Vibrant Colored Silks… streams of liquid gold and silver flowing thru the heavy summer breeze…
Intricate and beautiful dancers…floating thru routines to music that emanates and surrounds them as the sun slowly sets and paints colorful murals thru the clouds in the skies…
Gentle rustling breezes float through the tall vibrant green grasses surrounding the field they dance in…
Small flashes of blinking light dancing sporadically in intermittent patterns-resembling Christmas lights which magically appear as fireflies explore the edges of evening…
Long summer rays dancing off the leaves, the blades, the fabric, making the blonde hair shine like liquid gold, red hair blaze with a fiery glory, and the brunette hair shine with strands of copper fire and bronze…
The air is heavy with sweet perfume of honeysuckle and freshly cut grass. There are sabers and rifles, but no weapons, Fabric Flying thru the air, but no magic carpets…A foreign language, yet still they speak English- Angle Toss, Pull Toss, Push Toss, J- Toss, Pull Hit, and Thumb flip…
These are all the impressions which invade my senses and fill my mind as I sit on Tuesday evenings, watching my youngest daughter entering a Whole New World…a world of downbeats and dancing, of drum majors and sectionals. Some of the elements are familiar; after all, she has been raised in a world of music, orchestras, choirs, singing, and dancing. But this new world of marching music- of grace and precision is an unknown. I am as proud as I am amazed- at the effort and beauty they put into each phrase. I love watching them come together as they work to push themselves- to further their endurance and grace. They dance on weak ankles; they toss flags from hands filled with blisters, all to display the strength and beauty of a hummingbird in a hurricane.
As the marching band works tirelessly on their musicality and form, their precision and formations, I watch the girls of the guard embracing these qualities and working toward making the aural presentation of the band into a visual translation. They will work hard in the coming days of summer until they perfect their creation. They will spend hours in the heat of the summer days- to spin magic that will capture us and whisk us away to another reality, and I know that I am proud to have a small part in encouraging them and capturing that magic as I follow them around with my camera. So in the coming weeks, I will lose myself for a few hours every day in spinning silks, rich, vibrant colors, and the smells of summer- while I know that it is all rapidly racing toward the night they will step onto the foreign soil of the football field and weave a tale of music and majesty where the work of the long summer days will culminate in the jubilation of a job well done.
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