About Flatland Press

Flatland Press is an independently operated center for the collection, preservation and dissemination of marching research. It is the library of the marching arts and tool of the art of choreographed marching which supports these activities.

The project, founded in 1993 by Stuart Rice, was prompted by simultaneous breakthroughs in marching theory and history. The theoretical breakthrough was the product of nine years’ research, application and collaboration with authorities in the fields of theater and art, music theory and composition, anthropology and the marching arts from the University of Utah and the University of Michigan. The result - a taxonomy of nine types of planar (2-dimensional) movement - laid the foundation for what later became Planar Analysis, and demonstrated that the choreography (formerly, misnomered "design") of marching could be studied and approached as a moving, performing art, rather than an exhibit of moving pictures.

The promise of a rich and extensive creative, social and behavioral heritage thousands of years old became evident with the historical breakthrough. This breakthrough began with a discovery of the etymology of the word "march," which first appears in the Oxford English Dictionary not as a verb, but as a noun - a boundary or border of disputed land. This suggested that marching may have originated, or at least developed, as a form of territorial ritual of geographic or even cartographic significance - an assertion of spatial expression which has been confirmed and re-confirmed within the mounting evidence of research by dozens of authorities already.

Thus, we have two basic levels of marching behavior. The first is a ritualistic form of indirect interaction between proximate cultures via circumambulatory "marking," with the cultural expression of processioning and parades manifesting this functional origin in culturally affirming expression. The second, largely a by-product of the first, is an interactive, ongoing dialogue between peoples through marching itself which, according to planar analysis and other research in dance anthropology, collective behavior, ritual and linguistics, satisfies all the criteria of both language and dance. This by-product has, at various points in history, enjoyed in advance many of the developments which would eventually coalesce into 20th century choreographed marching.

Unfortunately, the power of this language and expression - the beauty, cohesiveness and confidence it gives men and nations - has been advocated by shrewd and influential people to weaken, destroy and murder the innocent (examples of this ideology can be found even among its most celebrated creative expressions today). It has been practiced solely in the interest of destroying rather than building the body, dividing rather than uniting nations, and confounding our actions rather than bringing us in step with one another, though many remain oblivious to the fact. Rapidly advancing 20th century war technology brought the art to virtual ruin both on the battlefield and on the parade ground, where the new media painted a devastating portrait which nearly fused the beauty of the art with images of its most terrible patronage yet - Naziism and its youth movement. Once again, memories of the ennobling language of marching were strewn with the carnage of its abuse, while its assets went on to coordinate the rhythmic manifestations of music, dance and good health.

Fortunately, this heritage did not die by the hand of Hitler, thanks to well-meaning veterans who administered the art to populations which could not carry a gun while marching - marching bands. As the influence of the activity began to diminish due to increasingly outspoken opponents in music education, veterans organizations, their sons and daughters, stepped forward with (unloaded) rifle in hand to defend the art through the drum and bugle corps. These units continued to preserve and develop the art of choreographed marching for nearly the remainder of the 20th century as a new and unexpected challenge began to take its toll: peace.

With the peace which followed the WWII atomic question mark came opportunity, and with that opportunity came a generation of beneficiaries who supported those values of marching which promoted military, physical and musical education. There was widespread appreciation of marching as a swift means of producing order and conformity, but again this appreciation came without an understanding of how marching beautifies and liberates the mind, body and spirit. Thus, once it had initially brought two-dimensional order and conformity to the myriad purposes accompanying these activities, choreographed marching was abandoned through ignorance of its deeper necessity. The art was neglected, betrayed and denounced by the very institutions its practice, more than any other activity, had established.

