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OAWB At Step off with Colin Apperson
151 Plays1 year ago
Join us with our new Bonus Content. On A Water Break At Step Off. Host Jack Goudreau dives into all things parades from coast to coast and around the world. This episode Jack hosts Colin Apperson, a legendary choreographer for California Parade Bands
Guests:
Colin Apperson
Listen to the main episode to keep up on everything going on in the marching arts with our hosts:
Jackie Brown - @spintronixguard
Stephen McCarrick - @stephenmccarick
Cindy Barry - @leandermomma
Nicole Younger - @o2bnpjs & @thecookoutcg
Trevor Bailey - @t_pain151
Trish O’Shea - @trishdish1002
Beth Beccone - @bether7189
Chris Rutt - @wildhornbrass1
Cynthia Bernard - @cynthiabern
Ashlee Amos - @famousamossss_
Theo Harrison - @harrisontheo07
Stephanie Click - @stephanieclick
Whitney Stone - @dancerwhit
Justin Surface - @J_dex07
Ashley Tran - @itsashleytran
Jack Goudreau - @goudreau_
Ricardo Robinson-Shinall - @ricardorrobinson
Callie Quire - @cnquire
Austin Hall - @Austin_hall10
Jose Montes - @joeymontes57
Music provided by leydamusic.com Follow him @josh.leyda
Avatars provided by @tch.makes.art
#marchingband #colorguard #dci #podcast #onawaterbreak #parade #drummajor
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Transcript
Intro to Podcast and Guest
00:00:01
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, to on a water break at Step Off. I am your host, Jack Goudreau, and I have the pleasure today to talk to Northern California's most illustrious color guard parade person in the NCBA circuit, Ms. Colin Apperson. Welcome, Colin. Here we go. Right.
Colin's Marching Band Beginnings
00:00:35
Speaker
Let's start from point A. Where did you start in your career of marching band? Where were you in middle school, I guess, when that opportunity became available and where are you now?
00:00:49
Speaker
Um, so I started performing in marching band in middle school in 1997, but I had always grown up watching Winter Guard. Um, like I used to, my brother's girlfriend did Winter Guard. And so I would like go, she would babysit me and take me to the rehearsals and I'd sit and like watch them. So I just, I grew up loving it. So when I got to seventh grade in 97, that's when I first did it.
00:01:18
Speaker
Okay, and you're from Fairfield, right? Yes, I am from Fairfield, California, born and raised. They had a very, very prestigious middle school programs, galore, high school programs. Color Guard and the marching arts was huge in Fairfield in the 90s. Okay, yeah. And so going through from middle school into high school, the parade scene really became available or was it already available to you in the middle school arena?
00:01:44
Speaker
Yeah, in middle school, like, it was really cutthroat. There was two middle schools, Dover and Sullivan. Yeah. And they were good enough. They used to field marching bands that were really competitive in the fall season. Okay. So I grew up seeing all the high schoolers in the fall.
00:02:00
Speaker
Okay. And that was really your, that was really your, your guiding light looking up to like, this is what I wanted to do when I got
High School Journey in Fairfield
00:02:08
Speaker
into high school. Right. I saw Fairfield high with those girls in the kilts and knew that's for me. Okay. So you go through four years at Fairfield and everyone knows in the Northern California arena, the old Fairfield was the monster band, arguably the best NorCal marching band to ever exist.
00:02:24
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. So when during your time at Fairfield, did you first get that taste of I want to be a color guard instructor? Like I wanted to continue with this after high school. I didn't really know that I wanted to do that. But I always I was obsessed with the color guard instructor. It wasn't Tim Jason Flores. Everyone at that school in that color guard was obsessed with him. He was such a wonderful teacher and just so influential.
00:02:52
Speaker
And so in the color guard at Fairfield, what were some of the attached units for the, like, what was the setup usually? Like, what did it look like for our listeners who've never seen a Northern California parade ensemble, right? It was like, could you give like just a quick like description of like, what are the attached units for the color guard? I know there's a lot.
