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7 Color Guard adjusts to virtual times

Spinning flags, sabers, and rifles while practicing remotely requires accommodations

Isabella del Nido Dispatch Reporter

Swinging sabers and twirling flags each performance is just the basics for the Color Guard team. Color Guard students work to achieve the perfect routine, working with the band in the process.

But this year, things took a different turn as students were forced to learn to adapt to the shortcomings placed upon them by COVID-19.

Senior Hailey Vogt, captain of the Color Guard, oversees rehearsals and mentors students just getting into the program. Captains in the Color Guard also organize performance and work with band directors to execute plans for who’s performing what.

“At in-person rehearsals, I can hype people up when they start to lose motivation,” Vogt said. “On virtual practices we don’t get to interact with anyone directly, so it’s sadder.”

Finding a family in a sea of over 3,000 students can be a challenge. For Vogt, being on a team opens up doors and opportunities for meeting new people.

“Color Guard is an amazing sport with amazing people. I enjoy the closeness of the team, joining my freshman year was the best thing I could do to find my place at Bowie,” Vogt said.

Color Guard continues to push through, providing practices through Zoom. According to junior Liam Moore, the Zoom practice environment is highly improvised as the team is a very all-hands-ondeck sport. Color Guard is trained to use different tools that are incorporated into their routines.

“At practices we mainly work on three things: either your body, your flag, or your weapon for your body,” Moore said. “We just like to stretch and move around try-

PERFORMING WITH THE BAND: Members of the Color Guard dance to songs played by the band. The team did not get the opportunity to go to world championships this year because of COVID-19, however they were still able to perform at some school events. PHOTO BY Natalie Cullen ing to get some choreography in and for your flag you would do tosses.”

When Color Guard is practicing, they have to deal with the uncertainty of Online learning. Some students’ WiFi could cut-out when learning virtually. The in-person students still know what’s happening but it could be hard for the virtual people to catch up. Guard members spend most of their time practicing for performances, however with COVID-19 getting in the way, things are more complicated.

“We’re practicing the same amount of days minus one day, so our amount of practice days hasn’t changed too much,” Vogt said. “It was difficult to continue to operate with the same level of excellence because we lost so much time to the snow storm as well as COVID-19.”

According to Moore’s parents, the inconvenience of switching between in person and Online interrupts parent schedules. Color Guard schedules are prone to change due to how easy it is for practices to get canceled.

“It’s rewarding but time consuming,” Moore’s father Joe Moore said. “Prioritizing school work and practice times is a struggle and it’s hard to find a balance between school and Color Guard practice times.”

Students get on Zoom to learn routines for class but according to senior Kylie Rodriguez, but it can be difficult to understand what they are supposed to be teaching.

“It is very difficult since the Zoom camera mirrors us so when teaching something officers have to explain more about how to do the choreography opposed to what we are used to,” Rodriguez said.

Team members have shifted their focus onto just sharing the routines with students rather than teaching them, saving time but in the end choosing efficiency over the quality of their performances.

TWIRLING THE FLAG: Sophomore Katie Brown performs alongside the band at the Fall Extravaganza. Dancing with and twirling the flags is just one of the major components of being in Color Guard. PHOTO COURTESY OF Michael Reeves

“Color Guard is mainly about just having fun and winning competitions,” Liam said. “Even if you don’t win you still had fun doing the show and being a part of the team.

Students work on perfecting their routines for competition, so learning drill and choreography with dance flags and sabers is high stakes.

“Sometimes we get to do some really fun stuff and other times we don’t but it’s kind of like a dice roll, we just don’t know what part we’re going to get into,” Liam said. “We might lose that portion of the dance and then get better or sometimes we might lose that part and nothing.”

Getting to that final moment allows the Color Guard to put all their energy into something positive. According to Vogt, she wouldn’t change a thing.

“I’m sad that I never got to go to world championships in-person because of COVID-19,” Vogt said. “But I’m glad the team gets to go soon, and I think that it will always be worth it.”

Theatre virtually performs the musical ‘The Chorus Line’

Abbey Repka Entertainment Editor

In past years, audience members would pile in to watch students a part of the Starlight Theatre Company put on their annual musical. This year, actors will no longer be illuminated by the bright stage lights, but instead will be filmed and edited together remotely.

The musical has been a popular performance among many students in past years, however due to the restrictions of remote learning and COVID-19, many changes have had to be made to the show this year.

“Many of the actors are using their own bedrooms or Zoom locations as the background for their audition,” theatre director Betsy Cornwell said. “The only sequences we are filming live are the ‘memory’ scenes and, of course, the big finale.”

Typically, the musical is performed live for an audience after winter break, but due to COVID-19 limitations, the ice storm, and damage done to the theatre due to flooding, it will be recorded and edited together for viewers to watch.

“We got a late start on fall shows and it just kind of has a domino effect,” senior Rachel McBurnett said. “Figuring out Online theatre took a while at the beginning of the year.”

This year’s show, ‘The Chorus Line’, is being filmed remotely by students and then sent to the technicians to edit the clips together.

“[The rehearsals] were on Zoom, other than a few in the parking lot,” McBurnett said. “It was actually pretty smooth but sometimes I don’t think actors and directors would realize that some things just wouldn’t work Online because of the lag. But other than that the rehearsals ran just fine.”

Although there are many upsides to doing

THE BIG FINALE: Dancers get ready on stage to perform their number. Students involved in the musical were invited to perform and record the final dance in the show at the AISD Performing Arts Center. PHOTO COURTESY OF Sydney Reinhart

the show virtually, difficult challenges come with it.

“Staying motivated has been really hard because we don’t get to see each other and perform with each other,” McBurnett said. “It can make it really hard to find the energy to do things.”

According to McBurnett, the musical experience is not the same as previous years, however the students and directors are giving it their best effort.

“I feel like we’re doing our best to make people have something similar, especially the underclassmen, but it just isn’t the same as being onstage with others and having an audience,” McBurnett said.

Even if the musical experience is different this year, there is still a bright side to doing the musical, according to senior Haley Pousson.

“It’s been a cool thing recording vocals over Zoom and seeing them come together,” Pousson said.

There are two main sides to producing the musical. The actors film their parts using either Zoom or their phones, and the technicians run the behind-the-scenes things such as editing the show.

“I wish people knew about the tech and everything that they do,” junior Ava York said. “I feel like all the tech always works super hard and people sometimes don’t realize how much work goes into it.”

Students who felt comfortable were invited to the AISD Performing Arts Center to record a dance for the big finale.

“This play was additionally a challenge because of the story’s dependence upon dance,” Cornwell said. “Our president, Tayah Savoy, stepped up to the challenge and has choreographed dance numbers for the entire show.”

After over a year of COVID-19 and remote learning, the directors, actors, and technicians have figured out the best way to produce shows.

“We’ve gotten to do a lot of trial-and-error with the previous shows which has allowed us to understand how to produce them better and how the process works,” York said.

Even with pushing through all the challenges of the virtual musical, the experience is still not the same to McBurnett.

“I really miss just being around other people, acting with others, having social interactions in rehearsal,” McBurnett said. “I would probably sell my soul to sing in a group again and hear harmonies.”