Excitement buzzed in the air as the members of Prospect’s color guard settled down in a lopsided half-circle on the cafeteria floor, relishing the reprieve they got from the summer heat. Their instructors were about to reveal the uniform designs for this year’s Marching Knights performance, so naturally the students quieted down quickly and tuned in forfor the announcement. When an instructor flipped around their iPad, showing off a picture of a grey wolf fursuit; nervous chuckles rippled throughout the room, paired with looks of fear between peers, according to Tamas Goldin, a junior color guard member. The instructors explained shortly after that the fursuit was a joke and moved on; however, the incredulous expressions on the students’ faces lingered for a while afterwards.
“It’s a very different concept to our previous shows,” Goldin says. “The previous shows were a little more abstract in their own ways … and this is [about] wolves, feeding wolves, and who you are. That’s very different and specific compared to all the shows I’ve done, and that’s scary.”
Prospect’s Marching Knights had their first performance on August 22 at Scrimmage Knight at the George Gattas Memorial Stadium. They’ve been working for hours throughout the summer to produce their latest show, The Wolf You Feed, a concept adapted from a parable normally attributed to the Cherokee peoples. Goldin expressed some initial concern with the show.
“[I thought] ‘how are we going to do a show about wolves — how will people react to it?” Goldin said. However, as the show progressed, Goldin found that “people started reacting very positively to it. So the initial fear really faded off and now it’s just exciting.”
Goldin is portraying a bad wolf in the show, which represents the emotions of anger and greed. His role is to oppose the good wolves, which stand for kindness and generosity, in the never-ending battle between positivity and negativity. His favorite piece of choreography is from the second movement where he and the other bad wolves sweep their flags in a wide arc around themselves before executing a series of side and front spins that culminate in a one-handed toss. To finish off the move, Goldin plants his flag on the ground and high-kicks, the move is meant for the audience to visualize the fight between the wolves. Goldin has immensely enjoyed the process of learning how to simultaneously act as his character and portray the message that the show tries to tell through his dance.
”I’ve never felt very connected to the character of a show before this,” Goldin said. “And I really feel how the show feeds the choreo and the choreo feeds into everything so very deeply this year. It’s very exciting.”
Throughout the entire process, band director Chris Barnum has worked tirelessly with his students to make sure the performance not only rises above the nerves that come with working on a less-abstract piece, but also to make sure audiences interact with the message with an open mind.
“When you bring good things, like patience and kindness— if you bring those things out into your world, then you’re also putting them out into the world for other people. And the same can go for negativity. If what you’re always noticing are negative things, then it’s more likely that those are what are going to affect the way you interact with other people.” Barnum said.
Throughout the process, band students get a full taste of Prospect’s culture through this show by immersing themselves in the message of the parable, which is that what one puts out into the world is what they will receive in return. The parable concludes with a child asking their elder which wolf wins the internal battle, the elder says that the wolf that wins is the one you feed.
Goldin thinks that working on The Wolf You Feed has not only impacted his skills, but touched him personally.
“I hope that people see that [the show] and really think to themselves about how sometimes it’s really, really easy to let either side win— that anger, that frustration is so much easier to let win than the happiness and joy, and letting one of the sides win is ultimately your choice,” Goldin said.
