Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 15, 1993 TAG: 9304150355
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
GETTING IN THE GROOVE
"It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing . . ."The Star City Forte Winterguard shoo-wopped around the hall of the Vinton Head start Center trying to keep up with the music of that jazz swing.
Occasionally, a flag hit the floor or someone missed a step, but the group persevered.
Michelle Edwards, the Winterguard's director, stood on the stage guiding the group of mostly teen-agers through their practice performance.
"Stop!" she shouted as the performers lost their places. "What's the problem here?"
The Winterguard is Edwards' creation and is the first one established in Southwest Virginia. After recruiting students from area schools she started Star City in January 1991.
Edwards says she sees many teen problems in her job as a part-time patient representative for families in crisis at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley. She also hears about them from her husband, Bryan, a social worker at the hospital.
She says it breaks her heart to see the problems that young people are dealing with today. The Winterguard is her contribution to building a better future for them in the Roanoke Valley.
Winterguards, which are popular farther north in New Jersey, Maryland and the District of Columbia, are musical productions that incorporate theatrics and dance with flags, sabers and batons.
The Star City Forte is 23 students, ages 11 to 21, from Roanoke Valley schools and area colleges.
The group performs during halftimes at high school basketball games and in competitions around the country. One recent Thursday evening, the group was practicing for a competition in Philadelphia, but their trip was canceled because of the weather. They competed in Baltimore in March and came in third place.
The group will perform May 1 for the American Association of University Women and later in the month during the Festival in the Park activities.
"Overall, I've seen a real blossoming of the group," Edwards said. "A few of them have dealt with tumultuous times. I set myself up to be available to them, not as a parent, but [as] another adult."
Edwards targeted teen-agers who were not already involved in a particular activity, "kids looking for something to connect to."
"I'm here because of the people," said co-captain Angela Guffey, a Cave Spring High School senior. Guffey said she stumbled into the Winterguard when she attended an organizational meeting.
Since then, she's "bonded" with the other students and came back for a second year because she felt "responsible to keep contributing," she said. "And it's a good feeling to have the younger ones look up to you."
Angela studied dance for eight years and plays a key role in the dance routines.
Last year, the group did a version of the "Nutcracker Suite," but Angela says she prefers this year's jazz production.
"It's much more in-your-face," she said. "We're pretty outrageous when we get dressed up."
The group's backdrop is a Chicago lounge, and the performers wear red satin, some with red feather boas.
They buy their own costumes and pay $20 a month for tuition. Edwards brought a consultant from Washington, D.C., to help establish routines and lay the groundwork for the group. However, Edwards turns no one away. She formed scholarships to help students with finances.
When Joyce Payne's daughter, also named Joyce, told her about the Winterguard, Payne wasn't so sure about it. To the single mother, it sounded expensive. But Payne worked it out with Edwards that she would make equipment bags for the group and that would go toward Joyce's tuition.
Payne decided to get more involved and became secretary of the parents group. Last year, the performers tried raising money themselves with bake sales but this season Edwards recruited parents to coordinate the fund raising. Parents have approached local businesses for donations.
Payne's daughter, a sophomore at Northside High School, joined this season after learning about the Winterguard from co-captain Jennifer Jacob, a senior at Northside. Like most of the participants, Joyce and Jennifer are members of their high school band.
Almon English, a William Byrd High School senior, plays trumpet in his school band.
"This is totally new to me," he said of the Winterguard. Edwards was looking for more male performers, and English decided to give it a try.
"It's a big learning experience for a lot of the people here," he said. "I think it's been, overall, a good thing [for me]. I don't have much in the winter that keeps me busy.
"It was kind of a shock when I ended up being the only guy," he said.
The other male performers dropped out, some because of transportation difficulties. But English says he'll stick it out for the rest of the year. Next season he hopes to be in college.
With the lack of men, there also is a lack of black participants. Payne's daughter is the only remaining black member.
"I notice a lot of black kids are not involved in anything," Payne said. "I don't have the money all the time but I try to keep her [Joyce] involved in something."
Edwards said she will start recruiting this summer for more students. One of the biggest challenges is getting a mixture of people to make it "a true community-wide project," she said. "It's my personal goal to get a good balance that [shows] this is not just for kids from a certain area or background."
Successfully pulling off a production takes a great deal of cooperation, coordination and confidence.
"They're real beginners," Edwards said watching the group practice. "But that's fine. They're feeling good about themselves."