A Pyware Transcription Project: Transcribing Iconic DCI Drill Moves Part 1: Why?
There are some designs that just stick with you. You may have seen them 100 times, but they still get to you. They still elicit an emotional or intellectual response. I have several of those from my years of viewing DCI groups. Some of these were groundbreakingly (is that even a word?) innovative and thought provoking. They cause me to ask, “How did the designer do that?” How was it conceived? How was it phrased? How was it charted? How was the design communicated? How was it taught/understood by the performers? I can’t help it, that’s how my mind works.
At the end of last fall’s design season which is sometime in November for me, I decided I was going to tackle an 8 week Iconic DCI Drill Moves Pyware Transcription Project. I even announced this on social media which seemed to raise a few eyebrows and even brought a few hrumphs. Someone even told me to go take a nap. The thought of spending time designing something that I may never use in actual performance was lost on some, especially my wife. She just didn’t get it at all. But I assure you there is a method to my madness. First, I wanted to do this to prove that I could. I also wanted to do this to have some new material to use in my Pyware and Visual Design Training. I can run video of the original design and then video showing the transcribed Pyware file. How does this design that was done maybe even before Pyware existed look in Pyware? What a great way to learn from the masters of the activity! I knew I would learn A LOT! I also feel it’s important the latest generation designers be aware of game changing visual design throughout the history of the activity. And finally, I wanted to do this to create some “buzz”. It may get some people to take notice of what I’m doing as a designer. It may cause some discussion about the original design (and it has). It may cause some to ask, “How did Doug do that?”
My first task was to identify the 8 iconic DCI drill moves. I knew this could be debated for a long time. I had a few in mind before assembling my list. Probably the first 2 were by Georg Zingalli with the Cadets and Star of Indiana. I then thought I would ask for suggestions on social media and I received several. Not all made my final list, but I figured that just gives me a few to start with the next go around. Here is the list of 8 I selected as iconic DCI drill moves in no order other than the order I chose to transcribe them. This was not a “ranking” exercise and there are many, many other drill moves that could be on this list.
1983 Cadets “Z Pull”: George Zingalli
2000 Cavaliers “Diamond Cutter”: Michael Gaines
1991 Star of Indiana “The Transfigured Cross”: George Zingalli
1999 Santa Clara Vanguard “Block Wrap”: Myron Rosander
2015 Santa Clara Vanguard “Sparks”: Peter Weber
2012 Carolina Crown “3D Boxes”: Leon May
1998 Cadets “Snake Pit”: Jeff Sacktig
1995 Cavaliers “The Helix”: Greg Poklacki
I chose to start with the 1983 Cadets because it has been something I had used in my own designing, but I had never tried to verbatim recreate the original design. So it was something I was quite familiar with and I wanted to start with something I was pretty sure I could make happen. I decided to complete one transcription per week for 8 weeks. I was able to stick to that except for one week, Spring Break. I also purposely limited the amount of drill in each transcription to keep them manageable and the finished video as close to 1 minute (or under) in length as possible. You can access the completed YouTube playlist Here It only takes a little over 8 minutes to view the whole thing.
In Part 2 of this entry series, I’ll cover some of the “How?” of the process of making these happen.
I always like getting feedback from readers like you. Please leave a comment and share this blog with your friends.—DB