Hex Burst - The six kites form a hexagon in the center of the window. On the break call, all kites burst along a line from the dead center of the window, thru the respective position that they are at in the hexagon. Like all bursts, this one comes on a peak in the music. Though simple appearing, the difficulty comes in making the hexagon symetrical, and, due to the compression that Tsunami uses, from the risk of one kite touching another kite before the break command which would result in a .2 point deduction per touch.
Wrap-in Burst - If you ever get the chance to watch a video of Tsunami's ballet, watch for this one. Its quite clever. Two triangles, each made up of three kites head toward each other from the sides at half sky. At the appropriate distance, the lead kite of each triangle snap stalls. Simultaneously, the bottom wingman of each triangle speeds up, and flys up thru the space between the two stalled kites, as the two top wingmen turn down to fly thru the space of the two kites rising up between the stalled kites. On the break command, the two stalled kites turn down and burst toward their respective bottom cornors while the two top kites complete flying thru the space between the two kites coming up and burst out horizontally. The two kites coming up thru the space left by what once were the stalled kites, break to the two upper cornors. When you first watch the burst forming, mentally you'd expect both sets of wing kites to both pass thru the space initially left by the two stalling kites. But after the bottom kites get thru though, you notice that the two stalled kites are sliding together to form a space that no kite can get thru. Having the top kites break to the sides catches the viewer by surprise, and the crash that appears will occur, doesn't. The two stalled kites sliding toward each other increases compression and the effectiveness of the burst. This is a high risk move because the kites turn so close to each other, that again, it is easy to get a .2 deduction for touching other kites, and worse, a miss on this burst usually takes two kites out at a time. Although Tsunami executes the Wrap-in Burst with deceptive ease, a lot of wings got broken learning this one.
Staggered Pyramid - Six kites form a pyramid. 1 kite in the top row, 2 kites in the second row, and 3 kites in the bottom row in tight formation. On command the big triangle formed by the three kites of the cornors of the pyramid separates itself from the small inverted triangle formed by the three kites inside the pyramid. Using a stagger, the two figures turn in opposing and intersecting paths so that the small triangle does a series of threads thru the big triangle. At the conclusion of the maneuver, the small triangle flies to the center of the large triangle to reform the pyramid. This is a very tough maneuver. If you watch carefully, the small triangle will have a near miss with every cornor of the large triangle, usually passing within 2 to 3 feet of each kite. Since this is a timing thread series, once you start it, you can't stop it until its done and a hit is usually catostrophic. Team Tsunami has actually had this maneuver for over three years but until this year, the team was never good enough to fly it in competition.
Most people can identify "turning on the beat" as a part of deliberate choreography. In the Tsunami ballet, a marching pattern of vertical eights is used to satisfy the element of "turning on the beat".
With 6-kite bursts, there is a lot of variance in the speed, the look and the impact of the different bursts, and but only some people can appreciate that time is spent selecting burst types to best match up with particular high points in the music to produce max impact.
Fewer people understand how a series or sequence of maneuvers is matched up with sections of music in a ballet. It is understandable when you consider that very few people, outside of other team fliers, could figure out what was happening in a a lot of the maneuvers, even with repeated viewing (e.g., the wrap-in burst). To the experienced eye, however, the way Tsunami melds the maneuvers to the music is neither subtle nor mysterious.
Generally, a choreographer listens to the music and determines the rhythym type and where on the emotional scale various passages fall: loud and marching, or soft and floating, slow and melancholy or fast and spirited. Whatever. Then, they paste in an appropriate sequence that may or may not use loops, stalls, hard turns or curves that best matches the intent and feeling of the music. They modify elements in the sequence so that it fits the musical passage, and/or write transitional maneuvers to keep the sequence in tempo. Since many of the more advanced sequences are kite timing dependent, they have to make sure that the maneuver retains the spirit and feeling of the musical passage it is matched up to since it may not, except for the time frame that encapsulates it, be directly related to the musical cadence. The alternative is to limit the ballet to bursts and "turning on the beat" type of maneuvers which though necessary elements, are hardly a proper stopping point for further evolution. So, how do you keep the asynch maneuver combinations on the music?
A technique that Tsunami uses to keep a ballet that contains asychronous sequences, synched up with the music, is called a "count sheet". The count sheet is simply the entire ballet broken down into measures or counts, as if it were a musical score. The maneuvers are mapped onto the count sheet with the musical cues. Whenever a kite timing dependent maneuver is being executed, the leader simply counts the beats it takes to complete that particular sequence. By the number he finishes with, he can immediately tell what kind of timing adjustment the team needs to make to properly execute the next burst, or how to regain synch with the next "on the beat" sequence. Or, from a specific musical cue, begin a series at an exact time by counting down to it.
Good Winds, Bert