00:03:10
Speaker
There is a lot. So, in that particular period, you had three sections. You had the letter line, the rifle line, and the flag line. And it was insane. It was so hard to make it into the color guard, even the back flags of people that just hold the flags in the back who don't even spin. It was a cutthroat
Rising to Color Guard Leader
00:03:35
Speaker
audition.
00:03:35
Speaker
there were 60 members of that color guard and it was there they cut people where you weren't even allowed to hold the flag. Wow. So my freshman year, I barely made it on even though I had done two years of color guard, I was I was not even invited to spin. So I had to hold the flag. Oh my god, nothing my whole first year.
00:03:53
Speaker
But still seeing that standard of excellence and that outstanding level of performance, that was your guiding light to get into that position. So senior year, where were you in the line?
00:04:06
Speaker
Well, actually it happened sophomore year. I was really bitter that I didn't get to spin. So I made it, we had three guards. I was in the C guard my freshman year and then sophomore year I was so mad. I bumped up all the way to the A guard. Junior year I was a featured member, senior year I was a section leader. So like, I think that's always been like a thing for me. I feel the need to prove myself. And that's been my story from the time I was 14.
00:04:35
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and I think in an institution like that, when you're going through the beast, right? Because it is a beast. I mean, you have like, how many 60 people in a color guard? How do you, how do you stand out? You, you have to think of every way you can get your foot in the door for that. So you get through your senior year of high school, you've, you've been a color guard captain of this, this monster guard.
Challenges as an Instructor
00:04:55
Speaker
And you then eventually step into your first instructional role.
00:04:58
Speaker
So when was that first time you became an instructor? And when did you get a handle of the parade game? That first year was so brutal. Where was it? It was back at my middle school. It was Dover Middle School. It was so bad that I was literally fired.
00:05:19
Speaker
It was terrible like we were I was there with my friend Audra Perry and we Were trying to make these little it's so embarrassing these like middle schoolers go out and do stuff that we had just got done doing in an independent world guard we're making sixes an exchange of disaster, so we were not invited back the next year and
00:05:42
Speaker
And then we got hired on, she got hired on at Armio High School. I did not get hired on at Armio High School at first. I came to a rehearsal just to watch her. And randomly the guy that was in charge, Marcus Mills, saw me just sitting there and he said, you do color guard? And he said, yes, I do color guard. And he said, great, here's this kid that can't throw this toss, help them. And so that's how that started.
00:06:09
Speaker
Yeah. And then he saw me working with that kid and he said, that girl has potential. And he went and spoke to the band director and I got hired on the spot.
Philosophy on Parade Routines
00:06:17
Speaker
And so when do you say you finally got, like you got the formula for like, this is what a parade routine looks like. And I know it took me like four to five years to actually finally figure it out, like how to master that, right?
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, because like we always want to throw so much content into something and we always want to be the biggest most crazy routine and then you learn it's not it. That's not the secret. It's things a little bit more conservative and having one thing that makes a difference for at least for me. That was that was the big learning lesson for me. When did you get a handle of it and what is the color guard version of that for you?
00:06:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great question. So it's something that, as I said, my colleague Marcus Mills and I, we love to go back and giggle and laugh about it because we had no mentorship whatsoever. Because he and I took over the program at Armio and worked together to try to craft like some brilliant parade routine we were trying to like
00:07:11
Speaker
up the game and change what it meant to be on the street as a color guard. And we thought we were I mean, we did in many ways do stuff that was never ever seen before on the street. Right. I mean, there used to be posts in forums, Pad World of Padentry forum. Oh, yeah. People specifically, and I know their names, but they all had handles back then. So they were
00:07:35
Speaker
randos and they would complain about all the stuff we were doing and Saying that it was ridiculous and horrible and hideous and we were ruining parade color guard And we just kept doing our thing and I would say it took us probably let's see five six seven eight honestly, I would say Four years together trying to figure out the formula. Okay, so
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah it took me about the same time and of course we had like there were moments where like you would have like that success like it'd be like a little blip and you're like okay take that piece scrap everything else right like and that's how I that's how I slowly piece it together as a drum major instructor so
00:08:20
Speaker
When you were going through that period as a competitive guard on the street, which parade guards stuck out to you immediately as your favorite and your competitors? What were the ones that you aspired to be? Honestly, and this is going to sound crazy. No, go for it. No one, because I always set out
00:08:39
Speaker
to do. This was always my goal. I always wanted to set out to do something that hadn't been done before. Right. Because okay, so going back to high school, right with Jason Flores, he was wild to on the street. They we used to put we had one section in our show my junior year. Was it parade for Paul? Okay.
