Sal Salas - DCI Hall of Fame

Sal Salas

Inducted in 2020

Getting his start as a percussionist with the Stockton Police Commodores in California during the mid 1960s, it would be the color guard section that Sal Salas gravitated toward when he joined the Madison Scouts as part of the corps’ World Championship-winning season of 1975.

In Madison, Salas found himself in a unique position as both a performer and an instructor of the corps’ rifle line, a position in which he helped to transform color guard design across the marching arts.

“When Sal left California to become a member of the Madison Scouts, he synergized his percussion roots, his award-winning color guard talents, and his optimistic personality to revolutionize what a rifle line could accomplish,” DCI Hall of Fame member Scott Chandler said. “There are several quintessential moments in color guard rifle lines including the introduction of double-time, the evolution of higher toss rotations, and the use of ‘carving’ as a means to create a three-dimensional kinetic use of space. Sal excelled in the developmental process of these areas and added a unique, standard-setting approach to an already mind-boggling use of rhythm.

“Sal added theatrical character to color guard choreography. As the use of the body became more inherent in color guard writing, Sal took an athletic, stylized jazz technique and transcended the sheer interpretation of musical phrasing. He was one of the true pioneers in this approach.”

“His memorable Madison Scout color guards with their swivel hips and jazz moves electrified stadium after stadium,” said Michael Cesario, DCI Hall of Fame Class of 1996. “It’s impossible to recall those magnificent ‘Men of Madison’ without remembering their swagger and whip-fast equipment moves.”

Salas made an exit from the Madison Scouts after 1982, heading to Spirit of Atlanta to hone his skills as a drill designer. Writing the corps’ visual packages from 1983 to 1990, Spirit of Atlanta would win two color guard caption awards at the DCI World Championships (1985, 1987) during his tenure.

“His ultra-romantic Spirit of Atlanta corps were the originators of casting men and women in stage relationships whose roles brought emotions to life,” Cesario said.

Salas made another transition in 1993, this time to Toledo, Ohio’s Glassmen where over the course of a decade he went from color guard designer to program coordinator as he helped design some of the most successful productions in the corps’ history. In 2003 he returned to the Madison Scouts in another new role, this time as corps director, honored by his peers at the 2005 DCI World Championships as Drum Corps International’s Dr. Bernard Baggs Leadership Award winner. In the 2010s, Salas additionally spent time on the design teams of the Santa Clara Vanguard and Cadets.

Today, even after more than 50 years after he began his career in the marching arts, Salas is still bringing fresh new ideas and innovations to the table, most recently as program coordinator and artistic director of Sprit of Atlanta where he returned to the staff in 2017.

“Sal’s contribution to todays’ Spirit of Atlanta is immense, bringing our production to life in a way that has inspired the staff and performers and brought drum corps fans out of their seats,” Spirit of Atlanta director Chris Moore said. “He has a vision and a feel for design that goes beyond expectation and has defied the test of time. Sal just has that ‘it factor’ about him.”

Outside of Drum Corps International, Salas directed the State Street Review winter guard of Madison, Wisconsin with his wife LuAnn throughout the 1980s. The two were jointly inducted in the Winter Guard International Hall of Fame in 1993. Salas also holds distinction as a hall of fame member of the Winter Guard Association of Southern California, Midwest Color Guard Circuit and Spirit of Atlanta.