks.
Speaker: You're there for a lot of mental health on the tour. Yeah. I'm going into it differently, obviously, and just being older and knowing, but I think that's going to be really good for those kids who don't know really how to pinpoint things, but at least you're giving them a way to
Speaker: I reach out, I guess. I reach out to really like, hey, we're going to talk about journaling. We're going to talk about ways to calm yourself down on your field, how to center yourself when you're having. What's something you can see? What's something you can smell? What's something you can touch right there? What can bring you back real quickly from an anxiety attack really quick? I'm also doing some training with the staff.
Speaker: and the leadership of the core we're going to talk about. We're going to talk, I'm going to talk the leadership about, you know,
Speaker: I want our drum majors and our, you know, horn sergeant, our color guard captains, you know, look for the kids who are sitting by themselves. Invite them to come sit with you. Don't go sit with them because then you're going to single them out. They might be feel worse. Come, come sit with me. Come meet people. Come, you know, especially, you know, and I'm sure Academy's in the same boat where you guys would probably have a large rookie.
Speaker: population right now. Crossman not being a finalist, same boat. We have a ton of rookies. So to make sure that those kids are just really assimilating into the core and not feeling left out and teaching the staff what to look for.
Speaker: The kid, the self -deprecating kid, the kid who's costly, there's not a physical injury. They're not a sprain, but I don't feel good. My stomach hurts. I have a headache. All those kids who are like, oh, those are signs of more of a mental health thing than a physical thing at that point.
Speaker: Sherry, can I chime in for a second? And this is for the listeners too. Just to kind of give you everybody a little bit of insight, this episode came to be because we were throwing around topics for our team and I was at a moment as a person who was about to take over a world -class color guard.
Speaker: And I was having some serious anxiety myself as a staff member about going back on tour. And so I kind of just threw that into the group. And mind you, I have a degree in human development. Like I've studied psychology. I've done the things. I'm an intellectual person. I always tend to talk myself.
Speaker: through mental health things, but I was struggling myself just with the anxiety of even going back on tour at this age that I am in right now that I'm not going to stay on the air.
Speaker: What are some things that you would also say to the staff members and the admin and all of those people who are also going through their own versions of mental stress in the process of Drum Corps? It's not just the students that are there where they are the focus of everything. I mean, we adults are leaving our families, our homes, we're leaving our lives behind.
Speaker: And then at the same time, we're also focusing on making sure that all of the members are okay. That takes a strain as well. Yep. And I always say, remember your why. Why did you decide to come out of retirement or wherever you were last year and say, you know what? I'm going to be the Academy's Captain Head this year. In Europe. I was in Europe. Vacationing.
Speaker: You know, so, you know, I'm gonna come in and just, you know.
Speaker: And have confidence in yourself. Take time for yourself. I think self -care for the staff on tour is really important as well. And don't feel pressured to be like, I taught, I taught Raiders. I taught DCI. Don't be pressured to, oh, we're all going out tonight. We're going to do this. I need time for me tonight. I'm going to go. I'm just going to hang. I'm going to journal. I'm going to do whatever I need to do because you guys need to self -care as well because you need to separate because you guys are on all the time.
Speaker: You know, especially color guard staff. It's not like you can come in. We don't get a block off. Exactly. You don't get a block off. It's not like the vision staff has, you know, the morning and the brass staff strolls in at one o 'clock after sleeping until one, you know? Don't get me started on that. That's a whole nother topic for a show, so we should make that down, Steven. Sounds like a water we doing for Ricardo. Water we doing?
Speaker: Yeah, just so make sure you're taking care of yourself. You know, self care is important on tour.
Speaker: What about, I think like many of these ideas are also applicable. Like we have a lot of band directors probably that listen to our show and maybe they, instead of drum corps, they run like a high school marching sort of environment as well. Well, do you have any advice maybe for a band director working with younger students for how they could create like a community at their school or their program that's like a positive towards mental health and inclusive towards all sorts of different like a student's home lives or what sort of like things they might have going on?
Speaker: I think the thing with band is like, and I think drum corps too, just make it a safe space, you know, like, I know there's a drum corps that is from the Madison, Wisconsin area that I know at the beginning of their movements, they actually don't start like, hey, we're gonna learn drill. Hey, we're gonna, they do icebreakers. They spend a couple of days with the kids getting to know each other, doing icebreakers, doing, I think that is so important.
Speaker: When my daughter marched Boston Crusaders in 2009, I'll never forget, and they did that at the last camp before Move -Ins. They had an entire night block of nothing, but getting the kids together, they split the kids into teams and they learned the beat -it dance for Michael Jackson.
Speaker: And they did this whole big thing, like with stuff like that, you know, right before you're going into move -ins or the first couple of days of move -ins, same thing with Bandcamp. I know that the marching man I work with in New Jersey during Bandcamp, they do a scavenger hunt the first couple of days, the first day. And they have all, so you're getting the kids to work as a team. You're making it fun. You're, you know, make Band and Drum Corps a safe space. It should be that safe space for the kids. It shouldn't be somewhere where,
Speaker: It's you know, it is hard work, but it shouldn't be. It should be fun, hard work. Exactly. Yeah. Well, we have one other question, a quick question. This is a bit of a departure from the conversation we've been having up until this point a bit, but something fun we like to ask people, Sherry, is what part of the marching arts do you think are you or what part of a marching drum corps show? Are you I am the drill.
Speaker: because I love the visual end of things. It's what I do at Whitesabers. I'm on their vis staff. Yeah. God, I just, I love all those moving pieces and connecting the dots and putting people where they should be. Yeah.
Speaker: the drill. I was the drill anyway, because that's what I do with the mental health putting, you know, making sure that people are ready to be where they have to be. And if they're in the, you know, I'm going to make sure that they're ready to be in that that you're the foundation, like the drills, the foundation of the show. That's awesome. Yeah, that's a great answer. And it's a new one. All right. Well, at this point, I think it's about time. Why don't we hop into the news for this week?
Speaker: All right, we've got a couple stories here. Nicole, do you want to kick us off?
Speaker: Sure. There is a town of 8 ,700 people, and they've raised $45 ,000 to send their marching band to the Victoria Day Parade. That's nice. That's more than a dollar per person. 8 ,700 people raised 45 grand.
Speaker: The numbers are turning in my head. That surely someone could calculate that. Not me. Right. And it's a small town, which leads me to believe before I even read, you know, the article, like it's probably the only high school there. I'm pretty sure the people who live there went to that high school and, you know, marched in the marching band. So.
Speaker: A couple of things I can tell you is that the Victoria, it's the longest running annual parade in Victoria. So it holds particular meeting for the high school bands throughout like the Pacific Northwest. The high school's name is, please forgive me if I'm not pronouncing this correctly, but I think it's Hoquiam.
Speaker: High school. It has about 400 students and a quarter of them are in the music program. Well, that's amazing. You know what I mean to think about that in a whole to have that many kids in the in the music program, you know, as a whole of the school proper. I don't even know if I've heard of a school with that high of a like band involvement or just engagement in the arts period.