00:08:58
Speaker
And we put our equipment down to farewell to a Slavic woman and we had a dance break. And like that was kind of unheard of back then. Don't get me wrong. There were other guards that did it before us. I remember seeing Vallejo do that before. Right. But the size of the guard and the level of the production was on a completely different scale.
00:09:16
Speaker
that was yeah so then the next year he added sabers onto the street had never been done before so like i kind of was inspired by that and kind of grasped onto that that thread and tried to do the same thing okay yeah and you did it in your own direction because like like one of the things that like i've told like my students who want to become instructors is like if you're going to take moves or if you're going to take concepts make it your own like it shouldn't be the same exact thing because that's how
00:09:41
Speaker
How we keep the wheel turning because you know like it's important that we have new ideas enter into the realm like for example like Keegan McCoy's state championship run at Santa Cruz he did a guard move by all means he did a toss that was a parallel toss in front of him and it arced behind his back and he caught it and then the drum major world just freaked out because they've never seen that before and that's the type of stuff where it's like you know you can take those little Lego bits and
00:10:06
Speaker
turn it on its head into something new that's never been seen before in that lens or in that realm.
Designing for Emotional Engagement
00:10:11
Speaker
And then that's how that keeps the art form going. This marching band, Color Guard, all of the things, all parade is so rooted in perdition that in order to push the activity forward, we have to kind of do that.
00:10:23
Speaker
Yeah, and that's not to say that you can still have respect and reverence for that tradition. Like, for example, all the uniforms that I've had to teach under have been very strict, like Scottish-British uniforms, and there's a certain mentality about that, but then also it's like, what if we took half of that and then also put something, a new spin on it, right? And there's that perfect balance point between innovation and tradition, right? Yeah, and with Color Guard, it's how it's structured.
00:10:49
Speaker
You've got your opening fanfare, your holding opening statement, your step off, your gate, your salute, your trio, dogfight, finish, maybe a reprise. That's actually an interesting concept that you bring up because my next question is, so what does design mean to you in regard to a parade performance for Color Guard? What does design mean?
00:11:13
Speaker
Well, yeah, going back to that, it's a good question. It's a formula. It's so formulaic in that you consider the process in being as true to the music as you possibly can and creating a story.
00:11:29
Speaker
even though it's to quote unquote parade music, there is still story there. There are still elements that you can really dive deep on. Like one year we did this March triumph of right at Armio. And I remember I took the kids in and we discussed what does that phrase mean to you? A triumph of right.
00:11:51
Speaker
And we really kind of broke that down and tried to instill as much of that meaning into our show as possible while still adhering to, again, that formula of, OK, here's the step off. OK, we got to travel here, et cetera, et cetera. Right. And you know, it's funny that.
00:12:08
Speaker
I feel like, well, I think that most individuals in band, when they're playing a parade march on the street, they don't realize that each parade march has a story behind it as well, too. And I think having that level of understanding, in my opinion, I always try to get my students to say, I want you to imagine what is this music, what is the movie behind this music? And I think that level of emotional investment and them really thinking about each note and phrase, that's what makes the performance pop. And that's what latches them.
00:12:37
Speaker
to each one of the musical phrases, right? Beyond just counts, because counts are great. I use counts, but also making sure they understand the emotion behind each one of the moves and being able to manipulate that feeling to your advantage in music. If there's an uplifting part and you're throwing a toss, you need to feel that while you're throwing that.
