SLP and SLWG: An inside look on the winter music groups

Ryley Arnold ‘20, Layout Director

Now that the fall marching season is over, both color guard members and percussionists are excited and ready for their winter season. South Lyon Percussion (SLP) and South Lyon Winter Guard (SLWG), run by both South Lyon High School and South Lyon East High School, are indoor performance groups. Both ensembles practice three to four times a week to work on their four minute shows. In 2019, both the SLWG and SLP ranked third place in the Michigan Color Guard Circuit (MCGC) with their shows War At Home and Left Brain Right Brain. 

This year’s SLP show is entitled Control. Director Shane Zeigler said, “Throughout the course of the [performance], the ensemble uses different control motifs, such as controlling their volume by playing extremely loud and extremely quiet.” The group demonstrates control over their musical, visual, and performance qualities. Members are given choreography that requires a lot of balance and core strength. Students have worked extremely hard on their show, having three 9am-9pm practices in a row over winter break.

In Winter Guard, members spin flags, rifles, and sabres, alongside dance. The SLWG show is called Turns To Gold. With music from The Greatest Showman (2017), the story of the performance is that of King Midas, and even though he could turn everything to gold it still was never enough. Director Katie Stickel said, “A dance soloist [being played by junior Sam Klingler] dances through the ensemble in the beginning, freezing them and turning them to gold. Later in the show, the dance soloist will interact with the ensemble, trying to get them back to normal.” At the end of the show, everything changes back to normal and King Midas realizes that everything he wanted was already right in front of him. The group had their first competition on Feb. 1, scoring third place.

Both SLP and WG have performances on Feb. 29 at Lakeland High School. Go out and cheer them on as they ready their show for state finals on Mar. 21 at Saginaw Valley State University.

Photo courtesy of Katie Stickel