Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, June 19, 2008
Blue Stars shine at preview show in Onalaska
 Blue Stars color guard member Jennifer Berghs of Hudson, Wis. performs Wednesday with the rest of the drum and bugle corps during a dress rehearsal at Onalaska High School. PETER THOMSON photo |
ONALASKA, Wis. — The La Crosse Blue Stars believe this can be the year they return to the top 12 finalist ranks of Drum Corps International.
And so did the crowd at Onalaska High School’s football stadium after seeing a preview of the corps’ 2008 show. The crowd saw a spectacular visual show, with several wow moments and marvelous musicianship.
The show, “Le Tour: Every Second Counts,” is based on the Tour de France bicycle race, featuring original music mixed with famous melodies by French composers.
The crowd was treated to the entire 11-minute show, a standstill performance of the show — and the show in stages as Frank Sullivan, the Blue Stars’ brass arranger and composer, explained the show concept, which follows the stages of the world-famous bike race.
Even before the show starts, the color guard, dressed in bike race outfits, stretch and get ready to race. Then the corps marches at 190 beats per minute.
Sullivan said the Blue Stars are the first corps ever to use handle bars on flags, which simulate biking and actually twirl sabers. At one stage, 30 rifles are thrown into the air.
In the end, the corps forms the traditional Blue Stars’ star. Sullivan said the show is a work in progress, and eventually the color guard will be broken up into four teams of bikers — and the show, which begins in one end zone, will conclude in the other end zone.
Eric Miller, a Blue Stars’ alumnus who ended his instructing career last season with the corps, called it “a great show.”
Onalaska High School band teacher Dawson Strutt’s band camp students saw the show.
“The sound and blend of the brass section this time of the year is beautiful,” Strutt said. “This is really an awesome show.”
The Blue Stars moved up to Division I two years ago and have finished 14th at the world championships those two seasons. The corps opens its season Saturday in Rockford, Ill.
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