Today, the thread of this creative heritage runs so thin and fragile through its own community that even a call for progress is something like whispering into the ear of a bull to follow this thread of knowledge through a china shop with the lights out. We live in a cynical society which refuses to consider the value of simple things such as standing and moving - the elusive obvious. Our maniacal lust for athletic conquest by proxy has left us ignorant of the immense aesthetic, cultural and behavioral significance which follows our more fundamental acts through history. The essential purpose of the human body is lost in the complex bustle of runaway technology in which the zenith of human productivity is to be found in tasks restraining us in the seated position. Physically unnatural demands are forced upon the human body for extended periods of time, depriving it of what authorities universally acknowledge as the inherent function and the purpose of its development - upright, bipedal locomotion.

In the last half-century or so, bands have been the latest beneficiaries of marching. However, while the practice of the marching band continues amongst the ranks of its latest curricular residence, it has been condemned by music educators at all levels of influence as a subject with "no educational value whatsoever." We have come a long way from Meredith Wilson’s "music man" to Mr. Holland’s "opus." We have come a long way from seeing "seventy-six trombones lead the big parade" to the four that showed up for a private retirement party. The bludgeoning of a school music program without enough public support to save it from ever-present "hard times" has always been a part of public education. Why should we be surprised by send-offs for band directors, whose knowledge of the marching arts, thanks to the erosion of qualified college instruction, amounts to an awkward dance in the streets of their most public performances? The story is a haunting and much needed lesson for thousands of "Mr. Hollands."

One needn’t do the math to observe the fact that the healthiest, most enduring band programs in the country are also those with strong marching band programs. While there is nothing inherently wrong with Mr. Holland’s vision of a fusion of musical tastes, it is at the same time irresponsible to neglect the development of and appreciation of those ensembles which have made such opportunities possible - ensembles such as orchestras, concert bands, jazz bands and marching bands which, individually as well as collectively, comprise the performance criteria and opportunities for appropriate and effective expression in music education.

Music education cannot succeed without taking responsibility for the interdisciplinary arts which they must answer to, even for those who see band education as music education. Just as vocal music is responsible for opera, so must band music inherit the responsibility of marching band. Time has demonstrated that half-hearted commitments cannot succeed. Music educators cannot, for long, pick and choose which elements of their heritage to leave in or leave out. Specialization is fine, but balance is prudent. In building a future, it must be all or nothing.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm quickly turns to frustration when we confuse the importance of quality with quantity, where concessions are easily hidden within the safety of numbers. This brings even greater insult to the human body, however, when the administration of the marching arts on the football field is once again, intentionally or not, being used to weaken the minds, bodies and spirits of hundreds of thousands of youth in the United States alone. Youth who are being purposely driven about sun scorched and snow covered fields, heads hung low, in search of a meaningless mark. The sheer degradation of executing such examples is as uninspiring a physical performance as the sensational feats of velocity which have drum and bugle corps running headlong and falling over themselves to grasp the brass ring of "effect." No wonder the seats are empty at halftime.

There are no more wars to beckon us to practice this craft. There are no more audiences to be found between the cracks of other serious and rewarding endeavors. There are no more reasons to march in parades when one can sit in a convertible and wave. There is no vacuum of entertainment which the media hasn’t filled and conditioned toward one pursuit or another. There is no reason even to think anymore about what makes the skill and heritage of marching popular in spite of the extensive technical ground it has lost since the evaporation of functional, post-WWII instruction.

There is only time. Time to collect what knowledge remains of choreographed marching before its related disciplines complete their tasks of writing the subject out of their history books. Time to study the art before the histories of aesthetic, physical and music education now being written and revised set the course of opinion and perception for yet another generation waiting to be edified through movement. There is even time to contemplate and savor this most sublime and intimate language, this most symbolic and ennobling endeavor, this most worthy cultural heritage.

And there is still time to save this most human of arts before it disappears into the margins of politics and greed. May opportunities for its expression be ever-present within spaces of equality and universal meaning. May such relationships continue to develop on the grounds of our most fundamental freedoms. And may we all continue to grow in the understanding and healthy expression of truly human movement, to walk a little less like animals and a little more like beings of intelligence, upon that great equalizer which supports our paths. On flat land.

Stuart E. Rice