The Northeast Mississippi Indoor Championships

This past weekend was the 2015 Northeast Mississippi Indoor Championships at Northeast Community College.  Both the Bordeaux Majorettes and Bordeaux Winterguard competed, and I am happy to report that BOTH ENSEMBLES are gold medalists!!!

The majorettes rocked their final competitive performance of Diamonds, and I could not have been more proud of them!  This performance was also the first time they've performed the entire show in public since we missed so many rehearsals because of the weather.  For practicing only an hour and a half once a week, these girls are rock stars to perform as well as they do with so little instruction!!!

Bordeaux Winterguard absolutely rocked the house!!!  We made a few more minor changes to the show the week following Spring Break, and the girls NAILED their performance, including a pretty intense saber feature that got added that week.  I could literally be seen dancing for joy where I was sitting!!!  The energy level was high, the performance was spectacular, and the crowd rejoiced with them in the end!!!

We also took a lot of pictures at this show.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Tomorrow we head down to Jackson to prepare for what will end up being the girl's final competitive performance of the season.  This is such a bittersweet moment, but I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to take this journey with!!!  Here's to one last competitive run!!!  Make it the best one yet, and remember who you are performing for!!!

Bordeaux Winterguard: Mid-Season

Mid-season began for us with production week of the 2015 NAHS Musical: Mary Poppins.  Since most of the girls were involved with the musical in some shape or fashion, rehearsals stopped the week of the musical.  We also did not get to practice at all the week following the musical because of the weather.  The girls literally went two solid weeks in the mid-season without a practice.

Our first practice after the Brandon Show was the morning before we drove to Southaven.  The girls did their best, and despite a not-so-great run, they still managed to finish in the top five of their class!!!

In the weeks following the Southaven show, the girls got down to work and really started cleaning everything we've been working on.  We changed a few things and added a few things, and wound up with two more solid finishes before the mid-season ended.

At the South Pontotoc show the girls finished first in their class, and had what I still believe was their best run of the season to date.  Everything was clean and polished!  It was exactly what we needed going into the next show because it gave the judges a clean read of what wasn't working from a Design and GE standpoint.

The majorettes also attended their first competition at South Pontotoc!!!  They really wowed the crowd and looked absolutely STUNNING while they did so!!!

The next week at Pearl the girls had another solid run and finished second in their class.  This was after an entire week of MASSIVE changes to the show design, so I was that much more proud of them for remembering it all!!!  Especially given that it was also another week we missed school because of the snow!!!

Here are a few pictures from the mid-season shows:

The girls also had a little fun during the snow days the lead into Spring Break.  The snow in New Albany actually accumulated at 6-8 inches!!!  So.... I challenged the girls to make auxiliary-themed snowmen!!!  Here is a collage of a few of my favorites:

Mid-season was a wonderful few weeks of constant forward progression!!!!  The girls truly rocked it and came into their own with the show!!!! 

Bordeaux Winterguards: Start of the Season

Indoor season this year got off to a bit of an unexpected start.  Things changed, plans fell through, and eventually the decision was made to combine all of the Winterguard ensembles into a single entity, thus creating the 2015 New Albany Bordeaux Winterguard.

Naturally, when the group dynamic changed, it was time to re-pick a show that better fit the group of girls I had after everything was said and done with.  What started out as hectic, insane, and a bit unnerving suddenly turned into the absolute best thing that could have happened to us!

I decided to go with a new show design and song:  I See Fire by Ed Sheeran.  We painted the floor, picked new costuming, and in January, we got straight to business.

The girls started killing it right out of the gate!!!  They were first place in their class at the Horn Lake Field Day, and they were first place again at the Pearl Field Day Night Show.  The judges were blown away with how strong their initial performances were, and the girls were thrilled to be having that kind of success their first few shows on a circuit.  It was a wonderful way to start the season!!!

A few weeks later the girls traveled to Brandon, Missisippi, for the Brandon Show.  Once again, they finished strong and came out on top, despite the fact that they had missed a practice that week due to some scheduling conflicts!

The girls started the season stronger than any group I have ever taught.  It was absolutely wonderful to see them enjoy what they were doing and to be rewarded for their efforts!!!

Here are a few pictures from the early shows, including a picture of Feu, our adopted mascot for the season.

These girls are wonderful!!!  The season got off to an incredible start this year!!!!

Blogging Palooza....

Just get ready....

It dawned on me after posting on the Auxiliary Blog today that I haven't updated this blog ALL SEASON LONG.  Like seriously.... it still has the old shows on here.

So.... today I'm going to try to make up for this MASSIVE indiscretion!!!  I'm going to break it up into 3 primary blogs:  The early season, the mid season, and The Northeast Circuit Championships.  I'll finish it up with a blog about Championships this weekend, and will update it again after Saturday with results and information about the 2nd Annual New Albany Indoor Showcase!!!

Stay tuned!!!  Lots of good stuff coming your way!!!!