Continuing the Bluecoats Experience
Since the cancellation of our 2020 season tour, we’ve been working on ways to keep the Bluecoats Experience active for our 2020 performers. While this is a difficult time for everyone involved in the drum corps activity, we feel especially for the performers who have lost the promise of an incredible summer. We have a lot of plans underway to give our performers the best experience possible.
BLUECOATSTRONG
Every year a BluecoatStrong Facebook Group is created so we can share useful exercise and practice information with our membership leading up to Spring Training. It also acts as a way for our performers to encourage each other as they strive to reach new goals. This Facebook Group quickly becomes a “home” for our performers as they get to know each other and start forming friendships. We’re continuing our BluecoatStrong programming in several ways.
In order for us to maximize our physical wellbeing program, we will maintain our partnership with Marching Health. In our second year of partnership, Marching Health has been providing our performers with a pre-season workout regime in our BluecoatStrong group. On April 15 some of our performers joined a video conference call with Physical Therapist and founder of Marching Health, Dr. Elliot Cleveland to do an at-home workout as a community.
The Bluecoats leadership team, which consists of section leaders and drum majors, has been collaborating with Marching Health to plan weekly Saturday morning workouts. These workouts will be led by Marching Health, staff members, and Bluecoats performers. The team is coordinating live yoga, stretching, zumba, runs, and other weekly workout classes to keep our performers active and involved.
Performers are also invited to tune into a daily video conference call to practice Mindfulness, Together. This new program started on April 15 and is a part of an initiative to provide mental wellbeing programming to our performers. Mindfulness, Together provides an opportunity for our Bluecoats community to meditate together. Participants are given 10 minutes at the beginning of the call to meditate in a way that is meaningful to them and then the group has a brief discussion about their meditation practice.
STAYING SOCIAL
Along with weekly fitness events, we’re going to host weekly social events led by our leadership team in collaboration with the Bluecoats Alumni Council. “The Bluecoats leadership team is starting a new member-led initiative to coordinate a series of weekly events to encourage the 2020 Bluecoats to stay engaged, stay active, and most importantly have fun this summer,” said Bluecoats 2020 Drum Major, Nick Kneupper. These weekly events will take place Wednesday nights via video chat and will include many fun activities like gaming nights, movie watch parties, and art nights. Some of the events will be member-only and some will include the alumni interaction that is so integral to the Bluecoats Experience.
BLUECOATS IN THE CLOUD
Outside of our BluecoatStrong Group, we’re hosting monthly Bluecoats In The Cloud events to keep the Bluecoats Experience active and bring interesting programming to our performers while we interact as a community. At the beginning of March, we announced that we would be moving our April Camp online. We will host April Camp In The Cloud April 25-26 for all interested 2020 performers. These full-corps monthly webinars will feature guest speakers, online instruction time, and sectionals.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
Right now, our instructional and design teams are working on some exciting continuing education ideas to keep our performers engaged. Stay tuned for more information!
We’re excited to continue brainstorming to find more ways we can bring programming to the Bluecoats community! We can’t thank you enough for all the support we’ve received from the wonderful community that surrounds us. To make a donation to help us continue offering new and exciting Bluecoats programming, visit bluecoats.com/give. Together, we will #MarchOn.
