Chers Phans,
Good morning from Danville, Indiana! We have just arrived at our last housing site for the summer. This is when the countdown to finals day starts to feel very real.
Last night was our final regular season show in Massillon, Ohio. It is bittersweet, because while the crowds at these shows are always very enthusiastic and intimate, it is also nice to be done performing outdoors for the summer. The color guard has had to battle some fierce wind-related elements lately, and so we are looking forward to the indoor climate of Lucas Oil Stadium for the last three shows this weekend.
This past weekend was a great success. On Friday, we had a 2-block rehearsal day and laundry block in Robesonia, Pennsylvania. In ensemble, we focused on intentional projection of energy in order to prepare to perform in the J. Birney Crum (Allentown!!) stadium on Saturday night.
The final laundry of the season was fairly uneventful, all sections got very clean, and I had some delicious pizza with friends. If I have learned something over my years of drum corps experience, it is that laundry becomes less and less exciting the more you have to do it yourself outside of marching. However, it was still nice to get the block off and have some good smelling clothes for the last week.
Saturday was, of course, the final regional day of the summer in Allentown, Pennsylvania! We had a fairly short day of rehearsal, and got to enjoy some Rita’s water ice at lunch, provided by the Brooks family! We again focused on projection up to the box, which had to be imagined as the school’s press box was pretty short.
The show that night was a huge success! J. Birney Crum is a hard stadium to perform in, and the crowd can be very hard to please, but we kept on pushing our energy out during the show and got a very enthusiastic standing ovation at the end!
That night we traveled to Attica, New York for a short rehearsal day before our show in Buffalo that night at the Ralph Wilson Stadium, which is the home of the Buffalo Bills. That night, the hornline premiered their new kick out in the ending chevron, which is a very exciting moment for the drum corps, as that hasn’t been in a show since 2007.
The next two days are the last full rehearsal days for the drum corps at Danville High School to prepare for finals performances in Lucas Oil a Stadium in Indianapolis. We are ready to push to the end and make the most of this summer!
TODAY’S MEALS
BREAKFAST: CBYOJ and Panera Bagels
LUNCH: Hot Dogs
Dinner: Salisbury Steak and Mashed Potatoes
Thanks for reading,
Genevieve Gahagan