00:12:54
Speaker
Toss. So those are the small things that I think really helped build my design perspective. But it's so interesting that I've experienced this. I had my recent interview with Rob Jett. I felt the same thing where there's sort of a bridge of understanding of design across many different elements, no matter if it's the parade or the parade band proper, if it's the drum major, if it's the color guard. Design is design, making something look sharp and meaningful and intentful.
00:13:20
Speaker
Crosses many
Regional Parade Style Differences
00:13:21
Speaker
bridges, right? It's not just one like color guard just isn't design like design focused It's also every other aspect you can use that same lens of design to really to really build a stronger package, right? And having that deeper understanding I think is super important. So speaking about Southern California I I think one of my favorite differences that I see between Southern California and Northern California is of course
00:13:44
Speaker
Northern California we do front and back and we also do have a preference to individual letters as opposed to a banner. Where do you think there are benefits to that and what are some of the drawbacks to that as well too? The benefits and the drawbacks to doing it the way we do it? Yeah.
00:14:03
Speaker
Well, okay, the benefits, of course, being that, I mean, I feel like from a, I mean, this might be controversial, but this is, of course, my opinion. No, let's say it. Let's go for it. I'm a NorCal person. I'm here to support you. So I think that the way that we do parade provides opportunity for the kids to
00:14:23
Speaker
be smart in their training and for designers to be smart in their designing because we have to create such a complete package in two and a half minutes and we have to be able to get a message across that is so smart and concise and demanding.
00:14:42
Speaker
And I think that that creates issues in its own way because it's such a fast push to create so much content in such a small amount of time versus people that do their focus is more kind of making the parade just something easy to do at hometown shows and the focus being more on field where they get like a seven minute show where there are a lot of phrases where they're kind of filler, the kids are able to kind of
00:15:11
Speaker
create a long game, so to speak. Absolutely. So I think that the benefits, of course, are that I don't know, I think that you're able to train the kids really well when you are able to really focus on one thing and doing parade really, really well, because it leaves time for that. You have way more time for that because your shows only two and a half minutes long.
00:15:35
Speaker
That's true. And this is an outsider's perspective as well, too. The variety that you're asked to show as well, too, is really condensed. And that's an interesting little game of strategy where you have to be able to show variety in a two and a half minute section where you do have those demands of the formula as well, too. And being able to have that full
00:15:57
Speaker
breadth of understanding really translates well, in my opinion, I think to a winter floor where you're given more time to open up at least a little bit more. If you play it right, they will have that toolkit to make that transition to the winter floor. Absolutely. And the only thing, the only drawback that I necessarily see is there's a lot more to focus on as opposed to just the front of the ensemble going through for half the parts, right? Like that, I guess that's like, there's a lot more time to focus into the Southern California lens, right? Like being able to work just
00:16:27
Speaker
I don't know, half the amount of eight counts, right, or 16 counts, right? Well, they still spin all the way to the end and so cal. Yeah, but you can get away with a lot more when you're like 400 feet away, right? Repeating carbs. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So this is actually a great lead in. Do you think that, how do you describe it, is winter guard for preparation for fall or is fall preparation for winter guard?
Colin's Parade March Preferences
00:16:56
Speaker
I mean, if I answer truthfully, my band directors will kill me. But honestly, the way I view it as fall is in preparation for winter. Okay. And why? Well, because in so many ways, winter is more challenging. It's more challenging choreography. It's a longer show. They're more artistic. There are added challenges, environmental challenges, as the judging world says, with props, with floors, working in proximity to each other.
00:17:26
Speaker
Right, and I think that step up, you're telling much more of a story through the performance package. So I'm leaning to agree with you on that one as well too. So this is just sort of a light-hearted one. What was your favorite march and has it changed ever? From a parade band perspective.
00:17:45
Speaker
I mean, I like anything dark and aggressive. And just with a nice woodwind part that just gets beautiful. And again, kind of I don't want to say creepy, but like, yeah, definitely.
