Music for All unites passionate students

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - In the group of 20 high school students twirling color-guard sabers on Ball State University's campus Tuesday, Austin Crawely stood out. He was one of just a few males.

"It's rare to find a guy that does color guard," he said. "But at the same time, when we do finally come together - because there is a few of us here - we automatically like unite."

The odds of Crawely, a high school junior, finding another male color guard member were much higher during Music for All's Summer Symposium, a weeklong music camp that draws students from across the country. This year around 1,700 are staying on campus.

"It's new," he said. "I've never been surrounded by this many girls before ... but it's pretty chill I guess."

Crawely, who is from Indianapolis, said he first joined a flag team in seventh grade but had always been fascinated with performance. It wasn't until his freshman year of high school that he got serious about color guard.

"I just started practicing every day, asking people for help, contacting people to see if I can sit in on their practices and stuff like that," he said.

On Tuesday, he practiced with the camp's elite class, which he had to audition for, among other students who similarly made color guard their life.

Makhaila Dudley, from Dayton, Ohio, just graduated from high school and is starting as an instructor's assistant for the guard at her school.

"Color guard changed my life," she said. "I was this self-conscious little eighth-grader who wasn't very confident ... and by the time I reached my senior year of high school I had so much more confidence... I just was all the way around a better person, a better leader."

She said she wants to help the next generation of color guard members the same way her instructors helped her.

That's what both students and camp leaders say the summer symposium is about, bringing together passionate people to help each other grow and sharing new techniques.

"You just kind of develop this new sense of positivity toward the world because you find this very large group of people that are all very passionate about what they do," said ?Mary Lindsey. "Everybody's building with each other and growing."

Lindsey is from Atlanta, Georgia, and attended the camp at Ball State as a student for three years, then returned as a staff member this year.

"It's more than just learning to spin a flag or rifle, or dance," she said. "It's bringing leadership and a new quality of instruction back to your home schools."

Color guard is just one of the groups of students at the camp. It also includes orchestra, percussion, drum majors, concert band, jazz band and marching band. Each group will show off what they've learned during public performances around campus on Saturday.

The marching band will also appear in a DCI Central Indiana performance July 1 at Scheumann Stadium.

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Source: The (Muncie) Star Press, http://tspne.ws/298ubUj

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Information from: The Star Press, http://www.thestarpress.com