Published: January 01, 2009 04:09 pm      

The color of winter

Troupes gear up for busy season

Ashland — Winter break is a busy time for booming area Winter Guard teams.

The break provides much needed rehearsal time for the various dance troupes to prepare and hone their new routines.

At least four area organizations used the holiday break for marathon training and rehearsal sessions, gearing up for a busy performance season.

Ability! Winter Guard, part of the Rivertown Performing Arts League Inc., had a winter camp at the First Church of the Nazarene in Flatwoods while the Raceland-Worthington High School Winter Guard and Expressions Winter Guard, based in Winchester, worked in Raceland this week. The Ashland Winter Guard had its clinic at Crabbe Elementary School.

Winter Guard, a competitive indoor performance art, has gained significant ground throughout the Tri-State in recent years, according to the various team instructors and managers. New teams have sprung up in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia and older teams are expanding their numbers.

Those involved say winter teams keep Fall Guard participants in shape and allow the sport to be offered to additional participants.

Rose Molinary, an instructor for the Raceland program, said she and her husband, Guy, joke they started the trend when they founded Raceland’s group in 2005. Since then it has more than doubled its membership and numerous other high school and independent groups have been formed.

This year, the troupe is up from five members to 11. “The kids have a lot of fun with it. It is something for them to do in the winter,” Mrs. Molinary said.

Sarah Diamond Burroway, whose husband is president and director of Ability!, said that organization — an independent troupe with members from ages 12 to 22 — has grown to 15 performing members since its formation in 2006. The group accepts members with special needs. “We try to focus on the guard activity and not the kid,” she said.

“I think the thing that is attracting the kids is that they are actually seeing some of the bigger guards perform when we go to band competitions,” said Samantha Bowen, an instructor for the Ashland Winter Guard. She said her group consists of 11 middle and high school girls and boys. “I don’t have anyone in this program that has not returned,” she said.

Sustaining their organizations and continuing to grow and increasing their competitions at a higher and higher level is a common goal among all the groups. They teach each other and share resources, conducting joint clinics and rehearsals.

Success for one organization equals success for all, organizers say.

All said they hope to expand the number and level of competitions they enter and possibly form a new circuit of their own for area teams to compete in.

“Eventually we would love to see a circuit out this way so we don’t have to travel so far for competitions,” Molinary said, adding this is still years away. “As long as it keeps growing, we’ll be all right.”

CARRIE STAMBAUGH can be reached at cstambaugh@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.