Speaker: I have before, but it doesn't seem like it's that way now, you know what I mean? I've heard about it in the past. Right. So the kids, they pack their drums, they're about 40 pounds a piece, and they say that the kids love performing in parades, and it's just one of the favorite things that they like to do. Also, I don't know if a lot of people know this either, but parades are a very good way to raise money. Usually, that's what they'll do if they ask you to be, you know, if you're in a parade, they'll
Speaker: And they love going to the Victoria parade. You guys have candy there and we don't have candy in the States is what they say. After arriving on Saturday, Hoquiam students, they toured the, I wanna say the Bouchard Gardens. They went for a swim in the Sanic Commonwealth Place. And then they checked out an escape room in downtown Victoria. Oh, if you haven't done an escape room,
Speaker: Pass you back some money, I think. It's a little gig.
Speaker: You need to. Those are fun. It's been a little while. I think I maybe need a mental health professional when I'm in an escape room.
Speaker: How does it make you feel? Also Nicole, I was looking at your news article, sorry, spoilers, but actually I was wondering if I could go into my news story because my news story is related to somebody who's mentioned in Nicole's news articles. Go right ahead.
Speaker: So, yeah, Dr. McDavid, who was mentioned in your news article, he's actually retiring. He's the longest running director of University of Washington's College marching band. And I think he's retiring after 30 years. He actually got the band block dedicated to him, too. Wow. Congratulations.
Speaker: Well, so in here, and your timing is so good, Emily. I try. So it says, no. University of Washington athletic director, Dr. McDavid, he credits the tradition of a small town Washington state bands for playing in the Victoria Day Parade to Ken Noreen. It's a former music director of Shorecrest High School in Shoreline, Washington, just north of Seattle.
Speaker: He was one of the people who played a huge role in establishing one of the high school's presentations. So McDavid is bringing a 40 person drum line. Wow, that's a lot. That's a lot of bang bang. It's fine.
Speaker: And a half dozen dancers from the University of Husky Marching Band, University's Husky Marching Band, to the Victoria Parade for the last time. As you said, because he's going to re -talk. I know. We're going to miss him dearly. Oh. So I think this is amazing.
Speaker: to have the backing of the community. And I mean, I think that's a big reason why a lot of high schools, especially in small towns, you want they do a lot for the community, you know, not just for Friday night lights, but for parades and for other, you know, grand openings and things like that. So
Speaker: It's like we are all helping each other. And I think that's great. Yeah. As someone from, oh, sorry. Oh, that's OK. Oh, no, I was just saying, like, as someone who's from WA, the Pacific Northwest, it is true what you say, Nicole, that we do try to do a lot of community events. Like, the university does a lot of community events, the ensembles. I'm a part of do a lot of community events. So it's just really sweet. Before we get derailed, maybe we should go to the next news story when we're done.
Speaker: Yes, so I'll just say this, so let's see, just following the parade and the festivities, so let you know this is actually happening on Sunday.
Speaker: Starting with the Hocum Jazz Band at 10 .30, final performance will be at 4 p .m. with an hour -long show featuring the U .S. Marine Corps from San Diego, the Natan Band and the Canadian Scottish Pipe and Drum Band. Oh, man. Yeah, it's a big event. Yeah, and then on Monday is the actual Victoria Day Parade, and it will run on Douglas Street to Tullmey Avenue,
Speaker: to Belleville Street beginning at nine o 'clock. If you are in the WA area, wait that is a state, sorry, if you are in Washington and you're near this, you should probably, I think you should go. And then the last thing I just want to bring up too, performances displays of culture from local groups they tie into such countries as the Ukraine, Peru, Nepal, and Korea.
Speaker: So it's gonna be multicultural, different kinds of music. It'll be great. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I wish I lived in Washington instead of New Jersey. Sherry could probably relate. But, and Trish. But that's cool, definitely. If you're listening and you're in that area, you should go check it out. Ricardo, what do you got this week?
Speaker: Oh my goodness, Steven, I'm coming to you live from my podcast recording studio, which is actually just the guest bedroom in my house here in Pittsburgh, Florida, to tell you about the 2024 Future Music Educators Experience that is only at DCI. Listen, guys, this is a collaboration with Drum Corps International, the College Band Directors National Association,
Speaker: The amazing Fran Kick, I've known Fran Kick for over 20 years. Fran Kick ran some stuff with me. Fran Kick is awesome. To know Fran Kick is to know love and light. But the Midwest Clinic, the National Association for Music Education, the National Band Association, the National Federation of High School Association,
Speaker: the Percussive Arts Society, and Winter Guard International. This is an offer for future music educators to get the opportunity to learn outside of the normal university curriculum, and it provides a platform to ask questions to those who have been in their shoes through a variety of interactive sessions and activities. And it is gonna take place at the 2024 Drum Corps International World Championship Semifinals on Friday, August 9th at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Speaker: This event is free to any student who is currently enrolled in a music program or music education program, both undergraduate and graduate level. And the best part about this, not only do you get all of the backing of all of these amazing organizations who do so much for education and education in the arts, you also get a complimentary ticket to the DCI World Championships in my finals.
Speaker: Hey, come learn and watch. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. It's totally awesome. Yeah. Some of the benefits of this is that you get to learn from a network with a variety of movies and shakers in the marching music community. You get a behind the scenes tour of Lucas Oil Stadium.
Speaker: Do you get a ticket to the DCI World Championships in my finals? It's just great. This is one of those things where it's like, you need to jump on this if you're a future music educator. As someone who has been in a music education program who is now teaching, I'm going to tell you, you're never going to learn as much in that classroom as you are talking to actual people who do it. And if you have good professors, they're going to tell you that because mine did. And they made me get out in the world and do stuff.
Speaker: So how do they sign up to do this again? Yeah, so the registration form is up on DCI .org until July 26th. You just go to DCI .org slash Future Music Ed. That's DCI .org backslash Future Music Ed.
Speaker: Awesome. Yeah. Go check that out. That is not something you want to miss if you're in the Indianapolis area, or even if you're not, dude, like you're going to get a free ticket. Semifinals, you better go. Like maybe you should make a trip out, get your free ticket. It's a probably, you can't beat that experience in a classroom. You're exactly right. Ricardo.
Speaker: All right. And then the very last one here, I think, Trish, you actually got something for us here. What do you got? I do. So my last week news article was about the director of participant relations leaving WGI.
Speaker: This week we got word that Wayne Markworth is also leaving WGI. He's leaving his position as director of WINS. And WGI put out a really nice statement, complimenting him. Wayne Markworth has exemplified fearless and visionary leadership throughout his tenure, fostering remarkable growth and success. I mean, and that's definitely true. I mean, we can all remember a time not so long ago where there was no WINS.
Speaker: category at WGI and look at how far it's come. So if any of you out there are interested in applying for the position, you can get in touch with WGI, but I don't know him personally, but I mean, I could certainly appreciate all the contributions that he did make to have the win thing really kick off the way it has. And, you know, those, I don't know if anybody here knows him, but certainly, you know, major props to him and, you know, best of luck to him, you know, whatever he decides to take on next.
Speaker: Absolutely. Excellent. Yeah. And that's a, that's actually a really exciting idea. We do have so many like band director listeners and other folks, maybe just from our recent windows that have been coming out. I feel like we've been kind of on the beat of what wins is developing into. It's been a little bit of like a.
