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A Lifetime Of Fun With WGI Sport Of The Arts
A Lifetime Of Fun With WGI Sport Of The Arts
The annual WGI World Championships events will be coming to Dayton during the first two weeks in April.
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By Kaylee Duff
Photos courtesy of WGI Sport of the Arts
Bellbrook High School Percussion, Scholastic A Class.
WGI (which stands for Winter Guard International) Sport of the Arts is the world’s leading non-profit organization for indoor color guard, percussion and winds competitions. Many times, when performers are asked what indoor color guard/percussion/winds is, they’ll answer something along the lines of, “The color guard with the marching band but inside with pre-recorded music/the drumline with the marching band but inside/marching band but inside.” But to the thousands of performers and fans that WGI Sport of Arts reaches every year, it is much more than that.
“WGI Sport of the Arts provides a venue for young people to achieve the extraordinary through performance and competition,” said Trevor Jordan, Marketing Manager of WGI Sport of the Arts. The organization offers educational performance opportunities around the world, such as clinics to regional competitions — many of which lead to the WGI World Championships held in Dayton every year.
WGI is the governing body for the multitude of indoor color guard (also often referred to as winter guards), percussion and winds ensembles that compete throughout the season. The non-profit sets standards, rules and provides the resources groups need to succeed. WGI Sport of the Arts is the international circuit through which ensembles around the world compete; many groups also belong to local circuits, where they compete with other local groups.
2018 Color Guard World Championships Finale.
“It is called the Sport of the Arts because it brings music to life through performance in a competitive format,” explained Jordan. Groups are divided up into several classifications, depending on a variety of things such as association and experience. The classifications include scholastic (associated with a high school) or independent (not associated with a school); and A Class (beginner-level experience), Open Class (intermediate) or World Class (advanced). Percussion ensembles also have the option of a Concert Class, meaning they don’t march during their performances.
WGI started in 1977, after a group of people met to standardize the growing world of indoor color guard performances and competitions. In 1992, the Percussion division joined the thriving Color Guard division of WGI; in 2015, the Wind division was launched.
Pride of Cincinnati, Independent World Class.
“Even with over 40 years of history, the sport continues to evolve and grow,” Jordan shared. Today, there are WGI ensembles across the globe — in the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Holland, Germany, England, Ireland, Korea, Japan and Africa.
World Championships — typically held in April — bring over 500 winter guards, percussion ensembles and winds groups to compete over two separate weekends. With so many groups from so many places, people often wonder why World Championships are held in Dayton, Ohio. Originally, the site for World Championships rotated throughout the country, making sure to occur in each region equally (East, Midwest and West). This was mainly because, back then, many ensembles were unable to travel as much or as far.
“WGI was first interested in Dayton out of the recommendation of a board member involved with the University of Dayton; that recommendation was UD Arena, optimal for its unique courtside seating layout and large parking lot,” Jordan said. “In Dayton for over 30 years, the WGI World Championships have become a local staple in rallying excitement for the indoor marching arts. As WGI and interest in the indoor marching arts continue to grow, UD Arena’s close proximity to other major arenas has successfully set us up for many years to come.”
Rhythm X Winds, Independent Open Class.
Even more than the excitement of welcoming international groups from all over, WGI’s annual Color Guard, Percussion and Winds World Championships events bring in over 60,000 visitors to the Dayton area and produce an average of $20 million in revenue, which greatly benefits the economy in southwest Ohio.
But if you ask any performer — past or present — why they keep coming back, year after year, to Dayton for World Championships, they won’t mention the arena or the local economy. To them, it’s all about the community. It’s about lifelong memories of spending half a year with the same group of people every weekend. It’s about pushing yourself to your limit, stepping outside your comfort zone, in order to be truly spectacular. It’s about being a part of something larger than yourself. It’s about finding yourself.
These performance ensembles “encourage growth in performance opportunities that might be otherwise overlooked or unnoticed in a community,” Jordan shared. “I personally believe that performance opportunities, such as the indoor marching arts, are so meaningful because they provide individuals with the ultimate outlet of unlimited creativity and expression. Beyond fine-tuning a performer’s movement or musical ability, the marching arts carries with it the excitement of performance and friendly competition, as well as a strong sense of family, belonging and worth.”
This year, the three different WGI World Championships events will take place over the first and second weeks in April. Color Guard World Championships will be April 3-6; Percussion World Championships will take place April 10-13; and Winds World Champions will be April 13-14. Visit wgi.org to view each division’s calendar of events, so you can catch all your favorite winter guards, percussion ensembles and winds groups in prelims, semifinals and finals performances.
