The 2019 WGI Dallas Regional will be held at Coppell High School in Coppell, TX, and will be the largest WGI regional of the weekend. The schedule includes 3 Scholastic Regional A (SRA), 32 Scholastic A (SA), 2 Independent A (IA), 8 Scholastic Open (SO), 1 Scholastic World (SW), and 2 Independent World (IW) groups.

With this many A-Class units competing, preliminary competition is broken into three rounds for Scholastic A, with each round containing 10-11 groups. The highest scoring groups advance to Finals competition regardless of their round, up to a maximum of 15 Scholastic A Class finalists, meaning that competition will be tight.

In Scholastic Open, only six of the competing eight groups will move on into finals.

Prelims begin at 9:00 AM CT with Allen High School JV in SRA, and will end at approximately 5:06 PM CT. Finals will begin at 6:15 PM CT with the first SRA finalist and will conclude at 10:15 PM CT.

Keller HS Varsity A

Keller High School Varsity finished 6^th Place in the 2018 WGI World Championship Finals with their program, “Just Like a Movie,” a fantastic interpretation of Adele’s “When We Were Young.” 

The program had plenty of excellent moments in it, but perhaps their biggest strength from it was their excellent flag-work phrasing. Each musical phrase flowed perfectly into the next, with each count expertly represented in the music, showing a wonderful combination of "the triad": form, body, and equipment. 

These three things combine the spacing within the shape on the floor and layering of phrases, the movement underneath the equipment, and what the flag, itself, is doing.

According to their website’s performance calendar, Keller won’t be headed to Dayton in 2019, but coming off of their outstanding 2018 program, I am still looking forward to seeing what they bring to the table in 2019.

CGT Denton

CGT Denton is the newcomer to the Independent World scene, coming off of their 2nd place Independent Open finish at the 2018 WGI Finals. Their 2018 program, “Jacob’s Dream,” was a period piece set to Alison Krauss’ song of the same title. 

Michael Shapiro, the Designer/Choreographer for both CGT units, is renowned within the guard world for his incredibly difficult equipment work—and CGT Denton lived up to that reputation by incorporating unusual pieces of equipment including axes and lanterns—not to mention the dual sabre/lantern feature that had to be seen to be believed.

This year, CGT Denton brings us their 2019 program, “Wanted.” Having not yet seen the group, I’m assuming that the show is focused on one or more criminals who may or may not be wrongfully accused, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Mr. Shapiro challenges his performers, this year. What it really comes down to is how CGT Denton handles itself in the World Class space, but with the organization's prior experience, hopes must be high.

CGT Dallas

CGT Dallas returns to the scene in Independent World after securing the 2018 Fan Favorite vote in Dayton. Their 2018 program, “Dust and Ashes,” was a lush show set to music from “Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812,” a Broadway musical based on a 70-page segment from Leo Tolstoy’s novel, “War and Peace.” 

The 2018 program was designed with audience service in mind, with their quirky cast of performers and a raucous start that involved the cast setting up for their program while performing and rolling out giant bar-looking set pieces. Every moment of that show was designed to elicit cheers from the audience, paired with high-risk equipment work and incredibly fun music that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

CGT Dallas’ 2019 program, “Unsub,” continues the “criminal” theme from CGT Denton. In criminal investigations, an “Unsub” stands for “UNknown SUBject”—as you might have guessed, it is a person who is unknown but is the subject of an investigation.