LancerFi Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 (edited) Wow, I think this is my first post ever. Anyway, my high school band did the roll step in 1978, and all we did was parades, so obviously it was pretty common practice back then. The Phantom Regiment was about the only corps that did not use a roll step. It was just part of their style--you know, when a corps could have an individual style. I thought, for their style of powerful music and visuals, that it was the best marching style out there. My corps, the Geneseo Knights always used the roll step while I was in, from 1979 to 1983. Bob Blomberg Knights, '79-'83 Kilties, '01-'02 Zingali began us on the roll at the end of 78 for the summer of 79. As far as heel toe, it seems as though when we were doing our equipment work it went out the window, but when we were marching during the drum solo, it's there and down! The roll is very prevalent when you see our drum major on the DCI cds/vids step onto the field in 79 and 80 and he rolls up the 50, very nicely I might add, a very "high toe"...and a good heel digging in! On another note, when marking time our heels were barely supposed to touch the ground and an even exchange was supposed to happen so no bounce...the rifles had it down pretty good as well as the flags, but I'm not sure about the corps proper. If we're talking about prancing I think that's been around possibly since drum corps began... Bob: Welcome to the world of posting!!! Edited June 27, 2003 by LancerFi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancerFi Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 Well, it was a little difficult to "roll" our feet wearing white boots. We did manage to roll them enough though so that we moved smoothly and the tops of our poles didn't bounce up and down when we had them in our holsters. It wasn't as extremem as I see them do now, but we did roll them in the 70s. I wasn't talking about the color guard. Your right, it would have been hard to do that with boots. I was referring to the hornline mostly since that is where the camera was at the time. Could the need for roll step come about when Zingalli's (sp?) fast paced/hard drill for Cadets '83 started to become a popular trend? Yes, re: Zingali and Cadets... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancerFi Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 (edited) Well, it was a little difficult to "roll" our feet wearing white boots. We did manage to roll them enough though so that we moved smoothly and the tops of our poles didn't bounce up and down when we had them in our holsters. It wasn't as extremem as I see them do now, but we did roll them in the 70s. I wasn't talking about the color guard. Your right, it would have been hard to do that with boots. I was referring to the hornline mostly since that is where the camera was at the time. Could the need for roll step come about when Zingalli's (sp?) fast paced/hard drill for Cadets '83 started to become a popular trend? I'd have to say yes about Zingali/Cadets! As I remember it... OOPSI, got an error on the first one, so posted a 2nd one, and voila, they're both here! Edited June 27, 2003 by LancerFi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 I know that our hornline also rolled their feet during the seventies because M&M was taught to the Corps as a whole in October. We all had to learn to roll our feet while marching in company fronts to achieve a smooth gliding step. It seems to me that the faster the drills have become over the years, the more elaborate the roll has become. Yup. I know that my high school band director taught us "heel/toe" marching in the mid-'70s, and that was based on the style of marching he saw Madison and Santa Clara doing. The point was to roll from the heel to the toe to minimize bouncing, whether that was for a horn player (to smooth out the sound by preventing as much jarring to the body as possible) or guard member (to prevent bouncing of equipment). So I know it's been around at least that long, and probably longer. As you note, it's probably been emphasized more and more as drills speed up, and the need to streamline the amount of excess body movement increases. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancerFi Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 (edited) I truly have watched films and in person from 74 on and never saw it with Madison or SCV prior to 82 or 83, I'll have to watch again! Edited June 27, 2003 by LancerFi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 (edited) I truly have watched films and in person from 74 on and never saw it with Madison or SCV prior to 82 or 83, I'll have to watch again! I guess it depends how well-defined the "heel/toe" roll is. But I know my band director taught us the "glide" step, which was very different from the more jerky "Big 10"/Bill Moffit-style marching we'd done previously. My band director was deliberately copying the smoother marching style he saw drum corps using because he felt that would improve our tone quality by minimizing bouncing in the upper body, thus keeping the embouchure and breath support as steady as possible. That was a big thing for him, and was one of the reasons why he preferred corps-style marching to the "Big 10" style we had been doing. (I guess I should explain how this change came about. The summer of my freshman year, 1973, we were still doing the Moffit style and preparing a show for state fair. The band I was in had had a great deal of competitive success with that style, but its popularity--and my band's success with it--were waning in Indiana. At band camp that year, our head band director announced he was retiring after we competed at state fair. Then, our assistant band director would become the head band director. It was no secret to most of us that the assistant had been pushing for years to switch to more of a corps style, but the head band director wouldn't hear of it. He'd been trained under the Moffit style, and he wasn't about to change. So he retired, and his assistant took over. Now that I think back on it, it was a pretty weird year. We started out Moffit-style, did state fair, then immediately switched over to corps-style and learned a brand-new show for the fall contests. And, I might add, not without a fair bit of resistance from some of the older band members. But we did it, and stayed with that style all four years I was in high school.) I know I'm not imagining that, because it was such a huge stylistic change for our band. (For example, the technique of a corps-style "high knee lift" is very different from the "chair step" . . . so we had to work very hard my freshman year to "unlearn" our old marching technique and replace it with this style.) But I do believe that as drills have increased in speed and complexity, the emphasis on the "rolling" motion of the foot has increased to where it's far more visible today than it was in the mid-'70s. P.S. I may be attributing it to the wrong corps. (Remember, this was 30 years ago.) I remember him talking about us emulating Madison's high knee lift, because that was something they were known for. And I'm thinking he got the idea for the glide step from several corps of that era, but especially Santa Clara. He showed us all kinds of films of them so that we could see their technique and try to copy it. Edited June 27, 2003 by byline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bushsnare Posted June 27, 2003 Author Share Posted June 27, 2003 And since all the guards do now is dance, run and emote, I guess they don't have to learn to roll any more except when laying down on the field. Is that sarcasm necessary? Nobody brought up nor WANTS to bring up the subject of guard back then vs. guard today. I respect what you guys did back then and I am trying to learn more about the past. It is your sarcasm and people like you that make my generation of marchers more reluctant to respect corps back then and to pass you guys off as grumpy old-schoolers. Thank you to those people who gave very useful information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeromeyBush Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 When did corps start to roll their feet? Just wondering. Simon.the 1st corps I saw roll theyre feet was the 27th(sux,yes thats were that came from,j/k) Lancers(late 70s early 80s)GeorgeZ and MarcS brought that to Gahfield,(although the Lancers used more of a bicycle step and the cadets used a more natural roll.Now a days they use a more stiff version(as do we) of the natural roll. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamoline Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 wow, this is really interesting. I never knew there was a time when most groups didn't roll their feet.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffernbus3 Posted June 27, 2003 Share Posted June 27, 2003 (edited) I know Anaheim Kingsmen were using the "roll" in 67 as taught by Pete Emmons. The Troopers were "THE" M&M corps that people learned how to march from in the mid to late 60s. Back in the early days of drum corps, even marking time was "dig holes in the dirt!" and I think it was The Troopers who were mostly responsible for a more reasonable and scientific, for lack of a better word, method of marching. Could be wrong, but that's how I remember it. RON HOUSLEY Edited June 27, 2003 by ffernbus3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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