This summer, The Battalion takes flight with a moody, myth-inspired show told through the eyes of two very famous birds.
The Battalion’s 2025 production, “Foretold the Ravens,” will highlight Norse mythology’s story of Odin and his symbolic raven companions.
Many people may know the Norse character of Odin from Marvel’s “Thor” movies. However, The Battalion takes a more in-depth look at not just the god himself, but also his trusted ravens that he keeps by his side.
“Odin is certainly a central character, but, really, the ravens are the more recognizable motif,” said Battalion artistic director and program coordinator Brian Ellis.
Odin’s ravens, named Huginn and Muninn, are commonly known as symbols of thought and memory, respectively. Moreover, the birds act as a general representation of knowledge, hence why The Battalion saw them as foretelling.
The concept for the show came about when the corps’ staff wanted to take a creative approach on the Norse god’s story. Instead of telling the story through Odin’s point of view, however, the staff used the ravens’ knowledge and omniscience to lay out a series of events for the show to follow. These events would ultimately lead to an inevitable, worldly battle that Odin must come to terms with since he did not listen to the ravens.
The show’s musical elements will be highlighted by songs off of jazz artist Stan Kenton’s album “Adventures in Time.”
“I think most people will recognize this as ‘Adventures in Time,’ but I think they’ll very quickly see that it’s stylized in a very dark, moody way,” Ellis said. “It’s been kind of fun to go through that process and see how [we can] turn the expected into the unexpected with these iconic ideas.”
For the visual design, Ellis said the program will favor subtle nods to the raven motif over more overt staging elements.
“[The symbols] show up quite often,” he said. “You might see a raven’s wing. You might see a raven’s beak, [and] different little things like that that kind of show themselves through time.”
With The Battalion nearing its June 30 debut on the 2025 DCI Tour, Ellis said performers are driven not just by personal goals, but also by a shared desire to entertain.
“A core belief with us is that we want to entertain,” he said. “The performers are going to walk out there at every show, and they’re going to be looking for the audience to stand up and cheer them on and enjoy what they’re doing.”
Ellis also acknowledged a general eagerness and drive within the corps for the upcoming summer season, along with the importance of the corps’ members creating a strong rapport with one another.
“There’s certainly a great deal of energy coming in automatically where people want to be part of this,” he said. “We’ve really been focusing on coming together as a group while we’re learning this program. They’re getting really close to that right now, that same energy that I saw last year, of performers really buying in. Working together 100% as a group is always a journey.”
Ellis summed up the season’s spirit with a word the corps lives by — onward.
“We’re certainly asking more of the kids; there’s probably a little bit more of an intellectual aesthetic to the show compared to last year,” he said. “That’s intentional. We mean for that to be that way. There’s a great energy that’s happening around here, and we’re just having a good time with it every day.”
