The crowd went silent, captivated by Color Guard captain Serenity Calica (12) as she played the role of Carmen, dancing between the members of Westview GOLD as they performed the introduction to their field show, “En Memoria de Carmen,” based on the opera “Carmen,” Nov. 13. This year marked the 20th annual Westview GOLD Marching Band Tournament. Competing in the 5A division, Westview scored 87.35 overall. Rashmi Chelliserry (11), the flute section manager, said that playing on home turf made her feel more at ease.
“It’s really exciting,” Chelliserry said. “Walking onto the field, it’s a different feeling with the whole
stadium watching and then we’re about to start the pre-show. Especially since it was on our own field, I was more comfortable and more confident about [our performance].”
Right before the show, GOLD performed a pre-show that wasn’t part of the judging, but it gave them a chance to introduce the main character of the opera, Carmen, to the audience.
The first movement of the show focuses on Carmen’s life. Calica said that the seriousness of the Carmen storyline made this part of the tournament different from the previous shows the Color Guard performed.
“I definitely noticed that there’s some things in our show that are a lot different than we’ve ever performed in the past,” Calica said. “In the past, we’ve done more cutesy and quirky shows, but this year, it’s more serious. That’s something out of our comfort zone, but it’s nice to know that we are capable of doing other things.”
In the second movement, the show moves on to tell the story of Carmen’s death. To do this, the Color Guard gets low to the ground and takes on solemn expressions while switching to black flags.
Calica said that the Guard had to create the illusion of more people by continually moving around and maximizing their space. This, however, got tiring.
“We have to kind of make up for how small we are by moving a lot so it looks like we’re bigger,” she said. “We’re constantly going somewhere, so that’s kind of difficult. It’s also longer, so you have to run around even more.”
This GOLD show was about two minutes longer than those in years past, going up
to a total of nine minutes and thirty seconds. This meant that there were a lot more drills for the band to memorize, but Chelliserry said that she didn’t let this faze her.
“I feel very focused when I perform,” she said. “As soon as we start, I’m in the zone. I’m not actively thinking about everything because I can’t think of both the drill and the music at the same time, so they have to go on autopilot. I think I focus more on the drill and then the music goes more naturally.”
To memorize the show, GOLD practiced during class every day and after school twice a week until 9 p.m.
“As an upper-classman, it’s been fun helping [the underclassmen] and seeing them grow as musicians,” she said. “But even though I’ve done this for two years, Iʼm still seeing how I can get better at marching and playing to bring out all the little details that make the best performance. During tournament season, we’re trying to have the mindset that we want to get better and better.”
In addition to memorizing the music and drills, GOLD has to remember to move their visuals around. Because they just added new visuals the week before the tournament, Chelliserry said that they needed to focus on getting them right.
“The most stressful part is not stepping out in time or not doing the visual in the right time with everyone else,” she said. “Those were the times where [we had] to focus the most.”
Calica said that the Color Guard members have also grown closer together, and because they were exhausted towards the end of the show, they encouraged each other while performing.
“By the second movement, we get really tired but we have to keep pushing because w
e have three more minutes of show,” Calica said. “And so we tell each other, ‘Keep going, push,’ behind the props and just try to help each other up.”
In the third movement, the mourning of her death transitions into a celebration of Carmen and the life that she lived, with the band playing faster and more upbeat music.
“I love movement three,” Chelliserry said. “The music is exciting and it’s a totally different vibe than the beginning of the show. It’s more lively, more of a celebration of her life.”
The story’s new direction translates into Color Guard’s movements, as they dance faster, swapping their black flags with brightly colored ones.
“In the past for our Guard, it’s been more proper and we did a lot of classical contemporary dance pieces,” Calica said. “This [movement], as our coaches say, is more sassy. It’s more fun to play that character because I get to explore how I perform more.”
At the end of the tournament, the judges announced the scores of each school.
“Our score was really high, which was not what we were expecting, but we were really happy about it,” Chelliserry said.
Carr shared this excitement. He said that all the group’s hard work paid off and that the members have improved so much.
“Iʼm very proud of my band,” Carr said. “Iʼm proud of th
e work we put in and considering how difficult our show music has been this year, itʼs insane to see how the band has grown. Even within my own section, weʼve had the most difficult music weʼve had in probably four or five years and we’re much better than weʼve ever been.”
As they prepare for Championships tomorrow, Chelliserry said that she’s confident that Westview GOLD will perform well.
“We’ve all definitely grown from the beginning of the season,” Chelliserry said. “Since it’s getting closer to Champs, we’re all feeling how close it is, and we’re in reach of the goal. Now itʼs just about putting in that last 100% so we can get there. Itʼs just little things at this point, little improvements that we have to make to get to the highest level, but I’m feeling pretty good and I think we can medal this year.”
