Bluecoats Announce 50th Anniversary Alumni Corps Caption Heads and Steering Committee Addition
Steering Committee Chair Ted Swaldo is excited to announce the Caption Heads, who will provide key instruction and supervision for Bluecoats 50th Anniversary Alumni Corps, taking the field in 2022. Swaldo shares, “Having previously announced our Design Team, we are thrilled now to add to this outstanding group the Caption Heads, who will organize and lead each section.” The caption heads will begin working in earnest with the design team, named in September of 2019, who are ready to share significant parts of the 2022 show with members soon.
In what could be a horn line larger than any seen in recent memory, Dave MacKinnon was the natural choice to lead this group as Brass Caption Head. “D-Mac” started with the corps in the mid-1990s on the brass staff and has been a key element to the evolution of that Bluecoat “signature sound”. His experience in the activity spans five decades as a participant and instructor. Hector Gil joins Dave as the Percussion Caption Head and brings outstanding experience as a marching band and percussive arts instructor and designer. Hector marched snare with Bluecoats in 1997 and 1998. His groups have been showcased throughout the country at the Percussive Arts Society events, Bands of America, and across Texas where he resides and teaches.
Sharing Color Guard Caption Head duties are Ashley Ledezma and Charles Williams. Charles resides in Texas and has vast experience in the Pageantry activity, having participated with Emblem 281 and Zydeco Winterguards and founded Code Black Winterguard. After Marching Bluecoats from 2002 through 2005, he began teaching across the drum corps activity. Ashley is a current Texas color guard adjudicator and movement instructor and choreographer for Juxtaposition Winterguard, she marched Bluecoats between 2001 and 2006 with her last three seasons as an assistant captain (2004) and captain (2005-06), then continued teaching with the corps after aging out in 2007 and 2008.
The next step in filling out the instructional side of the Alumni Corps will be recruiting Section Leaders, a process beginning in a few weeks with a formal announcement of those selected later in the year.
Initially, final plans for 2022 were to have been revealed by this time, but the Pandemic has caused extra consideration and planning. Bluecoats CEO Mike Scott is announcing the addition of Scott Swaldo, President of Bluecoats Board, to the Steering Committee. “Scott’s experience as a former member of the corps, later a staff member, and now our President makes him the perfect addition to the Steering Committee. I’m very grateful for his service to this new endeavor!” said Scott. Swaldo joins eight other members of the committee comprised of former Bluecoats corps directors, administrators, instructors, and program staff.
With the drum corps activity on pause for the last year, the Steering Committee is ready to proceed on how the Alumni Corps will operate when the activity resumes in full for 2022. In the near future those plans will be finalized and prospective members of the Alumni Corps will be updated in a live webinar that will include time and updates on projected cost commitments of the experience.