Speaker: unearth story for a lot of color guard or people because we don't really know what goes on over there. Whoever's going to take on this new role actually has an incredible opportunity to like really shape a whole entire idiom of the activity into what it's about the next like 15 to 20 years. So yeah.
Speaker: genuinely really cool opportunity. There's someone out there listening that would probably really kill it in that role. Cool. That's that's awesome. Thank you for sharing. And then Sherry, I think I actually have a little note here. Is there something you wanted to share with us? What are we doing? What are we doing? I guess a disgruntled
Speaker: Former member of the one DCI all age core, made a rate my drum core website.
Speaker: There's been a lot of always activity on there, not so much some DCI opening world class stuff, but there's definitely been some all age tea going on. Oh my goodness. I have the least question, yes, like rate my professor, and it was marketed as such. You've seen rate my professor now, here's rate my drum corps.
Speaker: The post lasted on Facebook for about a half an hour. Yes. Oh, wow. Oh, so it does. I mean, I know that people want to air dirty laundry sometimes and those people are messy, but we need to, we need to keep it clean. People keep it clean in the streets, please.
Speaker: Well, I just think that we all go back to my, what are we doing about talking crap about people? If you ain't got nothing nice to say, just shut up. Exactly. Go to therapy and do it.
Speaker: Talk to Chip Ray about your problems. Me, in like three years when I get my licensure. For now, ignore my existence. You know, anytime this comes up, it'd just be like, we have somebody for you. We're just gonna put you in trouble.
Speaker: I also thought it was really interesting that two cores did opt out. So I was wondering, and I posted about this too, did this individual reach out to like every DCI world open and all age drunk core and say, I'm doing this.
Speaker: would you like to be a part of it? Because there were two lists at that, one that I'm an alum of that did opt out. So I was wondering how that all came down too. No, because the sad person who created it is an alumni of the said drum corps I teach and our director knew nothing about it. Wow.
Speaker: Sadie, Sadie, Sadie, Sadie, Sadie. Now, I know the post came down on Facebook. Do we know if the site is still up? Oh, hold up. Let's look. Let me Google that. On the minute reporting, people. On the beat. Coming to you live. Live today here on Waterbreak. I searched right in my core, and I'm finding stuff about the Army Corps of Engineers. Oh, dear. All right.
Speaker: Welcome to Rate My Core. Nope. Still up. Wow. I'm still there. Still up. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't know this existed. I mean, not that I could contribute because I never marched a core, but.
Speaker: Yep, it has find your core and then you scroll down and there's a list of most of the drum cores. Aye, aye, aye. I don't know if I want to ask. I just want you to understand that I am literally sitting here. Here's the opted out cores, the fusion core. And that's probably because they were definitely getting, they were one of the cores. It was by an ex -fusion member who did not like the drum core.
Speaker: Fusion Core, Bushwhackers, Blue Devil, and all of the Blue Devil's organizations have opted out. Otherwise, all of us, good. Oh my God. Good. Yeah? This is - Well, that's a thing I didn't know that needed to exist. I have thoughts, but that would take up all this entire - It does need to exist. I do not need to exist. On this episode of things that I wish I didn't know existed. Exactly. Listeners, if you are not watching this on the YouTube channel,
Speaker: I just have like this this like grin that's 50 % cringe and 50 % like I can't take my eyes off like what's happening here. I'm going to be seen being making cringe faces. Oh no. Maybe this is going to be some inspiration for your next doodle. Cringe.
Speaker: Oh, why don't we on that note, we'll pop over Sherry. Do you want to give us a gushing go here? This is where you get an opportunity minute or whatever you want to do to just kind of talk about whatever you would want to leave our audience with before we wrap up here. Great job, everyone. My my what I like to leave you guys with is
Speaker: definitely take care of your mental health on tour, if you're on a touring drug court, staff as well, admin as well, kids as well, and reach out, talk to people. Like don't, if you're going through an anxiety or a mental health issue, you don't have to face it alone. You know, your staff is there to help you too. I mean, you know, I look at it this way, my, you know,
Speaker: Trish knows and PJ tanker is one as a close friend of mine and taught my daughter when she was nine years old and to this day and my daughter's 30 and only marched under him at Raiders and then went to Boston. Yeah, she she just had dinner with him and when he went to Texas like those are the those people are the ones to read that are going to make the connections and be there for the kids. So find your person.
Speaker: Absolutely. Very great advice. Your person, your little community, try to be tight with your section if if you're enjoying it, because this tour is very short. It feels long when you're in it and it's difficult, but you will quickly find that tour goes by fast and you'll miss those people not that long after.
Speaker: All right, well, let's, uh, let's pop back over into rehearsal here. I'm actually going to break off on my own because I need to journal a little bit and I think I'm going to take care of myself in this instance here, but we will be back after a short commercial break.
Speaker: Hey everyone, it's Jeremy, and here are your announcements coming from the box. Don't miss all of our bonus content, including On a Water Break in Rhinestones with your host, Lexi Duda, exploring the world of the Twirlers. Don't miss parades and drum majors at Step Off with your host, Jack Goudreau, and Get Lost in Translation with your host, Cynthia Bernard, exploring all the words that confuse all of us in the marching arts all across the world.
Speaker: and go behind the lens with marching arts photographers all across the country with your host, Chris Marr. Plenty more bonus content from On A Water Break, so listen anywhere you get your podcasts. If you want to be on On A Water Break as a guest or you know somebody that would make a great guest for On A Water Break, email us at onawaterbreakpodcastatgmail .com or find us on social media.
Speaker: Okay, field staff, take it away. Let's reset. All right, it is time we are back and we're ready to welcome another guest host to the sideline, Jared Polite. Thank you for joining our show. Hello, thanks a lot.
Speaker: We're just rocking and rolling here. I think a good way to get everyone introduced to our new guests here is through our 32 Count Life story. We'll give you about 30 seconds to introduce our audience to who you are, what you do, as well as Melanin Mosaic, and bring us all up to speed. You'll get Aitnan from the Met. You feel ready? Yes. All right. You get Aitnan.
Speaker: Hello, my name is Jared Polite. I am a multi -hyphenated creator, producer, artist, as well as the founder and artistic director for Melanoma Day Performance Ensemble. I started my marching career in Brooklyn, New York on a whim, going with my father to a rehearsal, didn't know where I was going, and I've been involved in the activity ever since, going from horn player to drum major to color guard.
Speaker: Um, I found my forever home in color guard. Um, but i'm also a huge fan of movies visual arts performance parts And so i'm melon mosaic is really that you know combination of all those loves Wow, that's super interesting i'm gonna have like a million questions about that and i'm ready for a million So melon and mosaic combines maybe a couple different sorts of uh
Speaker: hobbies and loves of yours from your lifetime. Is melanin mosaic a traditional performance like ensemble in the marching arts or is it something a little different? I say it's using the skills we all gained in the marching arts and putting them to use in a different avenue, a different platform.
Speaker: is non -competitive. There's no need to compete when there's already a thousand and one competitive units out there, but there's no unit based directly around art and visual art and performance art for our community. You rarely see it when it comes to the color guard. You see it more in drum lines. Everybody, NBA team has a drum line, football team has a drum line, so they're all doing those things.
