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DCA, The Savior of Drum and Bugle Corps


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this entire thread is making my stomach churn

not everyone is bashing DCi here, please take note.

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sorry - but with the title "The Savior of Drum & Bugle Corps" the dye was cast.

yes so please, trash all because of the subject title. doesn't matter what you say, just that you post here eh?

horse####.

I am no DCI fan these days but they have their place. Yes, I have taken my shots ( as have you), but I did not come in here to bash DCI, and I see others haven't bashed them either, so thanks for lumping us all together.

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yes so please, trash all because of the subject title. doesn't matter what you say, just that you post here eh?

horse####.

I am no DCI fan these days but they have their place. Yes, I have taken my shots ( as have you), but I did not come in here to bash DCI, and I see others haven't bashed them either, so thanks for lumping us all together.

what are you even talking about? :worthy: Do you read to "respond" or to "react"???

this DCI/DCA crap is childish and pathetic

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DCI is not dying. It is changing, there are less corps that can sustain the DCI lifestyle, and the average kid from a small town has less chance of joining these corps than ever before, but the money coming in is astronomical, the fan-base is ginormous, and the number of competitions is mind blowing. DCI is far from dying.

Dying = having something less than the previous season.....there are more Jr corps folding or going inactive than there are new ones being formed, while in DCA there are more corps every year and they're from regions where Sr's didn't exist five years ago.

Number of competitions---there were 24 more contests in 2000 than this season....before that, there were even more because for a very long time it seemed that every small town and big city across the country had a show....

So, there are less shows now....but it probably seems like there's more because they're happening almost everyday.

And fans.....how many indiviual fans are there compared to number of tickets sold? Numbers get skewed when the same people are counted or estimated all summer.

DCA is not traditional drum corps. It changes as much as DCI does, but a little less radically. The tradition of senior corps lies in the American Flag Squad only. If you don't believe me, watch a tape from DCA from twenty years ago, then tell me DCA is traditional. Drum corps in all form is always changing

so, are you saying DCA should get rid of having the American flag on the field like DCI did?

The future of DCI and DCA will be different. The DCI corps are going to a more all-star drum corps situation with members migrating from around the globe to march in corps in all three divisions
.

all three divisions huh? I'd like to see countless throngs of foriegners flocking tojoin Division III corps.....but there aren't...these kids are going to go to what they see on TV or read about....and it's not the DIII's

Sure, DCI is on ESPN2 this year.....kids seeing drum corps for the first time and getting the itch to join one are going to go to the ones they see on TV....and it's not the II/IIIs. It can be theorized that the PBS broadcast was part of the problem in the loss of community corps..mainly because kids were left with the impression that the DI's they saw on TV was all there was of drum corps.

I, personally, love drum corps and would appreciate those who don't love it or have stopped loving the evolution of drum corps to take their lame prognostications and stupid biased observations to take a flying leap.

Right....so you're of the thought that everyone who was into drum corps is required to keep liking it no matter what? People will quit going if they don't like the product......and there's nothing DCI can do to reverse that other than repealing all controversial rules changes from 1972 to the present.

Edited by FrankBeMe
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OK guys...I usually don't chime in on things like this one but here it goes:

First, I sort of agree with George that the title of the thread left a bad taste in my mouth originally.

Lots of people have different feelings on the whole thing. When I marched Jrs almost 20 years ago, the "real" changes were just beginning and there were still easily 100 corps in competition during finals week (including the D1, D2 and D3 (then known as Open, Class A and Class A/60). Only a year or so prior to that there was also a Class "C" for those of you old enough in the activity to remember it for All-Girl corps (I started out with the Co-ed group that came from one of the most competitive of these Class C corps "The St. Ignatius Girls" from Hicksville, NY later known as New Image and a few other names as the years have evolved).

Back when I first started in the activity in 1974 (age 3 mind you!) there were corps EVERYWHERE! In fact, in my home town in Queens, NY there were no less than 5 corps within a 15 mile radius. When I started competitively in the early 80s there were still 8 corps in the Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx areas on NY. Well, when I left Jrs in 1989 there were only 2 left of these and NONE went to championships week.

