A Short Season

Parade season has always felt short to me. Although doing 3 field shows in high school and 4 in DCI, I only marched 4 parades total, one in high school and 3 in DCI, it makes sense as to why the ratio of parade to field show feels off. While helping out for the high school I coach at, I only was able to attend two rehearsals, each being only a few hours. The time I had with these students was limited, and it included many students who have never marched a field show and many who have never even marched at all. I saw growth fast, very fast. The first rehearsal I showed up to gave me good insights on what these students need and what they are good at. Again, the season was short, only 2 weeks of outdoor rehearsals and 1 performance, so I knew I wasn't going to fix every single minor detail.

The main part of parade season is of course, the parade, which is one single performance. According to what I clocked on my watch, the performance itself was only 25 minutes, which is a very long time to keep stamina up. I was very proud of the students for sticking it out to the end, giving lots of performance energy through their playing and marching. We had a very weak crowd, which was kind of lame, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous of the students for getting to have such a fun performance. The music was fun, the location was beautiful, and by the time we stepped off the weather was great.

I remember going down the street towards the downtown Spokane mall and really enjoying the view. The lights overhead, bubbles in the air from a float in front of us reflacting color all over and the dense crowd cheering was really something a performer can't get anywhere else. I'm happy and blessed to have coached, even if it was only a few hours total.