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St. Vincent (Annie Clark) at Friday's rehearsal in Manhattan. Photo by LeeAnn Rossi. Courtesy of Todo Mundo Ltd
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Devonté Hynes.Photo by LeeAnn Rossi. Courtesy of Todo Mundo Ltd
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David Byrne.Photo by LeeAnn Rossi. Courtesy of Todo Mundo Ltd
Well, the color guard teams make such lifts and tricks look easy, but toward the end of rehearsal, while the band bangs out the rousing finale, Money Mark runs into the room with a flag propped on his shoulder. It's about five-feet long, large and unwieldy. He nearly takes out a hanging light while prancing back and forth with it. The show's producer, LeeAnn Rossi, and associate producer Chris Giarmo, who have been immersed in the world of color guard for three years now, get cheers by demonstrating the most basic of flag moves.Byrne, who had been dancing in place behind me, laughs. For a moment, the pace slacks, everyone releases a breath. Then someone says, "We going to run through this thing again?" and it's back to work.David Byrne's Contemporary Color will be at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Monday and Tuesday, June 22 and 23, and at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday and Sunday, June 27 and 28.Brian Gresko's work has appeared on Salon, the Atlantic, the Daily Beast, and Guernica. He is the editor of When I First Held You: 22 Critically Acclaimed Writers Talk About the Triumphs, Challenges, and Transformative Experience of Fatherhood (Penguin Books, 2014). Follow Brian on Twitter.On Thump: Listen to a Very Rare David Byrne Remix of Skylab's "Mother's Milk"