After announcing it wouldn’t return to WGI Sport of the Arts following its 2017 finals performance, Onyx winter guard has recently stated that it will perform once again in WGI 2018 for the group’s 30th anniversary.
Last season, the three-time WGI Independent World Class winter guard champions declared it would retire from competition and pursue stage performances. However, after members pleaded with founder Michael Lentz not to retire the group, Lentz decided to bring Onyx back for the 2018 season. “We quickly realized how important Onyx is in all of our lives and that it’s something we’ve done for 29 years,” Lentz says. “It’s just a huge part of what we do.”
During the past year, Onyx has worked on several stage shows with dance companies in Chicago and at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The group even received advice from Nigel Lythgoe from the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance” while in New York.
Onyx will only compete at WGI events, not local competitions, this winter, Lentz says. The group plans on incorporating lessons from previous WGI shows and stage performances into its 2018 performance. “We want to take everything we’ve learned about ourselves from our own [past WGI] shows, … and we want to take stuff we’ve learned from the stage and just make Onyx a more special, more admirable, more impressive Onyx,” Lentz says. “We want to bring back all the things we know, all the things we’ve learned, and all the things we’ve hoped for and put them all together.”