Speaker: Horn players can do symphonies and orchestras, dancers can go to any dance company, but there's not a real home for color guard professionals. And I say professionals because it does take a lot of years and a lot of money to become a professional in this activity. But yet on the flip side, there's nothing but teaching or designing
Speaker: or wasting your talents. And then you're like, well, I wish I could have should've would've. Well, Melanodaic is that could've should've would've. So come on over and let's do some stuff.
Speaker: That's so interesting. And I've always felt like kind of the rules that we have because of competition are actually really constraining towards artistically what these sorts of ensembles could do or could be. Absolutely. So what is like an example of sort of a performance for Mellon and Mosaic or what you guys do then if it's not in the traditional competitive venue?
Speaker: Well, currently we've been doing film work. That's where we started our journey. We've had three productions at a date. We just celebrated our first year anniversary of May 1st. So that was great. We did three productions, like I said, and the first production, Soulful Serenade, had been accepted or have been allowed to be previewed or viewed in five film festivals so far around the world.
Speaker: from Italy to Toronto to Detroit. We are not just taking our skills and putting them on film, sort of like what COVID did, where there was a lot of people doing great work. And then it just sat on YouTube for one community. We are showing that our culture and our community is vibrant and should be reaching heights beyond what we currently have.
Speaker: So there are people who have never seen Color Guard, have seen Melon Mose, a performance ensemble on film, and now know what a piece of the marching class looks like. Nice. That's such a great way to get the word out for everything and, uh, and honestly get the buzz going too. And not to mention you're like stepping into like such a niche. I mean, well, Color Guard and, and, you know, our, what we do is niche too. Absolutely.
Speaker: such a niche thing with like film festivals. I love film festivals. That's like my gateway from that. And yeah. I would say my first love has always been film. When I was thinking about, you know, where my love has really resonated.
Speaker: The Wiz is my favorite movie, hands down of all time. And you have that kind of stellar cast with that kind of music, that kind of dancing, that kind of visual storytelling. As a youngster, I was blown away, consistently just watching it. I could watch that thing.
Speaker: front, back, up, down, left, right, VA select start. I can watch that. And it goes the same with the Blues Brothers. I've watched that. The West Side Story, watch that. All those kind of film adaptations of theater, I love because it tells you a different story in a different way. So you're not seeing a two -dimensional object. You're seeing the motion, the character, all that stuff in a different form. And I love that. You can't get that with seeing it on the field one side, one way. You're going to get that through film. And I love film art for that reason.
Speaker: Jared, you and I have gotten to talk a little bit on the side of our mutual love for theater. And in a phone conversation on Friday night last week, we were talking about the fact that I just got to see The Wiz on Broadway, the new Broadway cast. And how has theater influenced, not just film, but theater, musical theater, like live theater influenced how you
Speaker: think and take about ideas for Mellon and Mosaic.
Speaker: There's no greater joy than live theater because it is live. There's no, there's no barrier between you and the audience. So when it happens, it happens. Whether you mess up or do a great job, it happens live in front of people's face. And people who go to theater appreciate that because they know if things happen, it's going to happen. I'm going to be witnessing like this once in a lifetime opportunity that something weird happened. And I could say, oh, I was there when the lights went out and they had no microphones and this or that, like a badge of honor.
Speaker: Because it's live or live performance and people can appreciate that more than you know a film that was perfectly Manicured and cut take that again and let's take another time and but you don't get that kind of love for it for a film We get live theater and live theaters always been my first love. So yeah, I just I can't even I just love it performance performance art music art, you know, I do music on the side and I love performing in front of people because it's a it's a connection and
Speaker: the response is instantaneous and you get that appreciation instantaneously and you just have that feeling and the connection. If you were there, you were there and you weren't, you weren't. So. Art is life and you're creative. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was just thinking about that. Like if I was designing something for film instead of like a regular competitive venue, then like you would have totally different avenues through which you would even think about the design. So like how
Speaker: What sort of creativity have you felt you've been able to explore because of the medium of film compared to the medium of competing at DCI? Are you able to explore different aspects of Color Guard? I don't even think about competitive Color Guard when I'm doing my work for Mellon Mosaic because it is such a
Speaker: a different world. I often say, you know, the arts and community, we are in a sandbox, right? It's very beautiful in the sandbox, but the sandbox is usually on a beach where there's a lot more sand, there's a lot more opportunity, water, sun, surf, people, bars. There's lots more opportunity when you're not in the sandbox.
Speaker: So that gives it a range of let's try something. Let's do something. Let's be creative. And there's no limits when it comes to creating work outside the competitive world. There's no limits at all. It's what can you think? What do you want to present? And you present it. So when it comes to theater and live art and color guard, when you take those restraints of judges and these boxes that you have to take off to make art and just make art for art's sake, it's the most freeing experience ever. It really is.
Speaker: Well, I know you're very inspiring, very, really different takes on the marching arts and pageantry through what you do compared to what we normally get to chat about. So Jared, this the focus of this episode has been about mental health and
Speaker: I noticed because I follow Melon and Mosaic on social media. Like everyone should. As everyone should. Everyone actually should. It is a fantastic social media platform to follow.
Speaker: But I noticed that you guys right now are doing a huge focus on mental health and specifically mental health in the arts and in the pageantry arts. Tell us a little bit about your background and your background in the mental health field and the crossover into the pageantry arts.
Speaker: Well, let's get into it. As a young black male growing up in the inner city drum corps, it was different than what you experienced in the drum corps that is not in the inner city. There was 99 .8 % black and brown young adults going through real struggles. Like I said to you in the interview before, we had people who were on parole, like getting off the bus. They were fighting the last weekend in jail, and their only way to escape was being signed off to go drum corps tour.
Speaker: Like that's real life when you're in the streets of New York City trying to survive. And we had that experience growing up where it wasn't just like we're doing this because it's fun, like we're doing this because we want to escape, like literally escape whatever we're dealing with in our real lives, whether it be on tour or just a weekend or just a day performing around the country. So when you have that kind of mentality, you really feel like
Speaker: I'm doing this not just because it's fun, but it's a state. And sometimes those things we don't talk about in the marching arts community, mental health, and how we are expecting the world from these young adults not realizing or thinking about what they're going through when they're not in our presence.
Speaker: And that has a huge effect on the performer and the way you teach, the way you learn, the way your show develops, the way you interact with people, the educational value they get out of marching. And we need to make sure that these young adults and old adults, because
Speaker: Teachers, designers, judges, all have mental health issues and problems that they can address outside the community, but they bring it into the community on a daily basis. So when people are yelling at a judge in their face and mad about a damn score, that person just maybe had a whole situation to go on before they even got there, but they're still here doing their job. But we're not thinking about that. We're thinking about only ourselves and our part of what community that we're in and what we need out of this experience.
Speaker: And then we bring that into our own lives and then bring that to the groups. And then it becomes a festering cesspool of just problems that no one's addressing. So mental health is a huge part of the marching arts, and it should be addressed way more often. And I'm sad that it's not. So Melon Mosaic was taking our part to make sure that we are doing us a justice to take sure that people who have any kind of situation have a place to learn, have a place to grow, be better human beings inside and outside the activity.
