By Emily Cedre
The feeling of taking the stage in the WGI World Championship finals is like no other. Athletes can see the crowd stand to their feet after each show, hear them screaming when every insane toss is caught with great technique, and watch them applaud through every twist and turn of a show. From performing with the teammates that became family, to crying tears of joy when realizing all the hard work has paid off, each moment on the stage creates so many memories that will last a lifetime. For Elevate Independent World Guard, this year was their most memorable to date, marking their first ever appearance in Independent World Class Finals.
Elevate’s 2025 show entitled, “In All FAIRness,” set up the story of people attending the Chicago World Fair in 1893. The program’s director, Stacy Roose, said that the staff wanted to find a theme that could incorporate the concept of a ferris wheel, but was different from what had been seen on the WGI stage before.
“Upon doing a lot of research, I came across a lot of interesting facts related to the Chicago World Fair of 1893,” recalled Roose. “From there, the main focus shifted to that, and we knew it would be a fun project to play with the ferris wheel.”
When it came to designing the flags silks for the show, Roose took to creating sketches of what they wanted and used graphic artists to bring the ideas to life.
“I had a vision of the beginning flags being the ticket[s]…that represented entering the fair,” said Roose.
To make these flags even more special for the team, Roose added the date of finals for the year, April 5th, 2025, as the ticket date on every flag for their beginning feature.
As for the team’s floor, this is where Roose knew the vision of the ferris wheel had to be brought to life.
“[We decided to have] most of the ferris wheel on the tarp, but cutting the top portion of it off and using the bridge prop…instead to represent the top of the ferris wheel becoming three dimensional,” said Roose.
For the rest of the tarp, Roose made sure to include a carousel outline to further establish the scene of a fair.
For costumes, Roose looked to one of the design team members, Chad Young, to create the perfect uniforms that would fully encapsulate the production’s theming.
“[Chad] studied the Chicago World Fair of 1893 and the fashion of that time which included the hats, skirts, hairstyles, etc..,” said Roose. “During this process, Chad had five pastel colors in mind and really nailed down the aesthetics of our show. The pastel colors also influenced the colors of the flags, parasols, and props.”
Early in the season, a video debuted of one of the team’s athletes doing a rifle toss while standing in the center of the bridge prop, only to have him do a front flip off of it before completing a solid catch. As soon as the video was released, it began to circulate all throughout social media, creating a huge buzz for Elevate.
The toss was born from Roose’s idea to have an athlete perform some type of toss that would travel from on top of the bridge, back onto the floor.
“The performer that did the [toss] just so happened to post a video on Instagram prior to the season of him doing a flip under a toss from his back porch,” said Roose. “Once the staff and I saw it, I talked to the performer, John Tyson, about his comfort in doing it from the bridge. He is very experienced in parkour, and was very confident in his abilities to achieve it under pressure in front of a crowd.”
When the audience got to see this toss performed in person, Roose said it created nothing short of an electrifying current throughout the room.
“It was definitely an exciting moment at every show,” said Roose. “The crowd jumped [to] their feet cheering every time. It definitely can be a lot of pressure on the performer, but he handled it well with each performance.”
One of the team’s favorite parts of the season was when they attended a regional competition for WGI in Orlando, Florida.
“Everyone in Orlando was not only so welcoming, but we had never experienced a crowd jump and scream like that at that time,” said Roose. “They were so excited to see us and the performers were incredibly thankful for the generosity Orlando showed to our team. Plus, we had a lot of members experience Florida and Universal Studios for the first time. There were so many memories made that we will never forget.”
On top of creating such a fun and unforgettable show that they were proud to compete, Roose recalled how the team reacted when they found out they would be performing in front of over 13,000 people in World Class Finals.
“There were so many tears of joy and excitement,” said Roose. “Everyone came running down [to] the lobby of the hotel to tell one another and give [each other] hugs.”
As for their finals performance itself, Roose said it was nothing short of incredible and something that the athletes will always remember as one of the best experiences of their lives.
The team looks forward to putting together another amazing production for the 2026 season and getting to wow the crowd once more.
About the Author:
Emily Cedre works as a content creator for OneTouch Direct in Tampa, Florida. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications with a concentration in Broadcast Programming and Production. She also minored in Psychology. She began colorguard in her junior year of high school, was a captain of Sunlake High School’s Open Class team and has since spun for the University of South Florida.
