A little back-story before my questions
I volunteer at a local high school, helping out the music program, and recently, starting a color guard for the marching band. We have a flag instructor (volunteer as well), and myself, who is instructing I.D. Unit, rifles (when we get to that point), and helping the band with marching and musicality.
The kids are falling in love with color guard, and are learning quickly. None of them have a background in it, and some have never seen a performance, so this is all very exciting. We are looking to build the program over a period of several years, but we are in a good starting place. I want to be able to give them as much information as possible. With that said, my background (aside from the music aspect) is with rifles and as drum major.
I am pretty good at watching I.D. units, learning from what I see, and making routines, blocking formations, etc... however, I don't know what most of the terminology is in regard to the shields and the performed moves. Needless to say, it's funny when they ask what something is called. I ask them "What does it look like? We will call it that"
First Question: I would really love to learn the proper terminology. Does anyone know of a web site, a book, or anything that has any information one could learn from? Information such as different techniques, names of moves, etc?
Second Question: For the I.D. Unit, I have 4 girls and 3 boys. Initially, I was after 7 girls, simply because it seemed to be easier to choreograph for girls (read, not having to worry about intermixing more feminine and masculine movements). Now that it is a concern, any advice on how to marry the two so that each is present, but gel together when side by side? The girls want to do more dance movement, while the boys want more military precision. My thought was recruit more girls and move the boys to rifles so that they could mirror movements, but didn't have to match entirely to be cohesive. However, that's probably not going to happen until next school year.
I am sure I have a billion questions, but I've already written an essay, so I will save some for later. Thanks in advance, and just want to say this is a great site with tons of information!
