2007 TKA Amazonian Rainforest

2007 TKA Amazonian Rainforest. Today I’ll be talking about the 2007 TKA (The King’s Academy) Marching Lions show titled “Amazonian Rainforest”.

This is a continuation of a series of posts that cover my time as director at The King’s Academy.

Getting started

2006 was a disappointing season. I was pleased with the performance of the band, but I was unhappy with the show design. I needed to do better in 2007.

Nearly every show that I’d designed had used music from Arranger’s Publishing Company and had been written to work well for a small band. But, when I looked for something to play in ’07 I couldn’t find anything that I liked.

Key Poulan

Someone suggested that I look at music written by Key Poulan. Key had written for various Drum Corps (DCI).

I went to his website, fell in love with several shows that he had written and settled on a show called, “Amazonian Rainforest“.

Staff

We had lost our colorguard coordinator at the end of the ’06 season. She had played a pivotal role in the design and instruction for three strong seasons. Who would take her place?

If you are a regular reader, you know that I attended Norwin High School. And, you know that our marching band won the National Championship in ’82. My life was profoundly changed in my time with that band and their director, LJ Hancock.

LJ utilized some former students for staff members. I was a member of the Norwin staff for a few summers when I was in college and I had benefitted from former student/staff when I directed the bands at Lynchburg Christian Academy.

This was my 7th season at TKA and I had 2 former students with DCI experience. We also had 2 former students who were part of Winter Guard International (WGI) groups.

These 4 alumni became instructors of: drumline, colorguard/flags, colorguard/weapons and visual. They were hungry to return to TKA and create a powerful program. We added an incredibly supported band Mom to the group who focused on colorguard/dance.

These 5 superstars came on the team and worked for FREE!

Enrollment

The TKA band had 30 members when I arrived in 2000. We experienced a 50% growth in 2004 and leveled off at 47 in ’06.

Something changed in ’07 and we grew to 63 members! And, much of this growth had occurred in the colorguard.

I believe that the growth could be attributed to 2 things.

• Our former colorguard instructor had focused on encouraging the elementary school girls to do colorguard
• Our world-class chorus director left the school. Students who might be enthusiastic participants in musicals were now looking in other directions for a top-notch activity.

I didn’t really care why we grew, I loved it!

Design

The dream team staff motivated me to write a tough show.

The opener was called, “Anaconda”. I wanted to create snake like motions on the field. The band began in several disconnected curves. One section began moving until it connected to another section. Each time a new section was added on, the “snake” would change directions.

I put each section as far away as possible in order to make that snake MOVE!

We decided to transform the colorguard into butterflies in the second section. Beautiful butterfly wings were made for the ladies.

Our parents stepped in and created moveable planter boxes for the field. We put plants in them to assist in the “rainforest” effect. The boxes also gave us a place to put colorguard flag poles.

And then there was the canopy…

Canopy

We had a great show. I don’t know who to credit or blame for this idea but we thought it would be cool if we covered the colorguard’s transition to butterflies.

“What if we flew a big canopy over the band?”

Crazy ideas don’t work unless everyone buys in and works to make it happen. And, everyone bought into this idea.

Our supporters made an enormous canopy, but how would we make it work? I had seen bands do this.

How hard could it be?

We began working with the canopy in rehearsals and it was a DISASTER! You had to run the material very quickly AND you had to have NO wind!

The canopy caught on percussion equipment on the sidelines and flipped instruments over. A bass drum got caught on the canopy and nearly dragged the student away. The kids on the front of the field put their hands over their heads in order to help with ‘lift’. Sometimes this would give them a nasty fabric brush burn.

It wasn’t easy. We used a lot of rehearsal time trying to figure it out.

The season

The show cooked. We had great performers and energetic staff members. I seemed like everyone was trying to prove that there was no better band in the state.

The weather didn’t always cooperate. I know that we were drenched at the John I Leonard competition. One of my director friends joked that we were definitely in a RAINforest for our show. I thought we had destroyed the instruments that week.

The big question at each performance was, “Mr. Dunn, are we using the canopy today?”.

The canopy was a gamble and I didn’t like gambling. So, when we performed at FMBC state semi-finals, the canopy was a big NO!

But, the performance was a thing of beauty. I’m getting goosebumps right now as I think about it.

States

The semi-finals event was extremely hot and dry. The band took the field and exploded. Honestly, I’ve never seen anything like it.

The tempo was too fast. There was no way in the world they were going to hold the opener together. I watched in horror knowing that at any moment the show was going into the dumpster.

And, with each passing second, the students shocked me. It was intense and thrilling. I had tears in my eyes.

In many ways, I feel that the TKA Marching Lions hit their stride that day. It was amazing. I wish I had video, but I don’t.

We made it into finals but I could tell that the kids were spent. They just couldn’t find the power needed to have another lightning strike that evening.

We finished the year as the 4th place band in the state.

Wrap-up

“Mr. Dunn, are we going to use the canopy?”

It was our last show of the year. What the heck? “Yes”.

And,…it worked.

I am forever grateful to whoever took this iconic shot from finals. What a cool effect!!

What a great season!