British corps to attend 2017 DCI Championship

[afd]

Personally, I don't like having a corps with a 60+ year old "in competition" with the DCI junior corps. Exhibition on Thursday only? Fine.

WHY????

[DrumManTx]

How about "Yay a group from thousands of miles away is making the trip over here to perform for us and will probably not be back in a long time and I'm excited to see them!"

O.o

Think this is really cool, and we are talking about scoring?

[Northern Thunder]

Wait, DCI's allowing all-age corps now?

::straps on marching shoes and pulls out old horn::

When Pride of Bristol came over from the UK to compete at the 1994 DCI Championship, 5 of their 17 brass players were "over age" according to DCI rules for North American corps. The DCUK (Drum Corps United Kingdom) corps that have been at DCI over the years all had older personnel.

[84BDsop]

The reason for the "over age" members goes back to the mid-80s, when DCUK was in the early stages and was having membership issues when sticking strictly to DCI age rules.

The only reason I was able to march Dagenham Crusaders in 86 was because of the rule change. It was NOT an all-age thing like DCA, tho....only a specific percentage of each major section (brass, percussion, guard) could be over DCI age ....I think it was 10%.

In fact, the reason I was in the drum line was because the horn line had already hit it's allowed number of over-age people.

I do not know if this still holds true, given the growth of the marching arts overseas, but that WAS the case 30 years ago.

Euro schools simply didn't have a mechanism to turnout marching musicians like US school....no school marching band to play at halftime. The UK had plenty of parade bands -- Dagenham was one of them before transitioning to a US-style drum corps -- but with no new crop coming in, it was either expand the age limit or die.

Look at it this way....if DCUK had not changed the age-limit and stayed on the scene, we might not have had DCUK, DCE, DCJ, etc....and we wouldn't even be HAVING this conversation.

I have NO issue with The Company competing directly...I say bring 'em on!

[IllianaLancerContra]

There is considerable discussion of the apparent membership age issue on the DCP facebook page.

[Eleran]

Actually, I would love if this turned into some real structural reform for the drum corps world. Merge DCA, DCE and DCI, and set up appropriate classes, such as (example only):

• Junior (21&U)
  • Class A (121-150 members)
  • Class B (71-120 members)
  • Class C (70 or less members)
• Senior (any age)
  • same classes
• Marching Bands (maybe Junior and Senior divisions also).

Any group can compete at any show during the season, and eligible to win "best of class" from among the groups in its class, as well as "best of show" amongst all the groups. Everyone competes at Finals, and same chance of winning Best of Class and Best of Show.

[bill]

There is considerable discussion of the apparent membership age issue on the DCP facebook page.

Many present DCI corps have a vast part (many up to a majority) of their membership that are already legal adults, (i.e. over the age of 18 up to 22) among a blended age ensemble. Do we boot them too? What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.

[Terri Schehr]

I'm confused by this conversation. Jubal competed in prelims at DCI in 2015.

[N.E. Brigand]

I'm confused by this conversation. Jubal competed in prelims at DCI in 2015.

History is hard.

[dbc03]

Many present DCI corps have a vast part (many up to a majority) of their membership that are already legal adults, (i.e. over the age of 18 up to 22) among a blended age ensemble. Do we boot them too? What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.

This is a really weird argument. None of the present DCI corps have members that are over the DCI age limit. The argument is not about adult vs non-adult.