00:18:00
Speaker
the NorCal sound where it's just like ominous chords at the beginning. Killer brass band section or brass part right to the judges line drops down into something a little bit off and then resolves at the end. So of course I love few-sick marches. Okay. I will always be a few-sick girly. My favorite being Knitsi. That's my very favorite. And that is a monster march because there's that there's that chromatic they do a chromatic progression right at the judges stand and it drops like right up.
00:18:42
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.
00:19:11
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.
00:19:40
Speaker
Okay field staff, take it away. Let's reset.
00:19:57
Speaker
on the salute line, so everything is exposed. So yeah, no, that is a great march. It is a monster, though. If I could go back in time and be a student and get the opportunity to spin to that march, I mean, the judges would not be prepared for me. I would annihilate that march as a student. So I've gotten to write to it twice. And every time I'm just screaming at my kids, like, give me more. Do you understand how much I would give to be able to do this march?
00:20:26
Speaker
That's so funny. Okay, so what is some advice for new garden instructors that you wish you had known from the get-go, like immediately?
Advice for New Instructors
00:20:35
Speaker
And it could be several things. It doesn't have to be necessarily one thing. I've got tons.
00:20:40
Speaker
So yeah, as I said, I never had a mentor. Like, so I was very much thrown into the deep end with my colleague Marcus. And we, I mean, we would get like one compliment from a judge. One specifically that comes to mind that we love to laugh about is we were complimented once on
00:21:00
Speaker
a section of our show that had multiple events happening. And we glommed on to that idea. Oh, they love the multiple events. Let's make everything have multiple events. And that show still to this day. I can't watch it on YouTube. What is it? No.
00:21:17
Speaker
I don't want anyone looking it up. It's on YouTube. It's mortifying. It's so bad. I mean, you can imagine those of you that do Color Guard, you know what multiple events looks like for a five minute Winter Guard show. So my advice to any instructors that are entering the game when it comes to parade is
00:21:38
Speaker
first and foremost is don't be afraid to try something adventurous, but always understand that when you're writing a parade show, there is the formula in place. And if you don't know what that formula is, absolutely reach out to somebody that has been in the game for a long time, or even longer than you. It doesn't have to be for a long time. I promise that anyone, me, you can reach out to me at any point in time. I will tell you the formula like that.
00:22:07
Speaker
We can talk through all of that. Don't be afraid to reach out to people that you don't even know. Because at one point in time, all of us started where you are, and we understand how challenging that can be. Like, I'm here at a rehearsal right now for one of my former students who didn't know where to go with the show, trying to fix through and try to understand that formula. Because when nobody teaches it to you, how are you expected to know it?
00:22:34
Speaker
And one of the things that I really relate to you on is being able to figure it out on the fly. For example, my mentors, my mentors loved them to death, Rick Wilson, Mario. They gave me routines, but it was to the point where I wanted to figure out how to teach a student to be self-sufficient. And that's one of the ones that really, I had to look down to Southern California to find like, what are they doing that's right?
00:23:00
Speaker
How can I put my little twist on it up here to make it readable in Northern California, but still have that foundation? And what took me forever to figure out was that the execution is everything. Execution is everything, and no matter what you want to do, if it's not worth the gamble, don't do it at all. Well, you learned that lesson sooner than I did.
00:23:23
Speaker
That was probably the last lesson I learned. Oh, serious? Honest to God. For me, it was always I always wanted my vision was always entirely too big. And I had to like really narrow my vision and be very specific and intentional with the understanding that it's at the end of the day, it's always going to come down to execution. Right.
00:23:47
Speaker
Right and another thing too like that I didn't I never took into account was like what moves fit that? Individual to like and that's something that was really complex and difficult for me to understand as well too because some Individuals just get moves quicker like and then that might just be from the frame of the body You might also just be just level of understanding and like that that took me a while to understand too is because some moves look better on certain individuals than
00:24:11
Speaker
Then for example, one of my previous students at Franklin, very, very, very slim fit individual, but he was really good at parallels because parallels didn't require as much of an upper body lift. It just required arm lift.
