COVID-22
How Corps Respond to the Coronavirus Threat on Tour.
On Saturday, July 2nd, the DCI community was stunned when at 3:51 PM Eastern, DCI dropped an article that the Phantom Regiment would be performing a standstill at Drums on Parade in Sun Prairie, WI, just outside of Madison. It included a quote from Phantom’s CEO, Dr. Todd Snead, stating that “As part of our ongoing COVID-19 mitigation protocols, our most recent round of tests indicated a positive infection rate which exceeds our established benchmarks. Therefore, in the interest of the safety and health of our performers, staff, and volunteers, our ensemble will make a standstill performance tonight with those of our members who are cleared to participate. We apologize to our loyal supporters who were looking forward to seeing the corps in its entirety.”
Thus, on the afternoon of what would have been their third competitive show of the year, Phantom withdrew. They wouldn’t be the last. So far this season, at least five corps have been moderately impacted by COVID, and more have adjusted their schedules and protocols to try and reduce the impact that it may have.
What has happened so far?
Shortly after Spring Training kicked off, word came from sources familiar with Carolina Crown that they were facing a large portion of their members either being infected or exposed to COVID-19. Fortunately, the infected members made a full recovery before the corps left Gardner-Webb University for their residency at the BOA Summer Symposium ahead of their first show of the season in Muncie, IN on July 1st.
At that same Muncie show, observant viewers noticed that Phantom had an abnormally large amount of holes. This had many corners of the DCI world pondering what would happen as a result, and they got their answer the next evening in Wisconsin.
After just under a week of recovery and rehearsal, the Phantom Regiment was able to rejoin the tour in Evansville, IN. Enough of their members had recovered that corps leadership felt comfortable going back on the road. The following night, the Cavaliers announced that they too would be performing exhibitions because of COVID mitigation protocols.
Over on the west coast, Santa Clara Vanguard continued performing field shows. However, when they had prop moving members out with the virus staff members were subbed in. Corps Director Rebecca Compton-Allen said, “We feel extremely grateful that DCI has allowed staff to help with prop moves, as this has allowed our performers to put on their full show consistently despite holes for members in quarantine.”
Genesis had a full schedule of clinics and performances that was significantly modified due to their issues with COVID, however, they were fairly fortunate. When they were hit with the worst of it, they were housing at Bastrop HS in Bastrop, TX for five days. This was long enough that the worst of the member’s symptoms abated, and the corps could head to the next site after with only a few members in COVID protocol driving separately.
How have the corps been dealing with it?
COVID protocols vary significantly between corps. Phantom, Cavies, and Genesis have had separate COVID vehicles for their members in quarantine. Santa Clara’s policy has members taking a minimum of five days off of tour before being permitted to rejoin. When they rejoin the corps, they spend five additional nights in a transition room and are required to mask for those days, as well as socially distance. Beyond that, members in quarantine are kept separate from the corps as much as possible, to the point that they are delivered their meals and given separate shower times.
This commitment to social distancing is something that is shared by other corps. The Cavaliers, for instance, were having their members who were testing positive but still fit to march rehearsing their show on separate fields from the rest of the corps.
Fortunately, to this point, there have been no reports of any serious illness or hospitalization from any impacted corps. Many corps are still either mandating or strongly recommending vaccination for everyone on the road, and this has indeed seemed to help mitigate severe cases in what is a very rigorous activity.
What does it mean moving forward?
Well, it can mean a lot of things. Throughout the season, it’s meant that the affected corps have had their shows and scores significantly impacted. Before the Cavaliers went on their temporary hiatus, they were consistently receiving scores that placed them around 6th, including beating the Blue Stars by over a point at their last show before moving to a standstill. At their previous meeting with Phantom Regiment, at the last show Phantom competed before their issues forced the move to a standstill, the spread between the two corps was just under 2.5 pts.
At the Cavaliers’ return performance at Brass Impact in Olathe, KS, they found themselves almost 2 points behind the Blue Stars and tied with Phantom, a swing of 3 points on its own. Phantom went from beating Blue Stars by .35 in Muncie to falling behind by 2.15 8 days later in DeKalb. All corps impacted have lost countless hours of rehearsal.
DCI has shown that they’re willing to make accommodations for corps. On multiple occasions, Phantom and Cavaliers had to change what type of performance they were doing, or even if they were performing at all, close to show time. SCV, as mentioned above, had staff members moving their props around. The most controversial accommodation yet has to do with this weekend’s Southwestern Championships.
The Controversy
“Corps not appearing in any of those events will be placed in the order based on their last score received”
On May 27th, DCI.org posted an explainer about how the performance order would be set for the 2022 tour. A copy captured on Wayback Machine is viewable HERE. It states that “order for the DCI Southwestern Championship in San Antonio, Texas (July 23), will be based on reverse order of placement from July 16 events in Denver, Memphis, and Whitewater and drawn at random in groups of threes. Corps not appearing in any of those events will be placed in the order based on their last score received”.
On Sunday, July 17th, the Cavaliers’ most recent score was 74.55, scored on the 6th in Ankeny, IA. This would put them in 13th place by score, and therefore drawn among the group from 13-15. When the schedule came out that evening, the Cavaliers drew the 9th spot. The article with the release is HERE. Accompanying the schedule was a sentence very similar to one in their earlier explainer. “Corps not competing in any of those events were placed into the drawing order based on projected score to date.”
The only change between the two is “last score received” to “projected score to date”.
Here’s why it’s an issue
This change means that the Cavaliers went from potentially performing immediately after the first intermission to first after the dinner intermission. This is 6 corps and almost 3 hours later. If you’ve been following this activity for a while, you will know that the competitive advantage there is significant.
Let’s look at this from another perspective. During the Cavaliers’ first show back from their break, they tied with Phantom, each scoring an 80.45. As a result of this change, Phantom will begin their show over an hour before the Cavaliers are scheduled to go on. DCI has some of the best judges in the world, but just like the rest of us, they’re human. It’s far harder to compare two groups an hour apart than it is to compare them back to back, especially when they seem to be so evenly matched.
From a competitive standpoint, do the Cavaliers belong in the same scoring range as the Troopers or the Madison Scouts? Probably not. The Cavaliers have been scoring more in line with Phantom and the Mandarins, the groups performing before and after them on Saturday. The controversy DCI is facing right now is not that the Cavaliers were placed where they were, it’s that up until the schedule for San Antonio was posted, everything that was communicated from DCI implied that they’d be using the earlier posted method to seed the groups.
The change they made caught many staff members of the corps impacted off guard, causing multiple high-ranking staff from different groups to express frustration about it on social media. There have even been assertions that if it were a different group, the decision DCI came to would have been different.
None of this would have been an issue if DCI had either changed their policy earlier when this potential issue was noted or at minimum made sure to inform the corps affected before releasing information to the public.
So that brings us to this weekend. This season so far has been filled with great performances, great stories, and the return of DCI competition for the first time since COVID hit. Corps have been working hard on and off the field to take care of their members and give them every chance to succeed.
Hopefully, DCI does the same.
Saturday Night Lights is currently GEM’s Managing Editor. He has been involved in the Pageantry Arts for over a decade, as a performer at the highest level, an instructor, and a fan. You can find him on Twitter at @SatNightLites. He currently lives in Florida with his partner and their two dogs.