This is WGI--Video Clip
About Winter Guard International (WGI)
WGI Sport of the Arts, a nonprofit youth organization, is the leading governing body of the winter guard
and indoor percussion activities. It is called the Sport of the Arts because it brings music to life through
performance in a competitive format. Now entering its 33rd year, the sport continues to evolve and grow.
There were over 11,000 participants at the Sport of the Arts World Championships this past April.
WGI would like to welcome you to an exciting world of performance and entertainment; a place where pageantry
involves an array of equipment, movement, and skill. Winter Guard and Indoor Percussion create friendships,
talents, and standards of excellence, while fostering an environment where young men and women can grow, laugh,
learn, and meet challenges as a group. Welcome to WGI Sport of the Arts.
WGI Mission
WGI Sport of the Arts exists to foster positive experiences for all who participate, by promoting education, creativity and freedom of expression through the unification of the marching arts industry, music education and the perfroming arts.
General Info
Welcome to the world of WGI! An experience where competition is based in education.
WGI was founded in 1977 to draw together the growing winter guard activity, standardize rules, and provide
leadership and guidance. Now there is an international organization that offers:
- Standardized judging criteria within the activity
- Improved communication.
- Cooperation of local circuit organizations.
- An Educational Division offering clinics, printed and video materials regarding the color guard and
indoor percussion activities.
- A network of Regional contests in the U.S., Canada, and Europe culminating in an annual International
Championship in April.
WGI
WGI is governed by a Board of Directors composed of representatives from the top color guards and indoor
percussion ensembles in the world, and “At Large” positions for individuals who bring their
professional experiences to share with WGI.
Competition
WGI uses a competition-based approach for organizing events in order to showcase youth activities in
pursuit of high standards of achievement. Events include about 42 Regionals and Power Regionals,
which lead to the three-day World Championships that evaluate more than 300 guards and 170 percussion
ensembles from over 40 states, and 4 countries.
Education
Education is the basis for the developmental criteria, which defines the measurement for competitive
advancement. WGI Sport of the Arts provides curriculum materials for classes in equipment, movement, and
design. WGI provides a full educational program for instructors and judges through seminars and video
material.
The organization promotes higher education by annually awarding $20,000 in scholarships to students from
our competing units.
Winter Guard
Winter guard is the sport of indoor color guard. Modern color guard is a combination of the use of flags, sabers, mock rifles, and other equipment, as well as dance and other interpretive movement. Color guards can be found in, high schools, middle schools, some universities, and also some independent organizations some of which are related to drum corps.
Indoor Percussion
An indoor percussion ensemble or indoor drumline consists of the marching percussion (also called battery) and front ensemble (also called pit) sections of a marching band or drum corps. Indoor percussion marries elements of music performance, marching, and theater; thus, the activity is often referred to as percussion theater. Although most indoor percussion ensembles are affiliated with high schools, there are also many independent groups that draw participants from a large area.
Competition Classifications:
All WGI contests provide two divisions of competition specifically for:
Scholastic - units whose membership comes from the SAME High School or a school that feeds to that
particular High School.
Independent - units whose members are not necessarily associated with a particular school.
The units are then further divided into classes:
- A Class – Beginning programs and performers.
- Open Class - The intermediate developmental level of performers.
- World Class - The most advanced programs and performers.
Percussion also has Scholastic Concert Classes for units who do not include marching in their programs.
Did you know...
- Winter Guard and Indoor Percussion are the fastest growing of the pageantry arts.
- Winter Guard now exists in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Holland, Germany, England, Ireland, Korea, Japan, and Africa.
- WGI's educational materials serve as the curriculum in many schools that have classes in equipment and movement.
- WGI's artistic direction is fully controlled by the units.
- WGI awards over $20,000 in scholarships annually to students from competing units.
- More than 600 volunteers administer the circuits and staff the Regional and International contests.
- More than 150,000 spectators enjoy the activities at WGI Regionals and World Championships annually.
- More than 600 local competitions are sponsored, yielding an additional 100,000 spectators.
- Many of the percussion product companies are now developing percussive instruments for the indoor activity.
- Hundreds of high school marching bands benefit from the skills developed by our winter programs.
