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Has this ever happened in DCI history?


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48 minutes ago, BigW said:

If you want to discuss the health of the activity in Canada, there's a few things in the equation that hurt it badly.

1: The lack of strong instrumental music education programs in Canadian schools. BITD when Corps members were trained pretty much through drum corps alone, Canadian corps did very well. As DCI corps began to go older with more well educated members in brass and percussion, the Canadian corps began to slide. Interestingly enough, Ontario and Quebec still seem to have solid Indoor guard circuits and teams.

 

2: Deaths/declines of the local support circuits (ODCA and FAMQ) didn't help. Quebec's location in particular made it an outlier. It was a major effort to tour South of the border. Tough enough to get to Montreal from here let alone Ville d'Quebec, Jonquiere, or the Saguenay area.

 

3: The intense competition in Quebec for a lot of the same kids caused corps to eat each other alive. I can direct you to a rather interesting article in English on that if one is so inclined.

 

4: The activity outgrew a lot of the traditional sponsors (Lions Clubs, Optimists, The Patros (Tim K might know about those!) Scouting et al) to manage the corps and pay their bills.

 

It's a real shame Les Stentors evidently aren't coming down this year. I think it's been bad for the activity in general to lose any of the Canadian corps, in particular the ones from Quebec. Why? Maybe it's because they were so separated by language, culture, and geography, but they were a real source of different approaches to the activity, and they brought with them amazing, original, and brilliant ideas in design that opened a lot of eyes and were a heckuva lot of fun to watch and listen to regardless of where they placed. There's a lot of stuff and shenanigans from the old days I frankly don't miss. The corps from Canada, I do miss.

What effect did the end of the military draft in the US and the demise of the Viet Nam conflict undercut the growth of Canadian urban drum corps?  Gary Chops (r.i.p.) who taught up in Toronto for a time use to tell some very interesting stories about who signed up for those corps. 

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16 minutes ago, xandandl said:

What effect did the end of the military draft in the US and the demise of the Viet Nam conflict undercut the growth of Canadian urban drum corps?  Gary Chops (r.i.p.) who taught up in Toronto for a time use to tell some very interesting stories about who signed up for those corps. 

Regarding the draft- I know I asked one of the Reilly Raiders who would know-- "Things were going well, you were having consistent success, then the bottom fell out around 1963-1966- what happened?"

 

The response was, "Everyone got drafted". :exclamation:

 

Speaking of Gary Czapanski, right there you go with the Optimists and the parachute in terms of the stuff the Canadians would do that would just knock people out. As a kid, it took my breath away. It showed me it was okay to be imaginative and think outside the box. :worthy:

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19 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

I just watched a video about 1976 finals and there were two Canadian Corps finalists.  Oakland Crusaders and Seneca Optimists.  I was there and I had forgotten that.  

Two things strike me when watching Oakland Crusaders. First, there are so many young members. I know this was common with many corps of that timeit some look middle school age. Second, they were so intense when performing. With Seneca Optimists, their parachute was considered so innovative for the time.

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2 minutes ago, Tim K said:

Two things strike me when watching Oakland Crusaders. First, there are so many young members. I know this was common with many corps of that timeit some look middle school age. Second, they were so intense when performing. With Seneca Optimists, their parachute was considered so innovative for the time.

Now I’m thinking of Canadian Corps like an ear worm.  I remember we shared a housing site with Offensive Lions in 78 in Scottsbluff.  I remember the drum guy, I think it was Dan Spaulding, saying “Vive la tempo!”.  Why do I remember that?  :laughing:

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6 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

I just said not 30000+. I dont know the Buffalo numbers,off hand, tho i think it was posted here once before but it wasnt that

The reason for the initial question was since Buffalo is close to Canada, I was curious if their numbers were higher than other USA cities with the Canadian fans attending.

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1 hour ago, Terri Schehr said:

I just watched a video about 1976 finals and there were two Canadian Corps finalists.  Oakland Crusaders and Seneca Optimists.  I was there and I had forgotten that.  

And they were from the same city to boot, which was the first and last time for DCI Championships.

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10 hours ago, BigW said:

snip to where I have some information

Interestingly enough, Ontario and Quebec still seem to have solid Indoor guard circuits and teams.

Alberta and British Columbia have guard teams and many provinces have drum lines.

10 hours ago, BigW said:

The corps from Canada, I do miss.

Likewise. We continue to patronize and enjoy the pageantry/performance arts but we do miss being able to subscribe to your live feeds ;)

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16 hours ago, BigW said:

2: Deaths/declines of the local support circuits (ODCA and FAMQ) didn't help. Quebec's location in particular made it an outlier. It was a major effort to tour South of the border. Tough enough to get to Montreal from here let alone Ville d'Quebec, Jonquiere, or the Saguenay area.

ODCA and FAMQ did not die.  They kept on operating until they simply had no corps participating anymore.

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9 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:

ODCA and FAMQ did not die.  They kept on operating until they simply had no corps participating anymore.

True, basically, chicken or the egg, or the egg or the chicken :blink:... IIRC, FAMQ still serves the indoor needs in PQ.

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