League of Her Own
A precise flick of the wrist sends the flag spinning into the air, only seconds will pass before it will spiral back down to earth. In those few short moments thoughts will race through her mind: step out, spin, land, catch. Time is up, but with nimble fingers and limbs she catches the flag just in time. It’s a routine in and of itself, but it is also part of something much greater.
This is color guard.
This is Danielle Heil’s life.
Dating back to her sophomore year in 2011, Heil’s life has become dedicated to the art of both drum corps and winter guard. Both differ from your typical high school marching band in that drum corps is a musical marching unit that lacks a woodwinds section, while winter guard is an indoor color guard activity. The past three years have taken her far, traveling all over the nation to perform at various competitions.
“I wanted to march a drum corps really bad and they only take brass instruments and drummers – and the color guard, of course, and I play flute. Which isn’t a brass instrument. Guard was kind of my way to get in,” Heil explained.
Heil spent the summer of 2013 marching with Boston Crusaders, a drum corps based out of Massachusetts. Over the course of their season, which spans the better part of the summer, the members performed in over 40 competitions and had blocked rehearsals almost every day.
“Sometimes we’ll have one block, and that can be anywhere between two and five hours,” Heil said, “But, sometimes we’ll have two blocks, so, like, four hours and another four hours, or four hours and two hours.”
Heil’s most recent show with Boston Crusaders was titled Rise and featured samples of several recognizable pieces of music, including renditions of “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and scores from How To Train Your Dragon and Inception. The entire performance consisted of 149 performers and lasted nearly thirteen minutes.
The long rehearsals and the dedication of the performers paid off, bringing the Boston Crusaders to the Drum Corps International Finals, where they placed 8th out of 20 total World Class corps. Being a World Class corps is a distinction in itself. The Drum Corps International website states that corps go through “exhaustive evaluations” before a recommendation is even made to their Board of Directors.
Although they have their similarities, drum corps and winter guard are vastly different. While drum corps are limited to 150 members per group, winter guard features only guard members with a smaller limit of 40 performers per group.
Heil is currently a part of O2, a winter guard founded by the O Foundation for the Arts based in Dayton, Ohio. These rehearsals can run anywhere up to 12 hours but are not without cause. Their work has led the O2 Colorguard to two Winter Guard International Open Class Gold Medal wins, one in 2010 and one in 2012.
Although a major time commitment, Heil wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s brought me out of my shell a little bit more, I’m a little more extroverted now.” Heil went on to explain that guard has helped her become more confident and helped her carry herself as Talawanda Marching Band’s drum major this past fall, “I know how to be in a world class environment and with a group and know how things should be run.”
With every intricate detail memorized, each toss and turn of the flag, Heil continues her journey through guard life, a life of dedication and hard work and hours of rehearsal.
“For winter guard, there is no age limit, so I guess I’ll be doing it as long as I can without it interfering with you know, real life,” she explained with a laugh.
And who knows? Maybe Heil will go on to being the longest running performer winter guard has ever seen. We might find ourselves watching her perform decades from now, spinning with just as much precision and finesse as she holds today.
Above all, one thing is for sure, Heil plans on continuing her journey for many years to come.