Speaker: That's I mean, honestly, you hit I think I think that you hit the nail right on the head, because honestly, and you made me think about some things too, because just like, okay, we don't know where I mean, the kids, the kids, people who teach the judges, we don't know what you walked away from. And we don't know what you're missing in Lou to be here. You know what I mean? Like to be on tour. So
Speaker: That is a lot. That's 100, 200 people's problems all in the same bus for three months. I think that's a lot.
Speaker: that's a lot going on nowadays. People get messages and phone information. It's not even have to do with them. It could be the world's going around them that they're feeling like now I have to go out and smile, perform. Well, meanwhile the world's hurting around me. These young adults nowadays are getting way more information than we did. We can, we didn't have a cell phone. We was like, well, we're on tour. Let's just have fun on tour. Look at cows pass by and buses and
Speaker: Ooh, this is pretty, this is pretty. Now they're inundated with distress and problems 24 -7 and there's no escape and they come out and perform. It's like, yeah, I'm going to go to block, but I just read that they're bombing or they're murdering or that this is happening or that's happening and I got to smile about it.
Speaker: I mean, it's something to be said, like when I marched back in the 1900s, we didn't have cell phones. Cell phones weren't a thing. And even when I marched in the early 2000s, which is real close to the 1900s, we weren't allowed to have cell phones. So my time as a performer on drug court tour was very different. Like I was
Speaker: It was an escape from the world. I had no idea what happened in the rest of the world for three months, unless I picked up a newspaper. And I was 16 and 19 years old and I didn't care what happened. Now, I mean, 10 years ago when I taught drum corps was when the Charlottesville shooting happened. And I can remember being on tour and
Speaker: getting that information where we're off doing our drum corps thing. And obviously we get this information that something just happened where these innocent people get shot in the church. And the morale of the drum corps that I was teaching at that time, you could see it go down because the kids got that information. And it was outside influences that didn't have nothing to do with drum corps are now being pulled in because the kids are inundated with information. They're inundated with the outside world.
Speaker: And because of that, I feel like they care more about what happens out in the world. They do. Because they're so connected to it.
Speaker: but it's consistently caring, constantly caring. So now you're asking them to throw 16 roll and catch. Meanwhile, they just heard something or they're thinking about something and their brain is going a mile a minute. And we're like five, six, seven, catch, throw, toss, catch, throw, get it. Why are you not like dropped, stop dropping, stop yelling, blah, blah, blah. And there is a whole different world now. But we're not thinking about the professionals who are out there, put the professionals again, you're paying a lot of money to do this, but you're getting these skills.
Speaker: And at the end of the day, what do we actually give them to handle the next chapter of their lives? A lot of this, like somebody said, what do you do after you stop marching? 21 years old, you're doing this for your life. There's no program for you once you're done marching. It's like, you're done. Congratulations. Now what? And that's a whole other level. I've never experienced that. I kept continuing going, but there's not places that conceivably can go and say, I'm going to march when I'm older and older and older.
Speaker: They don't have places. Now they just stop marching. And now they're dealing with that stress and that anxiety and that depression of not marching. After marching 25, 30 years, how long have they been marching? And now it's just done. Where do they go? What do they turn for support?
Speaker: Well, that underscores the need for ensembles like Mellon and Mosaic that provide performers the opportunity to continue not just to perform, but to even like advance their performance in other artistic ways after they age out. Absolutely. And it really is a part of my existence is because I have so many friends who I would see just sad that they weren't performing anymore, knowing damn well, they're not gonna compete again, because that's a whole other level of stress. They don't, they're gonna do it. But there's nothing else for them to do.
Speaker: besides the pride parade once a year, and then that's it. And then watching people do what they think they can still do or want to do or wish they could do. And it's like a whole depression that goes through every single year, every single WGI season. Your friends are just like, oh, I wish, I marched, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker: break that cycle. Let's do some stuff. Let's create some art, film, go on tour, whatever we do. That's something I think would be good to ask you about. There's probably lots of people out there that would be inspired or think this is the work that you do with Melanin Mosaic is very cool, but they would wonder how can I get started doing something like that? Maybe I'm not in the region where I could be a part of Melanin Mosaic, but I like the idea of
Speaker: forming a group with some peers that's able to start putting together this art. Maybe could you explain what some of the early stages of melanin mosaic were like and how you form something out of nothing in that way? Well, I will say this. Melanin mosaic is a global initiative, being the fact that we have collective members from Florida, Portland,
Speaker: New York, wherever they are. We hire people to bring them up to Canada if I'm filming in Canada or we bring people to New York. So we work with people whoever, where we are. You know, it's a one -man show. So I can easily say, hey, let's go down to Atlanta and film some work. Or let's go to, you know, Japan and let's do some work with people in Japan. I'm open to traveling, but it's also a matter of what do you want to do? How can we facilitate that and create an avenue for you to perform
Speaker: something that you created, that we present and put out and sponsor your work. So it really is just about getting out there, take that risk, and just doing the work that you want to do. There's no real magic wand. It's just creating. Everyone has a cell phone. Everyone has music. Everyone has an idea for a show that they want to create. But let's take that idea off the color guard on the floor and put it into a space that's just artistic.
Speaker: And that's what we did. There was no thought of competing. It was like, let's be artistic and create something that hasn't been seen before. And that's what Sophie Serenade came out as. And then the next piece was me watching a young lady perform music at a concert and saying, hey, I want to
Speaker: do this color guard thing to your music and you're involved. And that's where the whole storyline to her music, just creating, recreating the idea of what the song is about. It really is that simple. Just get out there and do the work. There's no magic wand. Just create new art. Yeah, no, that's really what it is. It's like giving the opportunity for someone to be an artist within the skill set of Color Guard, which is normally like a difficult skill set for you to be an independent artist. Yeah.
Speaker: That's so cool. That's like actually truly a unique idea to really run with the way that you have. And we talked to a lot of people. It's new to me and I really like it. People did it during COVID. People were making film and art and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker: But it was still in the realm of Color Guard and not just art. So it was still like a straighten hold on what would the Color Guard community appreciate? Okay, let's put 13 people on a flag. Let's put 12 people on dance and 16 people on flag, a rifle. Instead of saying, let's have this one person do a flag that's beautiful and duet and have this other person do something totally different, another spot.
Speaker: and create an art piece around it not just what we ignore with the color guard blocks and blocks and blocks and blah blah blah right take that element and just throughout the window I think Santa Clara did a great job getting close to it yeah because they were doing such a artistic version of what they were creating
Speaker: and the whole long film and elevation and it was really great. Other groups were doing such amazing jobs and people just, you know, stopped doing it. But yeah, they were doing. It's the Mears Cunningham effect. Mears Cunningham, for those of you who don't know, was an amazing modern dance person who was partnered with John Cage, classical music composer that just would create randomly. They would literally
Speaker: throw the dice down, and that would be what they would do. And they created all of this amazing stuff together, just saying, what is creativity? What are the bounds of creativity? What can we do that's not been done? How can we do something different? And that's the same sort of amalgamation. It's pretty cool. Yeah, and people out there in the dance world creating dance films.
Speaker: Just put some color guard on it and you have a dance film in color guard land. There's nothing, you know, magic to it. Just got to be brave and find people around you who are willing to work with you. Me too. And we're here to help as people we can.