Equipment Strategy and Training
00:24:26
Speaker
His parallels looked a lot better than his high toss.
00:24:29
Speaker
When designing a routine, I realized, let's use that to our advantage. We don't want to do anything that will detract away from that individual. If I'm forcing something down the routine, I should not necessarily be doing that. If it goes smooth and it locks in fine, then I should be using it to my advantage.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, that was something that I actually did pick up really quickly. Oh, you did. Was learning to write to the specific skills of my kids. Right, right, right. I mean, that's harder for you though, because you're only writing for one kid. Yeah, but like, the thing about it is, is like, also like, I mean, it's the same, but like, all eyes are on that one person the entire time. So I feel like the level of like, you, you are not slipping, you are not moving, like becomes a lot more like a parent, because I mean, like, that's one score on one person, you're done, right? You can get away with a lot with 30 kids.
00:25:20
Speaker
Oh, can you I've never read a color guard so well, I've seen people get away with a lot with 30 kids Let's put it that way
00:25:27
Speaker
Yeah. So, so when you're designing like parade, you talked about like your mentors, like at Fairfield, they brought many different things into the game. When you're going to pick, like when you're going to pick, like, for example, I'm going to use a letter line this year, or I'm going to use flag this year, or I'm going to go all gun, which I've seen, I've seen before. I've seen all rightfully. That's you. Yeah, absolutely. So what, where is that decision making process? Like what, what was it?
00:25:53
Speaker
That's a good question. So it always comes down to the kids you're working with first. If I know I've got kids in the guard that are all really aggressive and maybe they're not all rifle spinners, and I've certainly done this before, where I've handed girls that have never spun rifle in their life a gun and said,
00:26:13
Speaker
All right, we're spinning all rifle in the front of the band because this music calls for it. So, you know, you look at your kids, you have and I always choose what does this music feel like? Yeah. And if, you know, I tend to you also think strategically in that, OK, well, if I give everyone a rifle in the front of the band, that means the entire color guard is training on rifle. And now we all put our rifles down and we all go to ensemble in the back of the band on flag. Now I've got everybody
Innovation in Parade Color Guard
00:26:40
Speaker
spinning flag. You just think really strategically.
00:26:42
Speaker
Now the entire color guard is trained on both rifle and flag going into winter. Plus there's also the added benefit in that it's less writing because you got the ensemble versus three separate lines trying to do three separate routines. So there's multiple benefits to switching equipment and just thinking really strategically with the kids that you have, especially for smaller guards too. Yeah.
00:27:09
Speaker
And so let's take the equipment out of this real quickly. You really helped define motion up in the NorCal parade scene, in my opinion. Not only just having moments of motion, having a fully integrated moving sequence underneath equipment. I feel like that was really the big press at Armio with you and Dr. Mills. So how do you describe it?
00:27:36
Speaker
I'm trying to think how, from a training perspective, did you utilize those same skill sets on the winter floor? Did those translate immediately? Or was it like, was it, was it like you, you picked from the pile and then brought it into the winter floor?
00:27:51
Speaker
Yeah, it was, there was a thing that happened when we first started doing that. So back in the day, for those of you that don't know, parade color guard, I mean, you still see it a lot nowadays, particularly the SoCal circuit, where there is like body layered onto equipment work, but the spine is very vertical. The body, the shaping of the legs are usually very straight. Things are very regimented upright position. So because of that,
00:28:20
Speaker
We just thought we'd go for something different. So we started taking different shapes and adding attitude, the infamous rolling into the ground that caused a huge controversy. Which is hilarious, by the way, because that was one of my favorite parts when I was in, when I was in band watching Armio, like it was the only group that did it. And that's a point of differentiation. I'm serious. People used to say that what we were doing was dangerous, was awful, was hideous, was ruining. I'm serious. It was just a rolling into the ground.
