danieltenor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCOv7REoGsA This is a group from Belgium who competed in Europe and WGI with a show about WW1. They actually are located in a region where the battles were fought during that war. Great show from a great group!

The Company, the 2011 DCEurope champions, will be performing at the closing ceremony in London this olympics. It's not clear what they are going to do though. I don't think they will be marching their show, but more some kind of 'band performance'. If you have the chance, you should really search up their 2012 show on youtube. It's called Red Riding Hood, and is really awesome again. They're 6 points ahead of Kidsgrove Scouts in DCUK right now, probably winning it all again this year.

I believe the last two shows in Canada were in 2008, and we with Beatrix' had the pleasure to perform there. It was great, one of the best audiences during the tour! We did one show in Hamilton and one in Sudbury. Especially the Sudbury crowd was amazing. It was a not so great accomodation, but the crowd went nuts and we gave them all we had. Great memories! And in Hamilton, we had a 55-yard line, which was pretty weird too :p

He marched with Beatrix' :)

Blue Stars spring-training video!

There are 9 people from the Netherlands marching DCI this year, check out this cool list from dutchindci.com, it has the peoples names, where they're marching in the USA and where they march(ed) in Europe: * Jan Bakker (Euphonium) --- Carolina Crown (Marum) * Andrea Boot (Color Guard) --- Blue Knights (Juliana) * Demy van der Jagt (Baritone) --- Boston Crusaders (Jubal) * Michelle van der Jagt (Baritone) --- Glassmen (Jubal) * Erwin de Jong (Baritone) --- Colts (Con Spirito) * David Roes (Baritone) --- Blue Stars (Beatrix') * Krijn Verstraaten (Baritone) --- Blue Stars (Jubal) * Melanie Verheul (Color Guard) --- Blue Knights (Jubal) * Martijn Verstelle (Mellophone) --- Madison Scouts (Juliana)

There were two shows in Canada in 2008, with Open Class corps. We (Beatrix') entered the competition in these two shows and even won the 'Yamaha Canada Cup'. A corps from Holland, winning the Canada Cup, that is! There were other corps from the US as well. The whole 'Northern America Tour' (Consisting of three shows, one in Buffalo, one in Hamilton and one in Sudbury), featured Raiders, Dutch Boy, Blue Saints (in exhibition), Legends and Les Stentors. I had a blast during these shows, especially in Sudbury. These people went CRAZY after our show. For us, of course, it was not a problem at all considering passports, because we had one anyway because we came to the United States. But I can't believe this would be a large issue for US corps too?

I learned about the Crossmen hearing recordings of them in the 90's, which a friend of me owned. I started researching them, and liked everything about the corps. In 2008, I was touring with Beatrix' and had the chance to see them a few times. I still remember I saw their hornline marching in the parking lot, with someone holding the Crossmen flag up, which captured the tradition in such a good way for me. I also saw their drumline and very musical front ensemble, which I just loved. Their 2008 show might not have been a real Crossmen show, but I just loved everything around it. I bought a Crossmen cap and their 90's CD in Allentown, and I listen to the shows a lot. The cap has the red cross on front and on the back it says: 'Bones'. I still love it, it looks just as ###### as their uniforms. This year I watched the semifinals broadcast live in our corpshall with some 40 other people. The show I loved the most was Crossmen's. There are a lot of good corps with good shows, but Crossmen was great and a lot of shows that came after that, didn't really do it for me. I almost cried during their ballad and loved the drumline and trumpet-soloist, a Crossmen from begin to end. If I lived in the USA, I would definately march with them.

I'm thinking about this for a few days now. Are all the open class corps obliged to enter the world class competition today? I can imagine that after a great season with a very nice finals-event in Michigan City, it is a sort of anti-climax marching your last show for a very big and probably almost empty stadium, 9 in the morning. I'm just wondering how the policy about this is, and if corps can decide to not enter the world class competition?

Jubal in 12th with 80.2 Don't know about Yokohama Scout, but they probably placed higher.

If Jubal would make the top 25, which seems not the case according to their last scores, I don't think they would have any problem marching the show twice, especially because there would be probably more than 20 corps in between there first and second performance, in that case, which seems like enough time to recover for another show. I for one know for sure it wouldn't be a problem for them, because DCE helds their prelims and finals competition in one day, every year.

I am pretty sure that Jubal is judged on Open Class sheets, and their score somehow got mixed with World Class scores. The reason that there is an international division is mainly the age limit, I think. When corps from outside the usa have members over age and come to DCI to compete in the open class, I think there wouldn't be a corps having a problem with that. But when this corps seems to be really good, and starts beating other good corps in the competition, people will start to say it's not fair because the international corps march members way over the age limit, who probably have a lot more experience. So, to keep the competition fair, these corps are allowed to compete, but in a different division. I march Beatrix', and also marched during our tour in 2008. We were the first corps since the 'open class' format, who were good enough to make finals. We got to compete in finals, but because we were in the international division, the 13rd placed corps in that moment, also got to compete, so 12 corps from the actual open class advanced to finals, including Beatrix', who actually placed 11th in semifinals. I believe memphis sound placed 13rd in semifinals that year, and also went on to finals. About the comment about why international corps don't go to DCA because they mainly go to the USA for the DCI experience. It is a lot of many for these members (in 2008, our 'tour-fee' was 1350 euros, for 3.5 weeks), and when you pay that amount of money, you want to see some real good drumcorps. It's not only for the competition that these corps come to the USA, but also for the other drumcorps. And where for competition it is probably better to go to DCA, like Kidsgrove Scouts did last year and had a very good placement there, but for the drum corps experience, DCI is of course a lot more fun. But, what we see now, is that every now and then a corps decides to compete in DCI and enter the international division. What I would like a lot more, if these corps get in contact with each other and decide to all go in the same year, and have a real tough competition in that class.

I believe Pioneer supports band programs in Africa, and a few kids from these programs make the step to Pioneer every year. These bands do have their own names and typical African traditions, which I think is good. I don't think an actual feeder corps would be the best way to do this, because people will expect great things from a corps named Blue Devils or Cavaliers, which is obviously not possible, because of various reasons like money, rehearsal time, amount of shows, etc. I don't think it would be a bad thing if corps from different continents have a sort of relation, where knowledge, instructors, arrangers and maybe even equipment can be shared. And how about instrument manufacturers? Can they do more in their communication to bring corps closer together? What if, for example, Pearl, gives instructors a chance to travel, meet up with other Pearl drumlines and in this way try to make all the lines with Pearl superior by sharing all the knowledge. This would be a win situation for the participating lines and Pearl itself, because maybe more corps want to march with their instruments.

Europe! I wouldn't complain having a full DCI show here ;) Oh, but maybe we would vote on the corps with members from overseas, so maybe not that neutral either..

Jubal is at the top of the European game. This year the are 100 years in existance, and they put up a show about their history and the future. You will probably hear some very familiar jazz-tunes. Jubal has been known for it's good trumpet soloists and good latin music, like Madison Scouts. You will probably here some of that in the show. Technically seen, they'll probably be of the level of a finalist Open Class corps, like Beatrix' in 2008, but entertainment wise you can expect something else than what you see in DCI, definately.