Speaker: A lot of what you're talking about kind of echoes stuff that I've heard like Rick Rubin describe in interviews where he's like speaking to artists and saying like, if you want to succeed as an artist, you shouldn't be making art that you think is what others want you to make, which is kind of the full essence of what competitive drum corps is making art that you think much wants you to make.
Speaker: So like everything that you're speaking to is almost flipping that on its like on its axiom a little bit and saying like what if we make art with absolutely zero concern for how the audience typically views color guard and what we're typically designing it for.
Speaker: i always say one of my favorite shows is is onyx bazaar bazaar because that was the least color guard show i've ever seen in my life and i gagged i gagged beyond gagged i gogged when i needed to gug it was a person in high heels
Speaker: Six men, one man out of it, that was fun. They didn't even spin, they just walked in high heels and joints and did the most color guardest, not color guardest show in the history of color guard. And the person did the baton and it went around and then grabbed it. How do you, what score is that? What seat is that on?
Speaker: You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it. You can't put a number on it.
Speaker: Done. Everything. Done. Everything. Bazaar Bazaar. One of my favorite color guard, not color guard shows ever. I need to go check it out because I'm a drumline person and I actually, that's what's great. I love talking to all you because like I always hear about wonderful color guard stuff that I've never been exposed to as a drummer.
Speaker: I'll definitely go check that one out in a minute. It's also kind of cool to think, though, like we're focusing on how you can make art outside of the competitive environment. But like, if you even look inside the competitive world, the groups that are succeeding are following the same principles that you're describing. It's groups that actually do go and do something different that then gets rewarded by the judge, you know, ideally gets rewarded by the judge at the world class level for doing something new.
Speaker: The Blue Devils and Blue Coats. The Blue Devils, the Blue Coats, they're doing art. Scott Chandler does not care. And that team, they just do what they're going to do and they create something and you either like it or you hate it. But at the end of the day, you're still going to talk about it. Yep. It gets the people going. It gets the people going, yes.
Speaker: It does and I think there's lots of room for it. If people just stop playing the game of color guard and and and something new Even when you're in the competitive realm do that that's fine But there are opportunities to create outside of that and there are so many talented designers and creators and this activity That are mind -boggling and I will always give credit to what credit is doing at this year's fusion show to me was one of the best color guard non -color guard shows i've seen in my life because it took
Speaker: almost like professional dance and then added some flags to it and some rifles to it, some sabers. But the design of it was 99 .9 % dance that had not been seen on the color guard field because it wasn't created by a color guard person. It was an outside person who does dance theater, Broadway, and all that kind of stuff and said, do what you do. We'll move around you doing color guard, do what you do. And
Speaker: It was bah -hah when I saw the show moving and creating the motion of like doing moments. I just didn't watch the flag or guns, I just watched the dancers. I can't watch this dance for a whole rep, for a whole show. Okay, now back to color guard people. Oh, you did a great job with that dance. So yeah, it's just little ideas people need to really play the game, but stretch it out a little bit if they choose to.
Speaker: Well, Jay, I gotta tell you, Jared, I gotta tell you, I'm so proud of you. I mean, knowing you since you were really young in alter ego and to see where you are now, I mean, taking this big risk and putting this whole thing together, I mean, it's really, truly incredible, so.
Speaker: You should be really proud of yourself. We're proud of you, so just so you know. Yeah, those alter ego days definitely inspired my love for dance a thousand percent and creation a thousand percent. So it's no way that I could have been the color guard person that I am, designer that I am, educator that I am, creative that I am without that experience. So thank you.
Speaker: Well, I've got one last question for you here. I want to depart just slightly and get towards a more fun question. What part of the marching arts are you? If you were to think what part of either a show or the marching arts more generally represents you, what would you describe this? Ask that question another way.
Speaker: like uh like i might call myself as a drummer on the drum feature out there is there something that you can think of that's going on in a show are you the
Speaker: I am the person on the outside creating non -color guard. I can't be any of those things because I'm cheering you on and then let you know there's something else out there for you. That's perfect. That's exactly what you are. You're the vibe. I'm the vibe. That was cute. Now, what if you didn't compete?
Speaker: and did that on a Broadway stage. Let's think about that. You're gonna blow minds out here. You know what I'm saying? Broadway. You see what I'm saying? That's where I am. Like, let's take, I'm the producer. Like, oh, we have this. Let's bring this. I'm the David Burns. Let's contemporary color this thing right now and put it in the arena and listen to the lights.
Speaker: And not put it on there. So let's bring that out outside the arena and bring to a new arena. That's who I am. I'm that guy. I'm David Burns. I'm Cook -Up -A -Ree -Color. I'm the producer. Like, ah, there's value in this besides what you're doing here. There's a big audience who's never seen this before. Let's bring this to them. Let's bring it to them.
Speaker: That's perfect. That is exactly what you are. And that is exactly what we need from you. Frankly, like I think that you could bring a lot of people to the marching arts in a totally unique way. It's like hope kind of been missing prior to you going and venturing into this world.
Speaker: And I can't say it's not been done before, because we've had brass theater, we've had blast, we've had shockwave, all those things. There are plenty of people doing theme park stuff. But that's still so limiting to a certain people that there's opportunities beyond that. When you start seeing people again in theaters and football stadiums doing halftime football shows and commercials, that gives you a spark to be like, oh, there's value in this besides what we do in the competitive field.
Speaker: You could actually make money doing this. Hold on. What? Shock. Yes. You guys would make money instead of just paying people to, you know, do your shows. Like, yeah, let's make the money making this work. Let's put it on a cruise ship. Let's go to Cirque Soleil. Because you're actually juggling equipment. Now you're going through the air and spinning around 13 times. That's called juggling to me.
Speaker: You do a manipulation of props. That's Turkish Olay. There's different avenues we're actually creating besides competitive that put people in spaces that they've been training their whole entire lives to do outside of competitive world.
Speaker: Yeah. And I think that those kind of opportunities probably exist for all the different sections too. Like as a drummer, I think it's like, it's right there. It's like, it's right there. Again, you guys have NBA halftime shows out the wazoo football team do the, you know, the New York, New York jets drumline, the hall and to Hawks drumline. So you got performing and getting paid to perform.
Speaker: every Sunday from here on to nowhere then. And the color guard's like, yeah, we wanna, nope, sorry. Can you dance though? Can you do us jazz splits? No, not really. Oopsie poopsie. See you next fall. Have a nice trip.
Speaker: All right. Well, I've got a lot of things to consider here. You've blown my mind wide open. So I'm going to go think about every different context in which bass drumming could possibly exist. And I will get back to you all after this commercial break. We'll be right back.
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Speaker: All right. We are back from our little commercial break there. I've actually, you know, got a great a bunch of great ideas I just thought of, but I'm not telling anyone because I'm storing them here. You'll see them in print and film media someday. For now, I want to pop in. We'll do our water we doings breeze through them.
Speaker: It's kind of funny when we have Trish on the call. I almost want to ask you to do it live for us instead of hitting your sample. What are we doing? Yeah, Trish, what are we doing? Doing it live. That's what we're doing. Oh, am I at first?
