Entry #2 - Funk it up!

“WGI Sport of the arts is proud to present: Oasis!”

It’s only practice for now, every week for hours at a time waiting, practicing, eating, practicing, practicing, and more practicing. Despite the exhausting schedule it means everything to me. I perform with a group called Oasis, they were founded by Austin Yost back in 2017. I had previously observed this teams performances while I was in high school, each performance was even more entrancing than the last. Scores improving and smiles widening, songs being sung along to by the crowd(despite half of them being off tempo and unable to sing the lyrics correctly). Everything about this group screamed happiness and familiarity.

This season's show is called “Funk it up!” with the song being “Togo” by Huntertones. This show is about having a good time and being unapologetically yourself, the whole show relies on the music to convey feelings without words, just as the music relies on the performers to enhance the feelings within the song. Austin Yost, (one of the coaches for this performance) said that he wants people to feel as though the music is jumping off of the stage and being thrown directly in the audiences faces.

This is a more recent performance in San Bernardino, although not our best performance by far this is definitely one that will stand out against the rest of them. This show started off a little rough due to the long drive to California, but this was one of our cleanest runs involving the flag feature towards the end, we synced up and created an whole different vibe of performance. Everyone works hard together and we can feel more united when we perform with each other. Even in another state and when it started raining on our stuff. We still pulled through and this is only one step towards a bigger goal. Soon we will perform in Dayton, Utah. This is where World Championships is being held, we will perform to our best ability and (hopefully) make it to finals, among some of the best color guard groups out there.

I feel immense joy and satisfaction when it comes to this performance, each time I practice I get better. Each time we perform I feel better, happiness from the show bleeds into everyday reality. My one motto when investing myself into a performance is that I always want to feel as though this is more a performance for myself, I want to leave every show believing that that was my best run so far. My best performance, I want to believe I left everything I had to offer on the floor.