Reaching a score of 74.43 at their most recent competition at Murrieta Mesa High on March 15, the UC Color Guard is prepared for their performance at Championships tomorrow, exhibiting their show Lunch Break.
Director Alexander Bolender explained the theme of the show and how it was created: “I’m often inspired by art and photography to create shows, and I’ve always been really interested in this historic photograph called Lunch Atop a Skyscraper. Typically when creating shows, I’ll find music first and then a theme afterwards, but this year was the other way around. After finding the perfect cover of ‘Empire State of Mind,’ the rest of the show started to develop afterwards. One of the biggest parts of our show is using steel beam props to change the shape and the space of the floor, which are used throughout the show. This gives the impression of building the skyscraper while also building the development of the show.”
Sophomore Kate Eng said, “The show starts off with a dance section, followed by a section known as trios. This involves sabres and flags, and new sabre work is a lot of fun because we get to interact with people who aren’t on the sabre line.”
Sophomore Alexa Adamson said, “During this part of the story, we’re showing the start of our workday. It’s very fun to perform as we are as we’re running around on the floor, connecting with our team members as we go to trios, showing the diversity and how we work together to build the Empire State Building.”
“After the trios, the show transitions to rifles, where a military parade is performed. I love the part when rifles are coming out to do exchanges with what will be the rifle line, because we get to dance to meet up with our exchange partners. In that section, there’s a lot of times where we’re doing the same work, but it’s just on ripple counts, which means we’re doing the same thing at different times. I like that because it highlights the individuality of each performer, but also the togetherness as a group,” said Eng.
Adamson said, “Right before the final flag feature, the people with rifles set down their equipment and pick up props that act as beams. As they start to move with the beams, the first few [color guard members with] flags start to walk out onto the floor and interact with the beams. I think it really helps bring our characters to life, because we portray what it was like to be a worker in that time period. I love interacting with all the other members as the flags run under our beams.”
Junior Killian Plasencia said, “Throughout the whole show, there’s so many different elements and there’s so much story being told. There’s a lot of complexity in the equipment we spin, the dance choreography, and the props we move around. But the flag hit [or choreography] at the end of Lunch Break is a very powerful moment for our team because it has complex choreography. I say that because we all come together and perform this similar flag moment, and it’s impactful because it’s the first time in the show that you see us completely united. Every single person is on the floor performing that flag hit.”
Bolender explained, “I think that one of the quintessential things about our show is that, as said in the lyrics, New York is the place where people go to pursue their dreams. There are so many different people who all come together in the melting pot of New York which is super important to convey with our flag feature; everyone as individuals are coming together to be one. After the flag feature at the end of the show, to continue this unity the performers all gather on the beams for their lunch break, imitating the iconic photo that inspired our performance.”