Speaker: No, I've got one. Actually, I can go first. I think you go right ahead. One good one in the vein of mental health in the marching arts. I've actually like kind of had some tough experiences while I was on tour with like personal life at home and like losing loved ones. And the amount of difficulty that I was given from my drum corps just to like simply go home for the funeral was like insane. It's like
Speaker: That is maybe one of my most genuine water we doings that I've had since we've started this bit on the show. Like let your students go home when there's a big personal tragedy. They don't want to leave the court. I'll be back in a day or two and you should be the family that they need in that time.
Speaker: It was like a real challenge to leave. And then I felt like there was still like a bit of an impression from like particular staff members at times where it was like, I was quitting on the group for wanting to leave. And it's like.
Speaker: Dude, that's just not right at all, really. You can have a bass drum hole for this random show in Massachusetts, dude. I'll be back in two days. It's going to be fine. So I don't know that we need to even really dwell on that one. We can keep moving through others. But maybe if you're an instructor and one of your students presents you a genuine real life situation like that,
Speaker: you should just be a real human for a second and let them go do the things they need to do. Hashtag be a real human. Hashtag 2024. They ain't going to fly. They will redo, tweet, post, Instagram. There it is. Nothing is private anymore. Yeah, I would hope that that doesn't happen now. When I marched, there was a little bit less of a focus on mental health, and I think it was a little more intense. Did you march back in the 1900s, Stephen?
Speaker: I marched in the 19, the 2019. No way. 18 and 19 was when I did germ court. That was, that was pre -Black Lives Matter. Everything, everything, pre -COVID and pre -Black Lives Matter, post -COVID, post -Black Lives Matter. I stopped teaching when you were marching. You're a child, Steven. Yeah, no.
Speaker: We love you. I'm just kidding. I didn't know that you were marching in the 90s either, to be fair, Ricardo. You don't come across at all. In the 1900s. Yes. Well, in the past century, amazing. I know. That is my skincare routine. That's why I look this good. You're going to have to let us let us in on the skincare routine because I will. You probably look a little younger than me at times. Let's see. Has anyone else got a good water we doing for this week that you want to share?
Speaker: What are we doing about taking care of our own mental health as staff members? I am stepping back onto the drum corps world after a 10 year hiatus of being on the staff and with all of my education and degrees and all of that stuff and life experiences now, I am still experiencing anxiety and I have to understand that if I'm experiencing anxiety,
Speaker: The members are gonna be experiencing anxiety and we need to be open and honest and be able to talk about it. So what are we all doing about checking in with ourselves, staff members included on our mental health?
Speaker: Yeah, sometimes I think it's like good to just like not try to deny it to yourself, like to just like be like, OK, I'm feeling anxious about this. And then just for like having that acknowledgement, it at least helps me feel better. I almost think that sometimes as a staff member, you like want to push that stuff down and not think about like your own feelings and emotions because you know, that's what we did in the nineteen hundredth down.
Speaker: I mean, I go through a little bit of that too. Like I'm one of those people who like with my high school program, like I'm my independent program. Actually. Well, like I have to be, I have to be there. I have to be at every room. So I have to be there. Well, now for the last couple of years, my boyfriend as a Christmas gift gives me Yankees, like a, like a nine game Yankees plan. And last year, one of my games fell during band camp.
Speaker: And I really struggled with that. No, I have to be there. I have to be there. And you know what? I said to myself, you know what? Let me just go. Let the rest of the staff handle it. It's okay if I miss one rehearsal to do something for myself. And I really learned a lot from that. I really learned a lot from, it's okay. It's okay to miss one rehearsal. Really, it's okay.
Speaker: And it's pretty ingrained in us to not feel that way. Like perfect. And it's that marching band that like you kind of forget that, you know, maybe that was a bit of an unrealistic expectation. Maybe it's something to strive for, but it's okay to not meet it all the time. Yeah.
Speaker: I have a, what are we doing? What are we doing to educate staff members about youth first aid, mental health first aid so they can just understand the signs of mental health first aid for young adults when they're going through these things and what the steps are to address those situations as you're teaching 120 young adults with 15 staff members coming in and out every week. What are we doing to make sure that these people who are staff members are coming in prepared to actually handle young adults?
Speaker: and their mental stresses because you're coming in for a week and you're out. You're not thinking about what's going on for the whole site season. I'll see you at the finals and you're not caring about what's going on and you're not trained to.
Speaker: So what are we doing with training? Well, I will say in the wonderful drum corps that I am going to be teaching this summer, it is a priority of mental health. We do have a mental health team that is there. That is not only there for the students and members, but also for the staff. But the first thing that's going to happen next week when we move in is we have a meeting with our mental health counselors about how to deal with
Speaker: to things thank you and to know and identify things that when when we don't know how to deal with them as people because not everybody on the tour i'm an educator i teach
Speaker: every day, all day. So I deal with this all day long. But those people who aren't necessarily in my world or in the education world, they're giving us the tools to be able to do that. So I'm hoping that our drum corps is a model for other drum corps to be able to... It has to be. It should be a DCI, WGI, BOA initiative that is training and education throughout the whole entire year. So that people are going on touring.
Speaker: You're getting your best friend because they can siege and spin. They're not getting your best friend because they handle mental health crisis with teenagers. It's coming, though. It's coming. It's definitely coming. It's coming.
Speaker: Actually, it's pretty interesting. The guests we were speaking to just earlier tonight, Dr. Sherry Kuzil is starting to spearhead the initiative to get more psychologist and behaviorist involvement with CORS throughout the DCI summer at least. I'm interested in that too. Yeah, Emily.
Speaker: I'm actually in the master's program. I'm in my master's program right now for mental health counseling, funny enough, but I can't really do anything until I get my degree. One of my passion projects is to start a peer specialist training program.
Speaker: where people on drum corps tour and marching ensembles can talk to people who are maybe a little older. People have just finished marching or have been, you know, a captain a couple of years ago. They can talk to you, like, hey, I'm having a problem on tour. How did you handle this? What'd you go through? Those things. Because sometimes talking to somebody who's gone through it and not in your face yelling at you is a good place to start. Oh, yeah. Also, I am a certified peer counselor. So maybe there's hope. There is definitely hope. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I would love to see you get in there, Emily. I'm trying. I'm still at school. I'm just a baby. You will be there soon. It's only temporary. You will get that. But yeah, that sounds like a really awesome idea.
Speaker: Like it would have been super helpful just as a section leader. Like you always hear the stories about these like section leaders of old that were there right before you started marching and they almost have these like heroic stories of how they'd always run back to set and they'd always be like the right example. Like I think it would be helpful to have that kind of guidance that you could reflect on.
Speaker: Even the students that are multi -year vets and our section leaders have their own set of issues that they now need to deal with that get stressful. You have to now handle all these interpersonal issues within your section because you're the section leader, but you're only 20 when you're not qualified. I think that's a peer counseling approach would be a great way to continue to smooth these bumps over time. Absolutely.
Speaker: All right. Well, I think probably enough complaining for today. Let's hit our gushing goes and let's get out of here. Great job, everyone. Set your equipment down. Gush and go. All right. Ricardo, do you want to hit us with a first gush and go for the evening?
