060908 Pride members to march Aimachi 2009.

From the WGI website:

Aimachi Color Guard will be returning to the WGI World Championships in 2009!

Following a successful appearance by the Aimachi Percussion Ensemble at the 2008 WGI World Championships, Aimachi has made the decision to bring their winter guard back to Dayton for 2009! This time, however, there will be some new faces among them.

Kiyokazu Sekine, the director of Aimachi, made a remarkable gesture of international friendship. Upon learning that Pride of Cincinnati would be taking a season off, Mr. Sekine graciously offered a home in Japan for a handful of the most recent Pride cast so that they could perform as members of Aimachi for the 2009 season.

Mr. Sekine said, " This opportunity will give both Pride and Aimachi a big benefit. By inviting some Pride members to Aimachi, our members can learn many things from them, because the level of their technique and strength is top in the world. On the other hand, the Pride members will learn many cultural differences, and see the beauty of western culture by coming to Japan. We are honored to get this wonderful opportunity."

Aimachi and Pride have a long history of friendship. Not only do they have common staff members, but several Aimachi members have performed with Pride of Cincinnati. In fact, with the exception of one season, Pride has been the home to performers from all over Japan every year since 1997.

A designer for both Pride and Aimachi, Michael Gaines explained, " This is such a wonderful situation for both organizations. Once they determined the exact number of Aimachi members that would perform, they realized that there would be room to invite a few members of Pride. We made the decision to invite 6 young men who would complement the great passion and joy that are witnessed in a performance by Aimachi.

The experience for the guys from Pride will be a once in a lifetime opportunity that will allow them not only to perform with the top winter guard in Asia, but to immerse themselves in the beautiful Japanese culture for a few months. Aimachi has been so wonderful in presenting them with this opportunity. I am excited to see the energy that this combination of performers can bring!"

Charlie Gumbert, director of Pride is excited for the Pride members. "I am so grateful that Aimachi is giving some of my kids this remarkable experience. This allows them to continue their performing career during Pride's year off, and experience a different part of the world at the same time. I can't wait to see them at WGI in April!"

WGI has been expanding its international presence more and more over the last few years. This is yet another example of how winter guard brings people together from all over the world with a common love of performing. Without WGI, these two groups would never have known each other.

Now these passionate performers, from both sides of the Pacific, will be sharing the stage as Aimachi 2009!

5/6/08 Pride to take 2009 off....back in 2010.

Pride Board of Directors Regretfully Announces, “No Winterguard in 2009!”

While the decision to take a season off, wasn't a desired option, the Pride Youth Development Foundation's (PYDF) board of directors remains very focused on the long term vitality of the Pride organization. This wasn't a decision about squeezing out "one more year" and then folding it all up, it was about continuing to strengthen the foundation's future by stabilizing its savings portfolio and expanding its sources of revenue in a changing fundraising environment. The board has worked hard over the years to position the organization in a debt free situation, as well as invest a portion of the foundation's assets to ensure its long term future. This type of planning has served the organization well over the years and helped maintain the continuity of a world class program. Pride has the distinction of being one of the longest running participants in the activity and the board remains committed to preserving that for many years to come. The board’s decision to go inactive for 2009 is matched by the commitment to re-emerge in 2010 with the same standard setting color guard Pride has fielded for decades. While taking the year off is not what the board would prefer to do, they believe the long term interests of Pride and their support of the color guard activity are best served by this decision.

Ryan Alm, Chair of the Pride Youth Development Foundation says: "Quite simply, we're a casualty of the Ohio statewide Ban on smoking."

Alm further explained that for the past 6 quarters or so, the board of directors has been closely watching the financials and forecasts while bracing for the impact the state imposed smoking ban would have on bingo revenue. At the board’s quarterly meeting this past weekend, the board was able to see the first 16 months’ impact the ban has had on the bingo. Alm added, “While we were successfully able to reduce costs in many of our main operational line items more than 20%, those savings have not been enough to counter the 31% decrease in game revenue we've experienced since Jan 07 when the smoking ban took effect.” The loss of just 15-20 people from each bingo session makes a significant difference in net income for the organization. It's a dollar off the top that's not available to sponsor the Pride of Cincinnati Winterguard or other programs and scholarships supported by the PYDF which have also been greatly reduced.

