Pride of Cincinnati Diaries 2006

1/27/06-1/29/06

Matt Johnson

Our first "real" show... first time being judged... and for many of us (myself included) the first time to perform with the Pride of Cincinnati.

We started the weekend off as usual with a Friday night full of rehearsal, and after the nightly run-through were told that we'd start rehearsal early in the morning, because the show was in the afternoon and there were still things we needed to go over/change/clean. Saturday morning came and went and before we knew it we were running around preparing for the show. Fixing hair and makeup, searching for our performance blacks, squeezing in to use the mirrors and, somewhere in that hour, find something to eat.

On the bus ride to the show (about an hour and a half), people were singing or chatting, fixing makeup, laughing, napping. But, the best part was that it was just another day. Sure, it was our first show and we'd be getting a score for the first time and hearing what people had to say, but everyone was calm about it - completely at ease.

At the show site, we had a half an hour or so to hang out before we started body warm-up. Some chose to watch a show or two, some went outside for some "fresh air" and others sat around in the cafeteria (where we were privileged to hear Caitlin's stunning rendition of The Star Spangled Banner... beautiful.). When the time came for body warmup, you could tell that everyone was ready to go.

We did our usual body warm up in the hallway where it was slightly cramped... but we still found room to do our across the floors. (*note: Christine and Daniel were the only ones doing the prancing-across-the-floor correctly, and they wanted it to be documented. ~you're welcome~). After warming up in the hallway, we paired up with our line partners and walked hand-in-hand to our scheduled body warm-up where we did "Greatest Love" and watched Pam and Amanda do the ending for that day's show. Work!

Then came "equipment warm-up" which should have been called "this room has 7 foot ceilings... good luck... oh, and you have 2 minutes... go!"... So, we did our spin exercise and tossed some quads, which would have to suffice since nothing else would fit in that tiny room, and walked to the gym.

Unfolded the floor (where we had some random Tri-state tarp problem and everyone was slightly confused), threw some tosses that wouldn't fit in the warmup room and walked to our opening set. For weeks - months - leading up to the first show I had been trying to tell myself what it would be like... what it would feel like to walk on the floor and hear your show announced "2006 program... NOIR... Pride of Cincinnati..."... what the crowd would sound like and how I would feel as a performer, but there's nothing like the real thing. No matter how you feel in rehearsal, nothing compares to real life. The audience (although fairly small, being a local show) cheered and screamed and gave us a welcome to start the year off right. Blood was pounding and stomachs were in knots, but our goal was clear --- a first show we could be proud of that would set the pace for the season.

The show itself was pretty good. Kinda droppy and not as good as we've done before but definitely acceptable for a first show. We scored an 82.0, which is the first time in the history of the Pride of Cincinnati Winterguard that any guard has scored above an 80 at the first show. The staff was pretty happy with it and the judges seemed to understand and enjoy the show, so we, as a guard, were pretty happy. At the same time, we all knew what we'd done wrong in the show and what we needed to work on to make the next one that much better. After the show, and after having eaten way too much pizza, we rehearsed for 5 hours in the gym... it got kinda rough toward the end, but we pulled it together and Saturday night, as well as Sunday's reahearsal, went well.

As a whole, the weekend was a success. We had one of the best 1st shows Pride has had in years and the highest opening score in it's history. The crowd and judges enjoyed our show and we were pretty excited to start the season off on a high note.

I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Back to the 2006 Diaries page!