Speaker: Yeah, I'm going to go. I am in the vents right now at listeners as we are recording this podcast. I'm sure it'll be out a few days after now and don't know where you're going to be, but I am packing all of my stuff to be gone from my house, to move to the desert,
Speaker: to teach. And I'm very excited about it. I'm excited to have a new team. It's my first year as a caption head, not my first year of teaching, but my first year as a caption head. And I'm really excited about the design of the show and working with new students and the new experience and just
Speaker: me and some members who love Color Guard as much as I love Color Guard and the staff who loves Color Guard, the way that I love Color Guard, doing our thing for two and a half months. I'm ready to go. Let's do it. That's awesome. I'm so excited for you. This is your first time like being a caption head at this level, right? Yeah. I've been on staff before, but
Speaker: I have not been the person in charge. And I will tell you, there's a lot of work that goes into this before and after. And it's been fun. But now I'm ready for the part that I love, which is being with members and teaching and growing together. I'm ready for that. So let's go.
Speaker: Let's go. Well, we're excited to hear from you. Definitely keep us posted. Hit us up in the text group chat and maybe a couple of times you're going to be busy. But some what are we doing from the road? It'll be some water we do and the road will be very much appreciated. I look forward to them. Let's see. Emily, do you have a gushing go for us?
Speaker: I think I alluded to it earlier, but I submitted my first official uniform design for high school. So it's kind of cool to see a doodle finally become a real thing. So we. It's so cute, Emily. It's so cute. Yeah, that's awesome. And then probably more to come someday, I should hope. Just keep on caroling down that road. It's going to be good for you.
Speaker: I like to think I do at least a decent job. You do. You do do a decent job. Trish, do you got a gush and go? Yes, I actually got to meet my favorite baseball player on Friday night.
Speaker: Who is it? DJ Lemayu from the New York Yankees. And he was playing a rehab game. He's coming back from an injury. So when those of you who don't know baseball, when they are coming back from an injury, they send them to one of like the minor league
Speaker: teams to kind of do a couple of rehab games before they bring them back up again. So he was in Somerset in New Jersey and I was like, when I saw that he was going to play Friday night, I was like, this could be, I even posted about it. I was like, this could be a right after school on Friday moment for me. So I did, I just bought a cheat ticket right down the third baseline where I knew he'd be playing. And I really thought that would be as close as I got to him the whole night.
Speaker: So he didn't play the whole game. He came out, which was expected. He was all going to play a couple of innings. So I was like, well, I'm not going to stick around here. You know, I'm going to head home. So I went down this staircase where I thought, which I thought led to the parking lot where my car was.
Speaker: And it wasn't, it was the wrong parking lot. It looked like it, but then I was like, wait, I don't recognize that building. It just doesn't look right. Maybe I'm in the, maybe I'm on the other side. I'll walk around. But then as I was figuring it out, I saw a bunch of people standing there with a whole bunch of like DJ jerseys and
Speaker: stuff to get autographed. And I was like, wait, so they were like, yeah, he's, we come to these rehabs all the time. He's going to come out this way. So I was like, should I wait? Is this dumb? No, maybe I should leave. I don't know. Should I wait? Should I wait? And he, instead of coming out the door that they said he was going to, he came out like right behind me and he signed, he signed everything for everybody. And while he was doing that, I was stepping back and I was like, oh my God, that's really him. Like that's really, really him.
Speaker: I watch him on TV all the time, I have tons of pictures, I have an autograph picture, that actually my boyfriend bought me, even though he knows I'm in love with him, he bought me that picture. But I was like, oh my God, I was like, it's him, it's really him. And then as he was walking to get into the car, of course he had like a car service or whatever, and as he was walking to go to the car, some kids said, Mr. Lemayu, can I get a picture?
Speaker: and he took a picture with him and I said, can I get one too? And I went like this with my phone real quick, got a selfie, and I still look at it and I'm like, this really happens. Like this happens. So it's a really, really, really cool fangirl moment. I don't even care if people make fun of me for being a fangirl. It was an amazing moment. Absolutely.
Speaker: What happened 30 seconds after you posted that picture? Do you really want me to tell them? You want me to tell them? I get a text from Ricardo. Girl, who is that fine man in that picture with you that you just posted?
Speaker: So I told him. Instantaneously. It was the whole conversation between Trisha and I. And she, like, started telling me, I was like, I don't know who he is, but I'm a fan now. Your Ricardo's favorite baseball player. Who would have thought you guys would have the same favorite? Yeah. Trisha and I bonded over that even more. That's right, honey. That's right. That's hilarious. That's great.
Speaker: Jared, I think you probably get the point here at this point. It's just about a minute. You can go on about whatever you want. What do you want to gush and go on about? Melanomosaic Performance Ensemble, melanomosaicpe .com, Melanomosaic Mental Health Series begins May 25th with Courtney Allison Mills. So some of you might know, giving our first talk.
Speaker: And then we have three other mental health professionals coming in to talk to us on our social media platforms, YouTube and Instagram, again, at MilenaMosaicPE.
Speaker: on everything. Then we hope to have a lot of initiatives this summer, working with the Warriors Drum and Bugle Corps from New York City on a project in June, walking, we're walking gingerly and fun in the New York City Pride Parade, no spinning required. So everybody can come and just join us in that. And have some of the other things come on in, just the water's fine, play in the sand.
Speaker: If you need anything with the Warriors Project, let me know. Absolutely. Yeah, if you need anything, give me a shout out. Absolutely, I will. Thank you. Awesome. And everybody, absolutely go follow MelaninMosaicPE, any place you could go follow them at. I just follow it on Instagram. Is there anything else that you guys are on?
Speaker: Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and we have our own website. Again, melanomosaicpe .com.
Speaker: Excellent. Yep. Please, please go check them out. And then I'll wrap up with my quick gush and go here. I really love talking to you tonight, Jared, because I've actually been like deep, deep at work just trying to like make beats like entirely unrelated from marching arts and everything, but kind of a connected skill set being a percussionist for like the past like four years of my life have actually been like pretty seriously into like making beats and
Speaker: Like the beats as in recording beats, music recording artist beats or... Yeah, like I have a friend that's aspiring to be a rapper. I rap too. On my othered life. My friend Jared totally has music out on Apple Music. So, I mean, you know, there's a connection that you need to make, Siva.
Speaker: I will. I intend to to talk to Jared Morriss. But yeah, I'm super excited. I don't think I've announced anything about it anywhere, but I expect that Flag Day, June 14th, we're probably going to put out singles and then the Friday after we're about to probably release some more music. But yes, I'll use it for warm ups this summer. Let's go.
Speaker: But we'll keep talking about this then. If the art can go places that you just can't imagine.
Speaker: That's inspirational. I consider our conversation for sure inspirational. It's been good to meet you, Jared. Thank you for coming on our podcasts. Um, thank you to all the listeners as well. Please rate us, uh, leave a review. If you listen to the podcast a lot, we love to hear what you have to say. Uh, please follow us at on a water break and we will see you at the next rehearsal on a water break. Go practice.
Speaker: The On A Water Break podcast was produced by Jeremy Williams and Christine Ream. The intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lyda. To learn more, visit lydamusic .com. And until next time, thanks for tuning in.