That to me is a SCARY thought. Why would so many units die in such a short time? One answer is bad management. Another answer is lack of interest. A third possible answer is the loss of the "attitude" for the activity. When I came home from school on a rehearsal night, I couldn't get the questions about what we were going to do for that evening out of my head till AFTER practice and thought about them until the next practice. Nowadays, as some have said, we have "All-Star" mindsets where the kids come together for a few weekends in the winter, a week or 2 before tour starts, and then say their goodbyes hours after Finals (or wherever the corps finally drops out of the season's competitions). We were together for 11 months of the year (essentially very similar to DCA corps of today).

Friendships that I made as a Jr are still alive and very active. I love getting to see some of my old pals. In fact, I was just put back in touch with a friend from my marching days just a few short weeks ago at the Copiague DCA show. I haven't seen this guy in 20 years. But when we got together (for me at least) all the memories of the bus trips and the "tour" (a week of travel to, during and from Finals) rushed back into the brain cells (which by now have calcified quite a lot comparatively!).

Is DCA the savior of the activity? No. I don't think there CAN be a "savior" of the activity. Both groups have vastly different experiences to offer. The Jr corps today offer the chance at life changing experiences. I know had I not marched Jrs I would NEVER have gotten the chance to do some of the things I did or to see some of the things I saw or to meet MOST of the people I met (and become long time friends with). The Sr/All Age/DCA corps offer something VERY different. They compete on weekends so people (even teens and 20-somethings) can hold down solid full time or part time jobs. They get together 2 or 3 or 4 times a week even during the "off-season". They do parades where they get to meet and greet the community. Their dues are MUCH MORE AFFORDABLE (in most cases) than the Jrs which makes them much more accessible to the young member.

The fact is that DCI is in many MEASURABLE ways dying. Is it dead? NO! Will it die? Maybe. Will the rules changes cause the ultimate death? IMHO probably. Why? Because most corps today are becoming more and more financially strapped for operating capital. With the rules changes and the "new designs" available, more are purchasing or leasing big ticket cost items for their shows. Meaning less available capital for the organization. Now...where does this money come from? Member fees generally. Therefore, the costs will become more prohibitive. Then add in the cost of gas at >$2/gallon and the fact that most D1 corps travel with 3 or 4 busses, a chuck wagon, an equipment truck, and most of these items are "gas guzzlers" and you have more cost to put on the membership. I am not really all that surprised that more corps are disappearing then are (re)appearing in the Jr circuit.

As for the fact that there are contests almost daily in the Jrs that is PART of the problem. (See my prior statement about cost to members).

Sorry, DCA is not the savior but DCI is not an expanding entity either. As many have said, DCI is cutting its own throat with rules changes and with the continual act of ignoring the D2 and D3 corps since this is where most people first hear about the activity. If DCA takes advantage of the differences, I see DCA continuing to grow and expand while I continue to see the DCI corps slowly start to head toward where DCA was 5 years ago with a "Finals week" of 15-20 corps.

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I don't usually get involved in these discussions as I think they are inane and get you nowhere, but...

Many of you probably live in suburbia as we do in the No. Virginia area. It's not just drum corps that has limited appeal, it's all activities for kids. Part of the problem (or not a problem) is that there are so many more things for kids to do now, and they do them year-round. Case in point, baseball. When I was growing up in Western KY, each sport had its own season, but here and now we play baseball all year. That certainly doesn't leave much time to explore other activities. And of course we have all the other accessory sports available that I had never heard of as a kid - lacrosse, field hockey, ice hockey and of course soccer. I have a 16 year old that is kneed deep in music activities, violin in orchestra, mallets in drum corps and mellophone in marching band. He gets burned out often too.

So, I guess my point is that you can't blame the demise of the local VFW supported drum corps on DCI or any specific entity. Our culture is simply different. Our goal is to turn on as many kids and people to the music performance activity as possible. Whether that's concert band, jazz ensemble or drum corps.

We're all just a little bit better if kids are engaged in making music instead of making trouble.

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I guess I forgot the question mark at the end of the topic.

Childish? Pathetic? Please!!!!

It is a proven FACT that DCI (Jr Corps) are down in numbers. In the 70's at DCI's peak, there were at most, around 80 corps competing. How many corps total participated in DCI last week? Point made and proved.

How can this be childish and pathetic? What is pathetic is that the number of junior corps have diminished to a number that worries and concerns all of us. Am I correct? Am I blaming DCI, well, sort of I guess but I am also blaming former corps directors who killed their particular corps for mismanagement, etc.

Continue on!

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