Pride Bingo has experienced a substantial impact from the ban itself and the lack of enforcement of the ban has not helped. One of the competitors in the area are openly advertising their lack of compliance with the law and no one will/can/wants to do anything about it. The Board of Health is unable, unstaffed and unequipped to fairly enforce the law passed by Ohio voters. Pride Bingo has definitely been penalized for its compliance with the new law and that's very frustrating. Alm adds "The board, staff and its volunteers have put a lot of effort into creating a model operation on all levels or our organization. It's really frustrating to everyone involved when a variable completely out of your control interrupts that progress and effort."

In looking at the financial trends and forecasts of the foundation, a decision to field the guard in 2009 could have placed the organization in a situation that would potentially force the liquidation of the organizations’ investment portfolio in a down market or be unable to cover any unplanned expenditures without tapping into credit sources. The PYDF is unwilling to run the guard like that. “We're committed to offering a high-quality experience to Pride members, and look forward to preserving that experience for many years beyond 2009” says Alm. "This decision, as undesirable as it is, helps Pride ensure that the organization can do just that" .

Pride has taken two other absences from competition in the past, most recently in 2000, when they returned to win the world championship in 2001. “This organization has demonstrated the ability to return in full strength following an off-season and we look forward to showing that again in 2010!”

4/12/2008

Pride of Cincinnati was awarded the WGI Independent World Class Silver medal on Saturday night, April 12th, 2008. With a score of 98.1, Pride captured their second highest score in the history of the organization.

A huge congratulations goes out to Fantasia from Riverside, CA on their Gold Medal Placement!

Review from WGI website (Philip Mayard):

Pride of Cincinnati’s (2nd Place, 98.1) “Bridge Over Troubled Water” had the audience on pins and needles, as a soloist walked nearly the entire length of the performance floor on the backs of her fellow performers, in a beautifully conceived silent movement statement. A huge swath of blue fabric -- dragged, flown, and draped into every possible shape and texture -- played a huge part in both the staging and individual choreography of this brilliant production.

12/26/2007 Pride announces 2008 Program...

“Bridge Over Troubled Water” has been such a large part of our culture for close to forty years that it is hard to distinguish where this “pop” standard ends and a beautiful metaphor begins. The twenty-six young men and women of The Pride of Cincinnati will illustrate this multi-faceted distinction by performing to Roberta Flack’s emotional rendition of this classic Simon and Garfunkel piece.

The staff, excited to collaborate on another project, has been motivated and inspired by transposing these familiar lyrics into visual representations of support, weakness, strength, fear, and courage. Various lifts and tandem choreography serve as a conceptual foundation, while a symbolic image of “water” makes an aesthetic contribution and continually redefines the stage. As the title suggests and the song has done with listeners for decades, creating literal and figurative “connections” is the driving force behind Pride’s 2008 production of Bridge Over Troubled Water.

10/08/07 Pride on Youtube...

The Pride of Cincinnati now has a one minute promotional video on Youtube. Click here to check it out!

Watch for more content this season....

09/25/07 2008 Auditions a great success!!!

The Pride of Cincinnati is pleased to announce the completion of yet another successful audition! Performers from Japan, and every corner of the continental US, attended the audition for the 2008 edition of the POC Winterguard.

Classes in dance, flag, rifle and sabre went smoothly, with the staff scrutinizing each aspect of the performers in order to choose just the right combination for the final colorguard.

Thanks to everyone in attendance! The official announcement of performers will be made after the first full camp in October.

09/25/07 Pride is pleased to announce the addition of two new staff members...

The Pride of Cincinnati is gearing-up for the upcoming winter season and has recently added two instructors to their staff.  Melissa Ganser and Rory Duffey will join the Pride team of technicians for the 2008 season.