00:28:47
Speaker
Well, because people are jealous. And the thing about it is they don't know how to do that. And I feel like the same thing happened when we put the parallel inversion in the state championship L pattern routine, like 2020, 2019 for Keegan. Everyone was just like, you can't do that. That's drum major. He was following the sheet just fine. It's funny how we are able to add those new concepts in to push the art form. And I think that it's extremely valuable what you've done.
00:29:14
Speaker
But after we did that, a judge sat on the tape in a nasty way. She said she didn't like it. She said, our job as performers is to go out and do a, I'm not making this up, I have the tape kept. And I have a quote because I wrote her up. So I have the letters from her writing. What did she say?
00:29:32
Speaker
She said that you can't do that because our job as Color Guard performers is to do a parade routine, not Winter Guard on the street. So I didn't like that. So I decided, you know what? That's going to be my thing. I'm going to roll with that. We're just going to do Winter Guard on the street. And if you don't like it too bad, I'm writing to the sheet. You either reward me or you won't. And if you don't reward me, my kids are going to be fine with that. Win or lose or draw is just going to come down to taste.
00:30:01
Speaker
Absolutely. And I completely agree. I completely agree. And I think that has really helped open up the door for the future of our art form from a parade standpoint in the Northern California region. And that's what really makes it so special. So my final question for you. And I think this is another great transition. Where do you want to see the color guard art form go from here in the parade realm? I mean, there was one group, I think it was El Capitan, back
00:30:26
Speaker
2018 I think I know exactly. Yeah, they did this show and I remembered they had like a story and they brought out pieces of fabric and stretched them along the parade route. I think of that show often and I remember when I saw it because they were beating me so I had to go on the street and see what was beating me.
00:30:44
Speaker
And I saw it and I thought to myself, that's really creative. They're doing a story here and people just don't get it because people were critical of that show. I don't know who wrote it, but I remember people were being critical about what they were doing. But the second I saw it, I recognized something special in that show. And I thought that's the future of Parade Color Guard right there is continuing to create special moments on the street that are not bound to the idea of tradition. Right.
00:31:14
Speaker
And I think that's something that I really intentionally set out to do. And as we get older, we do less. I mean, you know, I'm older. It's more challenging to do all of these things, lifting children, throwing them in the air, throwing equipment in the air, doing all this stuff on the street.
00:31:34
Speaker
I get more conservative the older I get and I would love to see someone new come out and continue to push the boundaries of what Parade Color Guard is because I think there's still a lot of opportunity for growing it and making it different.
00:31:50
Speaker
And I think it's interesting because when I'm dealing with new instructors, I see lots of potential in individuals. I just wish that they would come out of the woodwork a little bit more to talk about stuff because looking back at the journey that I went on in my instructional career, I had to constantly talk to new people and have uncomfortable conversations about my stuff not being up.
00:32:17
Speaker
to smoke and not being up to standard. I wish those conversations were had. And I honestly think having that analytical eye and being able to see where the direction of the art form is going, catching the wind is really important because then you can start to go to that direction as well too.
00:32:35
Speaker
I think those conversations happen in the color guard world amongst instructors, but specifically to winter. You don't really hear those conversations about the art form that much anymore really in parade. Right.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I love talking about Parade Color Guard, so if anyone's talked to me about it, they can hit me up. Okay, so where can they find you? On Facebook and Instagram, do you have a tag? Oh, Lord, yeah, but I'm so ancient. I'm just mostly on Facebook. Okay, and then so just, they can message you? They can feel free to message me on Facebook at any point in time, always. Call an app person, you can find it probably in this title.
00:33:17
Speaker
All right. Awesome. Well, uh, thank you again, Colin, for sitting down and having this discussion. I'm going to call the band to dismissal band. You are dismissed and we will see you next time. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast and check in weekly to get more, to get more content. Thank you. The On A Water Break podcast was produced by Jeremy Williams and Christine Reames. The intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lida. To learn more visit Lida music.com.
00:34:10
Speaker
And until next time, thanks for tuning in.