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Monday
March 15, 2010 Since 1922 |
Where have the twirlers gone?
By Wanda Orton
Contributor Published September 2, 2009 Whirling flags in the color guard wave grandly o'er the football field, treating halftime spectators with a feast for the eyes .... Awesome drum lines get the adrenalin going ... And the band plays on, often presenting a preview of an upcoming UIL contest entry.
That's entertainment, under Friday night lights, but something's missing.
Where have all the baton twirlers gone?
Dr. Tommy Fain, a band director in the Plano school district and a former Robert E. Lee Band member, explains why he doesn’t utilize a baton twirling line in his marching band. Tommy agrees with most of his peers that the flag-waving routines best interpret the music being played.
Cheryl Forque Melton, a former REL band drum major and daughter of the late, great band director Charles Forque, respectfully disagrees with her longtime friend Tommy Fain and all the band directors who have disbanded the baton twirlers.
In the beginning, bands had the best of both worlds, with the color guards and baton twirlers co-existing.
"The corps band style from Drum Corps International (DCI) started taking over the high school marching band style in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” Cheryl explains. “As this happened, more and more band directors ceased using twirling lines, majorettes, dance teams, and feature twirlers.
"… No more exciting show-tune shows this week or a military tribute next week with Sousa marches. No more counter marches or to the rears while playing the fight song. No more forming a block, tooting a Michael Jackson tune, and featuring 15 baton twirling girls in sparkling sequins or a girl in a rhinestoned costume twirling fire … Baton twirling has been shut out of most high school marching band programs.”
Sexism, in Cheryl’s opinion, is inherent in the way many school districts treat the sport of baton twirling. “Most principals back the band director and if the band director doesn't want the freshman state champion baton twirler, he doesn't have to have her.”
As a champion twirler herself and now the mother of an awarding-winning twirler, Cheryl has a special perspective on what is going in the baton twirling community these days.
Her daughter Colleen was the feature twirler at her high school and was one of fewer than 10 feature twirlers in the entire state of North Carolina. "We are constantly amazed at the support of women of a certain age and how many rush up to say they twirled in high school or were majorettes. Colleen even had a little group of older women who told her that they only came to games to see her perform!"
Cheryl recalls that most twirlers, when she was growing up, started taking lessons in the 5th and 6th grades at Joyce Brown's Triple Arts studio in Highlands, aiming for twirling positions in junior school bands and eventually in the Lee Band, Lee Brigadiers, Sterling Band or Sterling Stars.
“There were marching band programs in the junior schools complete with baton twirling lines and drum major but as fine arts budgets were cut, so were the sports in junior schools and the marching band programs died, too.”
Cheryl has fond memories of marching and twirling in the Highlands Jamboree Parade on Main Street in Highlands and the Christmas Parade on Texas Avenue. These two big events drew all junior school bands, the Lee Band and Brigadiers, the Sterling Band and Stars, plus bands from area schools, and they all had twirlers.
Cheryl also remembers the twirlers from South Houston in matching wigs, cowboy hats a la Kilgore Rangerettes, with their officers entering the field doing the Texas Strut. “And the Hussars from Port Arthur sounding like buzzing bees, with batons tucked under their arms as they buzzed onto the field on a hot, muggy, mosquitoed Friday night.”
Cheryl has high praise for her twirling teacher, Joyce Brown, “a tough coach” who groomed countless girls for twirling positions in local schools.
“I started out scared to death of her,” Cheryl says, “but by the end, I loved her dearly.”
Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor for The Baytown Sun.
Contributor Published September 2, 2009 Whirling flags in the color guard wave grandly o'er the football field, treating halftime spectators with a feast for the eyes .... Awesome drum lines get the adrenalin going ... And the band plays on, often presenting a preview of an upcoming UIL contest entry.
That's entertainment, under Friday night lights, but something's missing.
Where have all the baton twirlers gone?
Dr. Tommy Fain, a band director in the Plano school district and a former Robert E. Lee Band member, explains why he doesn’t utilize a baton twirling line in his marching band. Tommy agrees with most of his peers that the flag-waving routines best interpret the music being played.
Cheryl Forque Melton, a former REL band drum major and daughter of the late, great band director Charles Forque, respectfully disagrees with her longtime friend Tommy Fain and all the band directors who have disbanded the baton twirlers.
In the beginning, bands had the best of both worlds, with the color guards and baton twirlers co-existing.
"The corps band style from Drum Corps International (DCI) started taking over the high school marching band style in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” Cheryl explains. “As this happened, more and more band directors ceased using twirling lines, majorettes, dance teams, and feature twirlers.
"… No more exciting show-tune shows this week or a military tribute next week with Sousa marches. No more counter marches or to the rears while playing the fight song. No more forming a block, tooting a Michael Jackson tune, and featuring 15 baton twirling girls in sparkling sequins or a girl in a rhinestoned costume twirling fire … Baton twirling has been shut out of most high school marching band programs.”
Sexism, in Cheryl’s opinion, is inherent in the way many school districts treat the sport of baton twirling. “Most principals back the band director and if the band director doesn't want the freshman state champion baton twirler, he doesn't have to have her.”
As a champion twirler herself and now the mother of an awarding-winning twirler, Cheryl has a special perspective on what is going in the baton twirling community these days.
Her daughter Colleen was the feature twirler at her high school and was one of fewer than 10 feature twirlers in the entire state of North Carolina. "We are constantly amazed at the support of women of a certain age and how many rush up to say they twirled in high school or were majorettes. Colleen even had a little group of older women who told her that they only came to games to see her perform!"
Cheryl recalls that most twirlers, when she was growing up, started taking lessons in the 5th and 6th grades at Joyce Brown's Triple Arts studio in Highlands, aiming for twirling positions in junior school bands and eventually in the Lee Band, Lee Brigadiers, Sterling Band or Sterling Stars.
“There were marching band programs in the junior schools complete with baton twirling lines and drum major but as fine arts budgets were cut, so were the sports in junior schools and the marching band programs died, too.”
Cheryl has fond memories of marching and twirling in the Highlands Jamboree Parade on Main Street in Highlands and the Christmas Parade on Texas Avenue. These two big events drew all junior school bands, the Lee Band and Brigadiers, the Sterling Band and Stars, plus bands from area schools, and they all had twirlers.
Cheryl also remembers the twirlers from South Houston in matching wigs, cowboy hats a la Kilgore Rangerettes, with their officers entering the field doing the Texas Strut. “And the Hussars from Port Arthur sounding like buzzing bees, with batons tucked under their arms as they buzzed onto the field on a hot, muggy, mosquitoed Friday night.”
Cheryl has high praise for her twirling teacher, Joyce Brown, “a tough coach” who groomed countless girls for twirling positions in local schools.
“I started out scared to death of her,” Cheryl says, “but by the end, I loved her dearly.”
Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor for The Baytown Sun.