Melissa Ganser resides in South Bend, Indiana.  She is currently going to Indiana University in South Bend for a degree in English Literature and Early Childhood Development. Melissa teaches the color guard at Penn High School and writes choreography for Plymouth Canton HS. She marched with Phantom Regiment 2000-2002, Boston Crusaders '03-'04 and was a performing member with Pride of Cincinnati in 2004-2005.

Rory Duffey marched with the Madison Scouts, Crown Guard, and The Cadets of Bergen County, and spent two winters with Pride of Cincinnati in 2001 and 2004.  Rory has taught numerous high school groups, such as the Scholastic World finalist Franklin Central H.S., as well as the recent Scholastic Open Silver Medalist Warren Central H.S.  He has also been a choreographer/technician for the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps from Canton, OH.  Rory is currently attends Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana majoring in Criminal Justice and also working on a minor in Coaching.  While going to school, he manages and serves at DeAngelos, an Italian restaurant in Bloomington where he has been employed for 2 years. 

The existing staff includes the design team of:  Mike Gaines, Keith Potter, Andy Toth, Jim Moore, and Johnny Amos. Technicians include Rosie Miller, Bart Woodley, Charlie Gumbert, and Matthew Follo.

Pride is overjoyed to add Melissa and Rory to the team!  2008, here we come!

09/16/07 Pride attends WGI's Spinfest and performs for Mia Michaels!!!

From the WGI website:

Spinfest Wows All In Attendance
Sep 18, 2007

It was a weekend of high energy, incredible anticipation and absolute excitement as WGI welcomed acclaimed choreographer Mia Michaels in a whirlwind learning experience unlike anything in our history. Close to 450 participants of all ages flocked to the beautiful Buena Vista Palace Reseort in Orlando for what became a truly landmark educational event.

Spinfest!! began on Friday afternoon with detailed classes in the basics of flag, rifle, sabre and movement led by some of winter guard's most distinguished instructors. Carol Abohatab, Jill Brennan, Robby DuFresne, April Gilligan, Fred Marier, Rosie Queen and Tracy Wooton shared their collective knowledge in handling equipment while Michael Gaines, Karl Lowe, Randy Nelson and Adam Sage led classes based in design reflecting a wide variety of topics such as staging, production values and creating effect. Another interesting session dealt with four different approaches to the same piece of music and how choices are recognized in the judging process.

The centerpiece of the weekend was the “Mia Michaels Experience” which certainly lived up to everyone’s wildest dreams. Fresh off her Emmy Award win last week, Mia entered the giant ballroom filled to capacity with 300 dancers and began a very challenging two-hour dance class which incorporated her unique style of movement and expression. Twenty minutes into the class she stopped and complimented the participants that her expectation of their ability had been lower and took the class to the next level. Ms. Michaels also brought along her gifted assistant, Ted Forance, who treated those in attendance to an amazing demonstration of improvisation.

It was now time to welcome Mia into the world of winter guard. Small ensembles from Blessed Sacrament, Braddock Independent, Fantasia, Northeast Independent, Phantom Regiment and Pride of Cincinnati presented excerpts from their 2007 shows or a new production designed especially for this event. It was certainly heartwarming to see her reaction to something she had not experienced before and she tried to explain that when something stimulated her creativity, her reaction is to get nauseous. To the cheers of everyone in attendance, she stated that she felt sick to her stomach (in a good way) and embraced the activity as a fusion of dance and equipment to which in her experience, she had rarely seen before.

The final phase of the session was a personal look into Mia’s own life experiences, discussions on her creative process, how she worked around challenges within her projects and the things that influence her. Karl Lowe engaged her in a conversation that felt a great deal like old friends chatting in your living room. It was personal; it was fascinating; it was honest. At the conclusion of the four hours with Mia and her assistant, there was no question that the momentum from Spinfest!! will set the stage for some inspired shows this season.

Competitive barriers were non-existent, sweat and smiles lined everyone’s face, there was not a single dull moment, and the anticipation for the next Spinfest!! is already the “buzz.” Best of all, Mia said she’d absolutely love to come back!

For news from previous seasons, click on the appropriate year:

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2007

2008